001I'm going to call the special meeting to order. Stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please, sorry. Here. Here. Here. Here. Chuck? Here. Linda's here. Jeremiah? Yeah, here. Sorry. Um Here. I'm here. Here. All right, that part's just off. Thank you. First thing on the agenda is the budget recommendations and possible action. Um I heard from everybody pretty much the same. This is the motion I came up with. I move to direct administration to implement the following staffing and program adjustments for the 2026-2027 school year. Eliminate the instructional coach assignment and add one elementary special ed teaching position with reassignment of affected staffing as appropriate. Reduce three program
002paraprofessional positions and one WIN teacher position and add one elementary ESL position and one secondary ESL position with reassignment of affected staff as appropriate. Direct administration to identify and implement reductions in junior high and junior varsity athletic schedules for the purpose of budget reduction. I'll ask for a second. I will second it. Any discussion? Um >> Okay, then we're open for discussion. Did you say that we are going to get rid of the coaching position? The coaching assignment is eliminated. But it doesn't say it's recommended that we eliminate Just the coaching. I can take care of all of the jobs. This is a verbal one. And Shavon The only one that's disappearing is the coaching one. The rest of them are all still there. Yeah, and that's what I said. Just the one that went
003away with the coaching, mentor. Teacher principal recommendations that she just listed. Well, when I said I agreed with it, I agreed with Tammy's. They're all identical, are they not? >> Any further discussion? There's a motion and a second on the floor. I have something to add here. So, a 15-minute work session to figure out a $120,000 savings? Do you have anything to say? I think we talked all You have 3 minutes on that. 3 minutes. >> [snorts] >> We passed it through for an hour and a half last week. And we know that he's said anything different tonight. You didn't ask for new ideas. You have 3, 4 minutes, 5 minutes. I spoke 1 minute. 1 minute. >> [clears throat] >> You have all the time you want to. I'm just following the rules. I
004think the uh proposal that Daniel brought forward, I have his email addressing concerns from the last proposal at the last meeting. I believe this new proposal addresses, though not all of those concerns, it's a vast, vast majority of by keeping a win keeping the win positions and and some other things in this. That's why I'm supporting it. Who's going to do all of these duties that the coaching position did? That's the reassignment part. And So That's a great question just like a 15-minute work session is. Mr. Daniel, who's going to do all these jobs? We will divvy them up at the administration level. We didn't have the position before it was created and we will go back to what we were doing before it existed. School our size is necessarily in need of that position.
005It is certainly nice to have. But for sure. By eliminating this position is it going to increase um the potential cost of finding a sub? From the last meeting we talked a lot about how this individual is already filling in quite a bit for different um teachers on a sub basis. So um I guess that could be taken one of two ways. You know, it's either um you know, she's already spent a lot of time filling in as a sub so she wasn't able necessarily to do all everything that was uh required of her. Um but then it is also nice to be able to have that additional body in case there's an emergency where we do need an extra sub. I mean, do we know do we know like how many times a week
006or a month she this individual was subbing? Well, on that topic, um we have been taking a look at what we spend on Kelly Services. And Kelly Services uses this thing called Red Rover. Red Rover is a a platform. So when a teacher is absent, we request a Red Rover or substitute. And the problem we've had with Kelly Services is there's no substitute in the system unless then we ask our staff who are supposed to be doing what, coaching, those sorts of things to fill in. Even our principals do it as well. And um we're looking at the numbers, but I feel um confident. I'm working on a recommendation. Where I think if we um work with the Red Rover system directly, we put our own substitutes in it. And um I have to evaluate
007this part of the process. We hire somebody part-time that's secretarial to basically go people in and out of the system. Not sure if that's necessary cuz in speaking with staff, it might be more onboarding and offboarding with that. But um I believe we cut expenses by simply um doing the Red Rover ourselves versus paying Kelly Services, which mainly onboards people and um staff have shared with me that have retired and were interested in subbing. They have kind of a painful application process. Um So, I mean, on the topic of substitutes, that's something on my mind. So, if we went that road, you're thinking that it would save us money plus it would be easier to get subs when we need them. Yeah, I've been talking to the clerical staff. And um Well, quite a bit
008to the clerical staff. Because when we originally did this, when you guys hired me, you were switching It was Teachers On Call then and then Kelly Services bought them out. But the intent was to put less work on uh primarily the positions that Audrey and Karen fill. But because uh uh, Kelly There there enough subs in the Kelly Services. They're essentially placing people out of time anyway, and so I don't think it's really done a lot. They do like the Red Rover system of being able to request a sub and fill it within that system. And so that's why I got to thinking, well, what if we just, uh, just ran that part ourselves versus being a company that's not keeping enough subs in the pool in the first place. Plus, it would also allow
009us, like there's some positions that we don't really, can't really fill via um, the Kelly Services cuz like I'll just use example of like a health aid in the nurses' office cuz they don't really have a category for that. So, we'd have like more discretion to define different categories um, and make variation based on the position. I think it's just set that up based on how we want it to work. Would you all have a more formal language recommendation That's something to take a look at. Any more discussion? One thought that I had was, uh, if this coaching mentor position was to be added to, how could that position fulfill all the requirements that it has? I mean, I've heard I've heard things not getting done. I've heard different things. And so, if we tack
010on more responsibility, how is that going to work out? Just the performance sizes. All right, I've asked for discussion three times now, folks. I will call the roll and we'll do a roll call vote on it. Tom. Yes. Chuck. Yes. Lisa. No. Lori. Yes. Jeremiah. Yep. Tanya. No. Linda. Yes. Motion carries five to two. Administration is tasked with reassigning all those folks that were in this shuffling and that we could have a report maybe next meeting. We'll try. Hopefully they don't. Next thing on the agenda is to approve contracts. Do you want to do all of them at one time or you want to go over every one? Maybe. Double check this. Yes, how do you want to do it? Yes. Okay. So I must not have done the food service director contract yet. We
011approved the hire. Um and we have our SLPAs and my contract. They can either be done in one day all together or individually depending on how the board wants to do it. That process on that. You do all at once or you want to do them separate? Any questions on any of the contracts? These are all in the the negotiations team. All of them approved these. Yep. Then I would be okay with approving them all together. Let's say they are there. Okay. And I would accept a motion. I would like to see them before I voted on it. Say that again. I said I would like to see them before I voted on it. I thought we had them. They weren't presented today, I don't know. We got them We got them before you. >>
012They're in your emails. They're in your emails. Superintendent Are they evaluation? No. The actual contracts are there. Superintendent contract [snorts] and the SLP agreement is in our email from May 4th. Thank you. 8:15 a.m. All right. 8:14. It's on there. This should be an attachment with It's on a thread titled additional yellow materials cuz it starts first with the materials from This is Larson that she provided and then there's additional It has a more information about the DAC position, assessment, SLPA contracts. The At the food service one on there was The food service wasn't on there. Okay. That That one. The other two aren't. On the bottom under There's four attachments. Did you go over all of this, Chuck? We drafted them. All of it? All [snorts] of these? >> Yeah. That's why we're still
013negotiating. Took a long time. Yes, we went go all of them. I don't um Do you want all of them? I can't hear what you're saying. >> [snorts] >> I turned it in. The food service one was anonymous. Do you want She told Yeah, I submitted both of them previously. The food service driver here. It's mainly Okay. Thank you. That would have been my first submission. I did not submit That was the complaint. We'll send that to you in an email with the computer scratcher one. That's the way my contract was written. When you compare the two of them. Yeah, I know. I had to wait. I did not fill out the form. I submitted I lost it. We've been working on that since January. That's the only time I was >> [clears throat] >>
014Did you send that in for the service one? Do you want to send that in for the service one? What did you say? What did you say to her? I didn't Excuse me, you might not know like when we approved the food service in the April [clears throat] meeting, was that the contract >> [cough] >> 34? I'm not sure. Okay. >> [cough] >> Yeah, this is for the new one. This is for the new person, I think. There's no food service for the old one or the new one? It'd be the new one. Okay. Molly. Yeah, I don't I was I was looking for it and I couldn't find it. But I didn't get to sign it. So, we could postpone that for next meeting. Yeah, we can do that, too. So, we just postpone
015that one till the next meeting. I'll make sure we all get a copy of the food service one, yeah. I think that would be a good idea. Yeah, I I sent it around. There's Yeah, I was just looking at it. So, then we're voting on the superintendent and the two SLPAs. And then we'll uh the next meeting we'll vote on um the food service contract. Yep. Make a motion to that effect, folks. I'll motion to approve those contracts. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Okay, we have to accept the principal's resignation with great sorrow. We're sorry to see you go, sir. Thank you very much for your service. And please be strong and healthy in your future. Please let the minutes reflect that we thank
016Mr. Rood for his years of service >> Please do. and his hard work for the district. I would need a motion to accept his resignation. So moved. On motion. I'll second. Lori. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion carried. And action regarding his the principal search. Do we have to officially say search with somebody or you just going to post it or what? What are you Talk about how you want to do it. I do have something posted but we have a timeline and method for sure. Um if you do want to like enlist somebody like uh for example like the Red River Red River Group does that stuff too where they go through uh like a superintendent search if you go through the contracts and recommend like if
017you wanted to do a thing like that. Um which there's a lot going on so I wouldn't be opposed to that but If you think we want to establish a timeline, um this principal is a big position and the applications are more intensive than some of the other positions. We have like six questions on ours. Um I'm just going to spitball but like a single suggestion is that the application uh period let's say ended May 24th. Is that like a Sunday? You know, in May. And then that week took a look at it and then that first week in June like schedule interviews like out the gate and then try to have that selection done by the end of that first week in June. That would give us at least another 2 weeks. Um If
018you guys wanted um you can get a year subscription to Mesa. They have a job posting site, too. I don't know if like 500 I'm not sure if it'll give you a lot of extra applicants or not. Um I do But yeah, that's And must be have one at all? I forgot Yes, and I posted there. Okay. I I know the board has the final say on this. Does the board have any uh input to anything on the actual hiring or is that strictly HR and the hiring committee? I would suggest a board member on the hiring committee. Obviously, that's going to be approved by the board. But like it'd be nice to have a board member, administration, some people, a few teachers, and people from that would work with them on the administrative team.
019Probably like like six eight people. And then uh Obviously, me and anybody who is on that, you wouldn't release anybody's name until you like at least have three or less candidates. Um I would make like Typically, the superintendent make the final recommendation, but that'll be with the input of the committee. And obviously, the board has to approve it. Is it Is it out there? Is it out there Is it going to be out there in several social media platforms? Um Yeah, so far it's on K12 Spot, Head Coach, the MSBA site. Um we could put it on Indeed. Double check with the board but I'm pretty sure we have an account there. Don't use it a lot cuz you have to watch it closely or you run You can run up a bill but this
020would be a good reason to use it. I put it out on my LinkedIn. We're looking at their application. I actually got on Everyday Principal and we're going to run a thing out a couple of weeks where we'll mention that we're looking for a principal on that podcast. You mentioned the Red River Group. What would they do for us and what would the cost of doing something like that be? So, what they would do is they would take the initial applications and they would make a recommendation of who they think of their final ones are. Like the committee could decide to have a different person on the recommendation if they wanted. Um I would imagine be similar to what you guys paid for superintendent search of a few thousand dollars. They would vet everything, am
021I right? Oh yeah, they do the vetting. Yeah, they do So, they kind of do all of that like reference checks and stuff. Is it going to lead to more exposure? I don't know. I know it's a toss up I think just having Yeah, it's a toss up cuz obviously that person has their own network. Um so they can tap into that. So, is it a crazy idea to save a lot of money? I know in in your past you've been the superintendent and principal at schools. Would you be willing to do that here for 1 year? I think you'd have to take a look at how many people you'd be asked to supervise in that role. Um cuz uh we have 86 teachers and so and >> [snorts] >> 40-some um paraprofessionals. So, our
022principals already have to supervise like 50-plus people. And so, I've done that before. Um for a district our size, that would be pretty atypical. Um it's more common to have a combination of elementary and superintendent position, but we already have an elementary principal. What if if you did that and we kept the dean of students? You'd have to make the dean of students like a full-time position, and then you would be kind of reducing your savings at that point. Cuz and may not it may not even be the dean of students because like you have to have a licensed principal for the evaluations and discipline. So, [snorts] like you'd have to take a look do you want people doing the financial work? Do you want people doing the strategic planning, professional development, that sort of
023thing? Um When I did it, um there was uh like let's see. I had like 86 full staff, and then there was two of principal/dean there. So, the number of people we were talking about was quite different. Do you need a lot of money? I don't think the job gets done. That's a whole lot of work for one person. My thought on that would be if it would be [snorts] in the same building, I think it would be easier. Easier or possible. Being in two separate buildings, I'm not sure that that is workable. >> [snorts] >> I see heads shaking. So, we need to come up with what we want to do or just a deadline like Do we need to make a motion to approve what we're going to do? So, if we're if
024we're filling the secondary principal position, I need a consensus of how you want to do this. Um if if you're changing it to like a completely different configuration, it that would be a vote, but I don't know if that would also, in my estimation, require more uh more thought, yes. Jeremiah, what's your thoughts on finding the position and that sort of thing? >> [laughter] >> I guess you're putting me on the spot here. Um I mean >> [clears throat] >> it seems like to combine positions would seems like it'd be um would require a lot of planning and coordination. Um but it also seems like it'd be a a lot of additional work for an individual to do cuz I think at times it seemed like Bartlett's fairly busy at the high school the way
025it is and I know that it seems like that was have something going on and then Dan you have the overall responsibility of everything in the district. Um so if we want to be a successful district, we should probably have defined roles. And if we're going to pull one individual to cover another individual and add those responsibilities, then everything I'm not saying you can't do it. It just it would put a lot of pressure on somebody to have to ensure that everything was done. Um and done to the standard that we're all used to. Um I know you said it's atypical but just being in one building and then being in charge of another building it also seems like it'd be a tall order. Um It'd be a lot of back work between town or
026back work between town. Um Well, like I said, if that was something that we the direction that we wanted to go in, I think it would require probably an additional meeting. Cuz I think that would be that that would probably be a big undertaking of reassigning individuals and probably having to add people's contracts and additional responsibilities. Um not saying it can't be done. So, for what it's worth, um my my home district is Lackawanna Valley and they have uh two elementary schools and a high school. And you can call them up because they've struggled for years to just split a principal between the two elementary buildings. And the problem always comes that you can't be in two places at once. And that was just like one full-time principal position we're trying to split it between
027two buildings. Um you can probably find other examples of it. Uh when I was a K-12 I've been a K-12 principal and I've been an elementary principal and a superintendent. When I did do that we were all under one roof. For what that's worth. I think at the high school too if you don't have a person there other people in the office are going to take the brunt and then not get their work done. You know. Well, it's a snowball effect. >> Because it's going to be you know they're going to end up doing this because he's busy with going somewhere else or doing something and then they're not going to get their work done. And with being there's no dean of students and the discipline is back to the principal now too that's you
028know added to the principal too. I think Mr. Root's shoes are pretty big to fill. He does quite a bit with discipline and receive those reports. And like I said staff supervision. If you want to do it correctly and call order and if we do eliminate since we did a vote to eliminate the instructional coach position then all of one of those duties fall back on principals. So we just put it to a vote. So you would be good if we gave you consensus as to what direction to go or you need a motion to go do? Consensus is fine on this one but like um I mean so I kind of have a suggested timeline whether or not I guess if you wanted to employ a search firm, that would probably be best to
029get the ball rolling. The main advantage of that is it's May. There's a lot of stuff to get done and we're launching in August, so I don't have a lot of concrete numbers on it, but I wasn't sure if there'd be an interest in that either, so So, what do you think, everybody? Do you want to just get a consensus to have us kind of do it in-house? Or do you want to go and hire a firm to find a superintendent principal for us? >> Do we have applicants that have started trickling in? We have three completed applicants and three started from the last time I logged in. Are any of those internal? Um there is people within the applicant pool who are internal, yes. I was going to say cuz I thought we had
030one person on staff that had their administrator license. Okay, we have more than that. You didn't say anything. So to me it seems like we could probably I mean if they're trickling in, we maybe can do it on our own. To start with? Can we Can we maybe start on our own and then the next meeting decide Decide See what's going. We could see how many we have. Yeah. So, I could get better information on it if cuz like We'd have to get the applicants first anyway. Right. You know, but if there's already some coming in by the next meeting, which gives us 2 weeks. Do you think we want to establish a timeline? I I gave a suggested timeline, obviously like if there's different thoughts on that. I think the sooner the better cuz
031you got to get the new person in. Cuz July 1st would be the soonest day. I think that first week in June is about as long as you really want to take. Um, and you probably can put ads in lots of newspapers around. Yeah. Um I see you. Where is the biggest bang for the buck here? So, consensus then? I think this timing is the way to go. I would like to hear more concrete numbers if we want to go with the service. Yeah. Yeah, they're not cheap, but they do cover you with the vetting and all that kind of stuff is done then. So, if we would have like applications due by the 18th, which is the next meeting, we would know how many, then could we go and hire this Red River Group
032to vet through them all then? You could, but I I mean, it's a I think you want to give it a little bit longer because the application is There's more to it than Okay. Um You you just like you would probably have started We'd have an idea how many people are going But then we could decide at the next meeting if we wanted Yeah, we can still do that. We could decide the next meeting then once we kind of know how many, you know, when it's been out there. Yeah, cuz it's to know how many are. Like say four people complete it, obviously that's not as much work as 14. Right. It seems the word is out there. The head hunters are coming for us. Don't worry. Yeah, but that that is the unofficial name,
033by the way. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> But then, you know, we could decide that next meeting >> Let's see if we can get it out get it out there get it out there get it out there. Let's see where it will go from there. We can get a search firm in right now. If we wanted to one Is that um I want I want to go with the >> of June for interviews, like is that agreeable to you? Because I feel like we should put that in like like getting it get this done. I just need to touch base. That works for me. Isn't July going to be right there? What I'm hearing is get it out on the media platforms as we can. Uh May 4th 24th deadline sounds doable but like come with
034more numbers about other options on the 18th in case we want that's what we're going to upgrade. Um and we can see how many applicants because that will probably be a big factor in and then aim for interviews that first week of June. Yeah. I might suggest that you talk to your colleagues up at Freshwater. They're doing the same thing on their own right now for their principal for their superintendent search. Oh, yeah. They got contacts there. And they're getting some they're getting some responses so far. Okay. So. Even if we can't go we can get things started anyway. I want to say thank you to all of you. Help to do this. Really we don't always agree and at least we can all go out and we're still talking to you. Meeting adjourned. It's
03527:24. Bless you. Thank you so much for coming.