001I think my daughter from church. Well, you were two minutes away. Good job. Okay, that's got the policy manual on it. You can also find it on our website, but Okay, one more minute. We'll get this rolling. Did you get a chance to read through everything? She was just sick. Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe not. Ask her how many deer she's run over. That's Does she have a record? She does have a record. I used to say slow that dear magnets. Magnets they are. Okay. Let's call the meeting to order. Pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Okay. the April or the March 10th meeting. I second the motion.
002All in favor of Okay. And then the payroll claims and activities which I looked over at other than the school bus just about every time. That's just the Usually there's more on there. I know. That's just horrible. What's the rate program? So, we have a company that handles all the getting the forms and stuff in for our monies, which means for our internet, what would normally be like a $1,200 or more dollar bill each month for us, they do all the forms and everything, so we get a discount. And actually this year we pay it's like 2.95 a month for internet. And so what they do that's for the 23 24 year and what they do is they look at the discount and they charge us a percentage of the discount we got. That's the
003they've been doing it for almost two years. That's the first time we've actually even paid them anything. Um and so here in another year we'll get a bill from them for So this was for 2023 then 2324. 2324. Yeah. Yeah, rates always you got about three years going at once and so they they do all the things we don't want to have to do but we save money. Did you have any questions? Then you can make a motion to accept all three of these. So to extend 38,46261 claims at $15,3962 and activity at $12,392. All in favor? I moved. Okay, principal report fantastic field trip butterfly garden area last week was a lot of fun. I myself got to hold several insects. Did you get to hold any Mrs. Wilson? Yeah, some kind of beetle.
004Yeah, me too. And walking stick kids had a blast. Any tangelas that you got to hold on to? didn't get to hold those, but they had them. They had a scorpion that's uh native to Montana. Yeah. Very, very tiny. I thought it was only native to the east side, and the lady was telling me, "Oh, no. They're all over the bitter root, but not poisonous to Oh, that's good. Yeah. Are they poisonous, too? Where are they setting up? It is uh right by the fairgrounds. Yeah, it's pretty cool. They've got this whole open like greenhouse garden. You go in with the butterflies flying all around landing on you. Is it Does it cost to go in there? Uh yes. Okay. What's the I don't know what it is per person. Uh I had a grant
005I wrote that would cost us $350. Awesome. Uh this week we've got spring pictures April 16th, April 25th, we are taking a field trip to Lee Metcap Wildlife Refuge and to the golf course there. Um I know the golf pro and he's going to give golf lessons to the kids and Steve collard. Um the local author is going to come back and do bird watching and wildlife watching for kids. So can have two groups different things. So hopefully the weather is great for that day. Uh the eighth graders are going to tour Sentinel High School on the 22nd. on May 2nd going a little bit into next month uh we have the opportunity to go to Travelers Rest State Park and they are actually bringing tribal members down from uh the Sish Coupe tribe that
006are going to do cultural presentations and teach kids like Native American games and uh it sounds really cool that they're able to do that being sponsored by the state park. We've got that going on. Um, we're hoping to hear about the literacy grant uh by miday, hopefully by the 12th and hopefully before the May board meeting. And then that will help us make some decisions and um decide if you know we're able to have a three-year-old preschool program and all the other benefits of the grant. Is the next board meeting what? Well, normally it would be the 12th, but with the election being the week before, we might want to push it out a week just to make sure we get it have enough time to get the stuff back in the election department so
007we can cancel the votes and everything. So, so normally it' be the 12th through the 19th. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Um, if we want to do just one meeting, we could still have one on the 12th and then meet again in order to take care of the election stuff later. But that's kind of Tessa is here. And by that time, you should have heard as well. Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice. Okay. We have our fence repair day coming up, April 24th. I would like I would like to a Was it the 24th or the 26th? The 26th. I needed to apologize to the board on that because I thought Scott was going to cover that and I just thought it was kind of a done deal and I was wrong on that.
00826. Yeah. So, we got we will get it done, but as far as the spray painting and stuff, I don't think he's going to he's going to go for that. But at least not at this point. He'll change his mind at another point. But but when Jonah was up here and we met with um uh John, we had talked about moving posting putting some more posts out here around the the uh bus. Yeah. Playground for the bus and stuff. We are definitely going to need some paint to for those boards and paint. So, um, you want to see what that might cost, John? Get that taken care of at some point. Yeah. Okay. Today, I worked on filling a few potholes. Did that early in the morning. It was pretty bad down by the great
009kind of washed out. people that work on that. Nice to get Joe when he came by that um Tessa's husband to pick that up and dig it out. We have coming up on Friday our uh spring launch in as well as egg hunts. at 11:30. Parents are welcome to come to that. Should be a lot of fun. And hopefully the weather holds out. Not so sure when you're saying Thursday snow. I thought it was going to be 70 all week. Well, except for Thursday. 11:30. Huh. So, lunch and then the the um Easter egg hunt. Who's Who's hiding them? John. Not not John. Parents parents are cool. I helped stop them. I stopped I think probably on my own probably 158. Is it this uh the PTA the parents group that signed? Yeah, the parents
010or any parents you come might be you. Whoever comes. Anything good in it like the golden egg with 50 bucks in it or anything like that? Nothing that good. But the middle schoolers get one big egg filled with all kinds of cool stuff. Not 50 bucks though. And then uh the younger kids have eggs filled with candy. And I also bought a whole thing of like Easter toys and stickers and stuff as well. So kind of did a variety of items for that. So yeah, it's always a hit. uh our spring fundraiser is all done and I don't have the exact number um for you uh but I will by the next meeting but we did really well. Uh we brought in um estimating about $2,000. So I think we did even better than last
011year. What is that designated for? Do you know? Yeah. So it's designated for the student activities account uh particularly for lessons. So I'm going to use it for swimming lessons next year and ski lessons as well as field trips. Um, but this year I used that money from the previous year uh to really reduce the fee for parents. Um, dropped it down to only $20 where they were paying I think the first day. A day. Yeah. So, I dropped it down to 10 basically. That's nice. Yeah, since we have that money. So, this stuff like that. That's what I've got for the reports. Okay. And that was the operations or just That was everything. That was everything. Okay. And public input. Do we have anything for public? Okay. Additions or acceptance of the agenda. Okay,
012we're old business. Legislative updates. Yeah. So, the legislature has been busy. They actually are thinking, and I don't know how this is possible looking at their docket that they might be done by Good Friday. When I see it, yeah, I'm not sure I believe that. Uh, but that is what they're saying that they might plow through and everything that they want undone. Um unfortunately, House Bill um number 252, the Stars Act, which I've talked a lot about, um to be frank, is being kind of held hostage. um they have sat on it because they are negotiating other tax reform bills and whatnot and they've taken no um they haven't done anything with it in the center. So what all the stars act again? Yep. So that is probably the the one of the biggest funding
013bills for education and it looks at increasing the quality educator payment. So we would end up quite a bit more for teachers particular. There's also other provisions in there as well that provide for CTE um training. Um there's a whole list of things that it would put more money into for education. Um and it's widely supported um by both parties in the Senate and the House. So the um MTSBA really that it's going to pass. Nobody is saying they don't want this act and whatnot. They're using it as a leverage point for other bills. Um so hopefully time doesn't run out and nothing happens with this. Anything to add on that too? We're just waiting. Um some other bills of note that are going to be coming up this week. Um One is House Bill
014338, targeted early numeistry uh intervention bill. So this uh adds math to our early literacy four-year-old program. Um so if this happens then students could qualify not just for literacy but also for math skills um for the four-year-old preschool program. So that'd be great to have another option there. Uh, House Bill 250 is an outofd district attendance cleanup bill. Um, so there's several kind of administrative things they want to clean up with out of district attendance. Uh, one thing that could benefit us is tuition could drop significantly. So instead, right now it's 35.3% on average that districts are having to pay other districts. If there's an out of district student, that would drop to 20%. I'm just going to say that probably won't affect us because we're already on the low end of things. Um
015there are other schools that are on the very max, they're definitely going to see um but Woodman where just the way the formula works um between two schools, you go with the lowest amount and work about as low as you can get. Right now this year it's like and that we'll receive from those. So it's Yeah. Um, so I mean we may see something, but I really don't foresee a huge savings for us in particular just in our situation, but definitely some schools out there that will huge benefit from that. And that's one of the negatives for the district is when kids go to a different district, there is falls we have to pay. So how does that work? Do you think that's good? A good bill? No, it's a horrible bill. It drives me
016crazy. It's an accounting nightmare. It's horrible. It's not even happened yet. Yeah. It's No, it's Yeah. And the fact that they you you have to pay for so our kiddos that go to Lolo, we then have to levy money in the tuition fund and then we pay Lolo twice a year. you know, half the tuition in December, half of it in June, but the money we receive in doesn't go back into the tuition fund. So, it's not like you can kind of cancel out. It goes into the general fund as part of the G general fund formula. And um and then if you've got a kid that bounces between three schools, say during one year, you got to prorrate each portion of that tuition and pay and OPI has changed the way we're tracking this
017information about three times uh this year. So, we've had to go into our student information system and make multiple changes. They've done the same thing with the 4-year-old literacy program where they're making changes constantly how they track things trying to figure it out because I mean it's not even happened yet. Everything's and then there's a portion of it that's now in the Mayfair's program too. And pretty much they said it's not perfect but here's what we're giving them. So, um, yeah, the whole thing's just kind of messy. Yeah. House Bill 567 is a multid-dist agreement bill. This one's pretty interesting. Um, this encourages districts to be part of a multidist agreement. For example, um, you guys passed a multidist agreement with Lo School District. Um, so we were able to have a common um for
018monies. Um, this bill would actually give a 50% bump in the quality educator payment for districts that have a countywide multi-dist fund. Um, I don't know if I've I don't know if I see that happening for Missoula County because we have so many districts. There are some counties that have very few districts where that would be quite easy. County's got three. They pulled up together. The 50% bump though would be really nice. So, um I look forward to our attorney telling me more about this if it passes. We shall see. This is up this week. House Bill 483 protects the 95 mills um which would be really important for us. House Bill 339 increases funding for sixth graders at the high school A and B. That would be beneficial for our district. Right now the
019sixth graders are getting paid at the elementary A and B level. So we would get extra money for sixth graders. Sixth, seventh, and eth. Uh we're already getting extra money for seventh and eighth. So this just has sixth graders into the same. So that could potentially be a bit of extra money. Uh, House Bill 515 is a 50% increase in major maintenance funding. I'd love it if that passed. Well, maybe we could get the fence done. Well, and I was going to say, um, the way the formula works right now, it starts at a base of 15,000 and then you get more added on based on A and B. And the new one would be a base of 40,000 and then it would start with. So, yeah, it could be very very we can do
020the fencing very easily. We could do a lot of things that but we shall see. Again, they're almost they're running out of time. So, a lot of these are We'll drop off. We'll drop off if they Hail Mary. Yeah. And that's what I've got. Okay. Uh update on the Highway 12 school bus safety. Yeah. You want to explain what happened? Does everybody know about guy that got run over? Guess I heard it was a Tesla. I thought it was probably Danica except it was red. It's definitely red. Definitely not white. Big difference in color. Yeah. So, we've had increasing amount of problems with people on Highway 12 uh passing after the stop sign. The flashing lights are out. which is completely illegal in Montana. Um we've had problems for quite some time, but uh this
021year they've definitely increased. Um so there was an incident um couple weeks ago where a vehicle um passed and a parent was out on the road and got his foot ran over. Oh my. Luckily, I don't think it was broken. Um but so uh I've been working with law enforcement all year as well. last year. Uh but I again met with highway patrol in the colonel's office and talked to highway patrol about it about increasing patrols which I have not seen a lot of highway patrol men on 12 even though they they promised me they would increase patrols. Our uh local sheriff's office is really good. Part of that is we have a school resource officer that is assigned to our school uh and he's been working with the sheriff to increase patrols and they've
022vehicles as well because I requested that because um if people see a marked vehicle, they usually behave. Is it all in kind of that one area that it happens? It's primarily been that one area where most of the homes are along the highway. Um and that's also where six of our stops are. That's where the majority of the stops are. They put a new sign up, didn't they? They put one up last year for the bus stop when you're coming westbound. Um, and they did that when we asked for it because uh they felt that that first bus stop was hidden. And when I talked to the Department of Transportation, because the state of course is uh in charge of the highway, um they said that's the only signs that they can have the authority
023to put up is bus stop ahead when it's hidden. the visibility is blocked. Um, so when I talked to the department and transportation, they said, "Well, Willie, somebody else has to tell us to do more than that." Usually it's like the county commissioners. Um, so the next step is I brought this to the Lolo Community Council. Um, and Danica happens to be the chairperson for that. Um, and she got me on the agenda. And at the last meeting, um, we presented about that and then the Lo council wrote a letter uh in support of the county commissioners um doing more for this and um with that support then it moved to the county commissioners and I just found out from Danica that uh it's now on the agenda for Monday for the public works county
024commissioner meeting and maybe you could talk more about that. Yeah. So, so Shane Stack, who's currently the director of public works, he put it on the agenda for Monday. Um, and I saw that he also invited some MDT folks on that invite as well. So, that'll be good to have them on that call, but that's a public meeting. You know, anyone can call into those. They're um you can go in person, too. But, they're always hybrid, so it's easy enough to just jump online and and participate that way with those. And that's Monday morning. Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. So, we'll learn more. Then, uh the other thing that I've done is I've worked with the sheriff's department about increasing cameras. Um and I've talked to our uh bus company, Beach about uh installing external
025cameras. To our knowledge, no bus companies have done this in Montana yet, but they have out of state. Um, and they can buy them and install them. It would be at the district's expense. Um, and I don't have that number for you yet. What it would cost to put one in the stop sign itself so that there would be a camera that would be able to capture license plates and who's in the car. That's cool. Um, but the sheriff's department has uh sent a message to the county attorneys because I said, "I really don't want to pay for that if you're not able to use it as evidence because in Montana, um, there's some they don't often use video evidence for. So, we're waiting to hear from the county attorneys if they will use that
026as evidence. If that's the case and they say yes, that I will come to you guys with an actual price what it would cost to do that. So, that's kind of where we stand there. Um, stuff's moving. I mean, I'm excited to have it go to the county commissioners and see what we can get done on that aspect. Okay. Awesome. I I did have a question about the school district. You mentioned the Harmony Yes. Um, as far as like sports goes for kids, because they would technically be enrolled through Woodman, correct? So, like if they wanted to play sports at a different school, they probably would be able to if they were using the Harmony, right? Um, I will have more information on that later. Okay. Um, we're going to develop a student handbook for
027distance learning. Um, right now we don't have a co-op with other district for sports. Um, and we don't quite have enough kids for a team or whatnot. If we had increase in moment, we could look at join the league but I've talked to target range and co-oping for sports. So, still waiting to hear, wasn't it? It wasn't a hard no, but it was kind of a leaning no. It was a leaning no. So then I went to Target Range um and they they were a little bit more interested in that. Um so I'll have more information on all those funds. I've been working with Harmony and trying to get things set up for next year. Was that it? more to come. All right. So, out of district, school business. So, we have 13 out of
028district students to approve today. There is the list with grades and names. I've also added in if they are returning or new. I have recruited four uh four-year-old students for our four-year-old literacy program. Um which is doubling from this year. We have two this year. Um so that's a pretty healthy number. Um all students are in good standing. All the ones that are returning are in good standing. So it's my recommendation to approve 13 motion. Okay. I make a motion to approve and return. I second it. How many of those are returning? Seven. I think it was. That's a seven. Seven returning. Six. Yep. That's a substantial number, isn't it? I mean, has that increased? from last year or two years ago? No, it's about the same as last year. Um there's still some applications
029of returning students we haven't received yet. We sent them out on April 1st. Um the fouryear-old is increased. That is doubled because we only had two last year. I think word is starting to get out about the four-year-old program. Um and other districts don't offer uh that around us. Um, one family was from Florence School District. Um, several from Lobo School District. Um, so not everyone offers that program. So that is definitely a bonus for us. How many four year olds do we have so far for next year? Those four. Yeah. Total in the in the class in that class so far. Okay. All right. So, we move on from that one. Okay. And then the 2025 26 uh health insurance rates. Yeah. If you go to the middle of your look like that, guy.
030Um the there's two pages in there having to do with this. The first one is the 2526 renewal rates and then right behind it is what we're paying for this year. Um so what we're seeing is for the actual health insurance an increase of $90 a month um per person for the health insurance they're bumping the dental the district pays for the basic plan. Um so it went from 40 to 42. Um employees can choose to bump up to the enhanced plan. Um they would pay the difference. Um and then vision goes up a dollar. Uh so it's been $10, it's now going up to $11. that's also um paid for by the employee if they choose to to have vision uh insurance. So, we're looking at a total increase of $92 a month overall
031um that's employer paid uh per month per uh employee and we currently have five employees that are on the health insurance. So, this comes out to about a $5,500 increase for the year. Uhhuh. Um, overall we're still on the lower things compared to what a lot of schools get for for increases. Ours are never terribly huge. Um, but so we pay this and then if the teachers want to go further, get one of the other ones, right? if they want to do the enhanced plan and dental instead of basic or if they want to do vision and of course we only pay for the single coverage. So if they want to do kiddos or if they want to do their spouse they pay the difference. We still pay that single rate and they pay whatever's
032um in addition. And is this pretty standard for the across the state? Does mo do most people use Montana school? A lot do. Yeah. Um, we've been on we've been with Must for I don't even know how long or forever and ever. Um, and it is a good plan. It's got a $500 deductible. Um, it's an 80% co cocaine. So, um, things are probably going to get shaken up a little bit next year. Um, the legislature, I don't know all the details yet because I just haven't dove into it. the legislature in 2023 um are kind of changing up. Must will likely go away. Um then there'll be a there'll be another Yeah, there'll be a different program, but we've yet to see if for sure if that will happen. Damian keeps saying it's going
033to happen. It's going to happen. But yeah, it's not a lot of it depends on the governor's budget and how many districts they've got to get a certain number of districts on board with a certain number of staff. And Joel, do you think this has been a good policy for you? Yeah, I think and I think it is a pretty good insurance compared to some of the what the other schools offer. And so I think teacher retention that is something to think about. I think it's a decent plan. It's a decent plan. It must is good to work with. I've worked within several districts and the rep is very helpful. They have customer service that's Montana base just for us. Um I don't know that we could do better. I've been in districts where they
034have tried switching to private insurance companies and stuff that wasn't with dignified trust and usually they switch back. Um and our increase isn't huge. Sometimes it skyrockets for certain districts. All insurance went up this year for everywhere. Okay. Do you have any other questions on that? Yeah. Just the renewal for 256. Yeah. Motion to approve the So moved. Okay. Advertising opportunities. So I just wanted to continue the discussion. We've been discussing this the past few board meetings. Um and just continue to talk about advertising. Um we put out a four-year-old flyer. um that I saw some people shared on Facebook and like the local community uh page or whatnot. Um wasn't shared by us but parents and whatnot because I put it on class dojo. I think that attracted a few people but just wanted
035to continue talking about how we want to advertise um talk about social media if we want to try to have more of a presence on social media um and if we want to any other advertising or if there's any other ideas. Um, one thing we haven't talked about that Jill and I talked about quite some time ago is have why we don't have like a sign or whatnot. And um because a lot of people say, "Oh yeah, I didn't even know what that was." And is it a private school or a church or somebody said the other day a house? Um, and I know Jill, you said that they had talked a long time ago about not having a sign for security. Yeah. For security when, you know, lockdowns and we did all of that,
036you know, it was clear out here. you guys would all have to, you know, and then we came to the conclusion and I don't think it ever happened was our solution was maybe have a sign that we had printed, you know, a canvas or one of those signs that we could hang on the fence now and then accepting enrollment or whatever and then we could take it down. Kind of like when you drive by St. Joe's, they have their enrollments now open. So, That I think was the last, you know, and that was probably seven years ago when that was decided, but it never happened. So, sounds like a good idea. What's What is one of those cost? 100 bucks. Less than that. You can get a pretty big vinyl downer for like 70 bucks.
037Do we need a motion on that? No motion. I'll need to talk to the ranch. Talk to your husband and see if it was I'll ask time we had I guess it was when we had co we had eighth grade graduation later and we made individual signs for our graduates and Scott was pretty picky about where and how we hung them. So it would be but you know and we took them down as soon as graduation was well this would be year round. This would be during a certain time you know if it was just for like a month every year or so May 1st to June 15th June 15th when our enrollment officially so if we can get it May 15 Maybe it is June to June. Yeah. For like a four to six
038week period or something. I like I like the the social media too. I think people it's like gathering um like favorite things or um statements from former students. Yes, I have a collection and I still have more supposed to be coming in. So, we'll see. You've already got a lot. I've got a lot. I think that would be really a positive. So if Italy wants to throw something in, she probably would, you know, or like I thought it would be cool to show what some of the former students are doing. Does the school I've never looked like Facebook or Instagram? We do not. We used to and then we went to the dojo drill because of legality. It was just You could put pictures of current students on there unless you had permission from their
039parents and even though it was a locked Facebook by one of us, it was still well it's pretty simple if you get like if like our secretary or something could do once I mean you could plan out a whole month's worth of stuff that would just on one of those accounts. But that's why we have Dojo because it's a it's a lot more secure. And you know, we do have parents that occasionally will snap a picture of a dojo page and put it on their Facebook page, which is not legal either. Yeah. So, we have to be careful because some kids, you know, their parents sign that they don't want them Yes. to get published. So, would have to have something that I mean you'd want to be able to say, "Oh, hey, we're going
040to the ranch to do play in the creek and get gather up bugs or whatever on this date or some of the things that they're doing, but yeah, you couldn't have the pictures with students." Well, and I'm wondering like I have thousands of pictures like if I just had time to go through them. I mean, a lot of them are from way back. Like I don't think you know, parents would care. But if we just had a running thing on our like our um regular website, like just a slideshow of, you know, different ages doing different things through the years. Well, FCPS does that kind of a little slideshow that you can kiddos doing because, you know, I mean, we've offered I'm the hunter's ed instructor and the bow instructor. So, I have to keep
041up certification for both of those that we have been able to recruit people so that we can teach hunter ed during like practical skills. I mean you know it depends on you guys's permission of course but I've done that three times in the past and that's kind of a draw for some people. I would think so and if they knew that it was coming a lot and we do have the national in school archery program that I'm certified. There used to be two of us certified, but she's no longer here. Um, so so I can teach archery during PE with their program a certain way. Yeah. Um, but it's something, you know, that's outdoorsy. a lot of our field trips um we have the watershed potentially do something with us every year. It'd be really
042nice if like, you know, you had if we had like a a a flyer of these, this month we have this, this month we have that for 2025 24 25 year, right? You know, that that was at least one of those on our website, like a things to come and here's what we've done. Yeah. But I don't think that'd be bad to have on social media either. looking at like just different schools in the area and stuff. You want to see what's going on in the class like what the class look like? What do like just different learning experiences? It's nice to scroll through and see weird. It's nice to see that we're out hiking or doing journaling on the something, not just sitting in the classroom all the time. So, could the secretary have
043have a little bit of time once a month to go in and put a bunch of those in there and start open up? Yeah, I think I think I probably want myself to start it. And I want to make sure with Facebook and Instagram that it'sformational only and not a comment for I mean I know you can I know you can comments and that's what I'd want to do. I mean I look up page on Facebook and I'm like I would never want that. That's where the good stuff in the comments. That's what Ron Rick watches. Find out all the dirt there. Yeah, it's crazy what people I just want to get information to people and share oper but on our website if we made it more interactive or had more stuff that we changed
044up for the slideshow that might draw I'll have to see if has that function. Okay. I've done that in others but it was our website right now is free. Okay. But there's still a I know I could put pictures in it or if we could build like a Google slideshow that has, you know, changes or whatever. But there's probably a way. Do we need a motion on that? This is discussion. Okay. I just wanted to keep the discussion up. I think it's important as we try to recruit more kids. I think it is. I also like talking to Scott and Sharon. I just visited and I think the ranch has so many opportunities for little field trips or just days or picnic or anything and we would love to have ideas and get a list
045of ideas at some point. I know that and we want to get them included in here. So we need to do something. Absolutely. They had mentioned at one point I can't remember if it was who said that whether it was Joan or whether it was you that you guys would supply the meat for the 26 and do we want to do that here? We could do it over there but I don't care. Would it be I think it maybe depends how many people we get. Not too many people signed up yet. And if that's the case, it might be easier to cook at the ranch if you have everything already set up. But maybe if we have a whole bunch of people might be easier. Okay. Okay. Let's find Is that okay with that? Okay.
046Great. All right. the review board review the review the board member policies. Okay, I was just going to go through these really quickly and read them because I was always have questions and you might too. Okay, for that okay um this is uh 1240 policy 1240 duties of individual trustees. The authority of individual trustees is limited to participating in actions taken by the board as a whole when legally in session. Trustees shall not assume responsibility of administrators or other staff members. I had a nightmare the other day that I fired a teacher and I never brought it to the board. I was like, "Oh no, I can't do that. That's wrong. That was trouble." Okay. The board or staff shall not be bound by an action taken or statement individual trustee except when such statement
047or actions pursuant to specific instructions and official action taken by the board. Each trustee shall review the agenda and attend materials under meeting and shall be prepared to participate in discussion and decision making for each agenda item. Each trustee shall visit every school building at least once per year to examine its management conditions and needs. All trustes are obligated to attend board meetings regularly. Whenever possible, a trustee shall give advanced notice to the chair administrator of the trustes inability to attend a board meeting. A majority of the board may excuse a trust absence from a meeting if requested to do so. The board shall declare a position vacant after three consecutive unexcused absences from school regular board meetings or when a trustee has been absent from the district for 60 consecutive days. Do you have
048questions on that one? Talk about the the trustee visits. That's why I always usually do a trustee facility tour. Yeah. And usually I often do that like in summer right after the first of those often well often in June or whatnot to talk about the remodelings plans but also to see the condition of the facilities as well. Yes, that's I like that. That's always always nice good information. Okay. 1420. The agenda for any board meeting shall be prepared by the administrator in consultation with the chair. Items submitted by board members and citizens may be placed on the agenda in the discretion of chair and administrator. Individuals who wish to be placed on the board must also clarify the administrator in writing of the request. The request must be must include the reason for the appearance.
049If the reason for the appearance is a comp complaint against any district employee, the individual filing the complaint must demonstrate uniform complaint procedure has been followed. Citizens wishing to make brief comments about school programs or procedures or items on the agenda need not request placement on the agenda and they may ask for recognition by the chair at the appropriate time. The agenda must also includes a public comment portion to allow members of the general public to comment on any public matter. the jurisdiction of the district which is not specified listed on the agenda except that no member of the public will be allowed to comment on contested cases or other adjudicative proceedings. The board chair may place reasonable time limits on any public comment period to maintain and ensure effective and efficient operations of the
050board. The board shall not take any action on any matter discussed in the public comment section at that time with consent of a majority of members present. The order of business at any meeting may to the agenda for the current board meeting. Minutes of the previous board meeting and relevant supplementary information will be prepared and distributed to each trustee as determined by the administrator chair. Items may be added to the agenda at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting, the board meeting. The agenda packet will be available to any interested citizen at the administrative's office 48 hours before a board meeting. So if somebody asked for that, they could get you and send it to them. Yep. Okay. Um the one other question. Okay. So if if Eden or Tessa had something that they
051wanted to put on the agenda, then they would either talk to you or John. John, I would say John start. And then and I will talk to you. Um because if you read our policy, it specifically says that the U agenda is made from the administrator with the chair. Yes. Okay. Okay. Perfect. The clerk or the clerk says he shall keep written minutes of all meetings that must be open to the public. The approved minutes must be signed by chairman clerk. Minutes must include date time meeting officer. A record board members discussed or decided record of any votes taken. Detailed statement of all expenditures purpose of recessing to close session and time of journment. The board shall keep minutes during all close sessions. So okay taken during close session shall be sealed and will not
052be released except by court order. A file of permanent minutes of all meetings shall be maintained by the cler. Copy of the minutes shall be made available to the public within five days following approval of the board. Does that get put on the website? Yes. So tomorrow I will go on and I will put on the meetings that were approved tonight and I'll put the next board meeting date. Okay, perfect. Seal minutes taken during any close session the board shall not be made available to the public without court order. The board may direct that an audio recording of a meeting serve as an official record of meeting. In that case a written record of meeting must be made and must include the information specified above. Addition time stamp for each agenda item is required for
053the purpose of providing assistance to the public in accessing a portion forum. No business shall be transacted at any meeting of the board except unless a quorum of its members is present. Majority of the full membership constitute forum whether the individuals are present physically or electronically. Majority of the form may pass a resolution except as provided in meeting conduct. General rules of parliamentary procedure are used for meeting ordered. Meeting order business shall be reflected on the agenda. The use of proxy votes shall not be committed. Voting rights are reserved to those trustes in attendance. Voting shall be claimed. Or show hands. So if Tessa can't make it, she can be on the Zoom or on the phone. Yes. And so could have she was instead. Okay. Board of Trustees 1511 code of ethics for school
054board members. Oh, this is probably where it's excuse me. As a member of my local board of trustees, I will strive to improve public education and to that end, I will attend all regular scheduled board meetings and so far as possible become informed concerning the issues to be considered at those meetings. Recognize that I should endeavor to make policy decisions only after full discussion at public board meetings. Make all decisions based on available facts and my independent judgment and refuse to surrender that judgment to individuals or special interest groups. Encourage the free expression of opinion by all board members and seek systematic communications between board and student staff and all elements of the community. Work with other board members to establish effective board policies and to delegate authority for administrator to the administrator. Recognize and
055respect possibilities are properly and delegated to the administrator. Communicate to the administrator expression of public reaction to board policy school programs or staff. Support the employment of those persons best qualified to serve as st school staff and insist on regular and partial evaluation of staff. Avoid being placed in a position of conflict of interest and refrain from using my board position for personal gain. Avoid compromising the board or administration by inappropriate individual action or comments and respect the confidentiality of information privileged under law. Remember always that my first and greatest concern must be the educational welfare of students attending public schools. Any question on that one? So if there's work that we want to add or subtract to, we can have a committee meeting or something. I would think if there was anything that was
056we didn't agree with in this or something as long as it wasn't against the law. Yeah. And that's why with policies we always want to run it through the 1512. The trustee may not engage in a substantial financial transaction for the trustes private business purpose with the person whom the trustee inspects or supervises the course of official duties perform an official act directly and substantially affecting to its economic benefit business or other undertaking in which trustee either has a substantial financial interest or is engaged as council consultant representative or agent perform an official act directly and substantially affecting a business or undertaking to its economic detriment business or other undertaking in which a trustee has a substantial personal interest in a competing firm or undertaking. Act as an agent or solicitor in the sale or
057supply of goods or services to a district. Have a pecuniary interest directly or indirectly in any contract made by the board when the trustee has more than a 10% interest in the corporation. A contract does not include merchandise sold to the highest bidder at public auctions. Investments or deposits in financial institutions that are in the business longer receiving money. When such investments or deposits are made on a rotating or rare radical basis among financial institutions in the community or where there's only one financial institution or contracts for professional services or for maintaining or repair services or supplies from or supplies. Services or supplies are not reasonably available from other sources. If the interest of any board member and a detrimentation determination of such lack of ability of availability are entered minutes before the board meeting
058at which contract is considered, be employed in any capacity by the district with the exception of officiating at athletic competitions under the Montana Association. to a position of trust or imalment any person related or connected by consent within the fourth degree or by a second degree. This prohibition does not apply to the issuance of an employment contract to a person as a substitute teacher is not employed as a substitute teacher for more than 35 days. So, so we could be a substitute teacher and not substitute a family member could be a family member. That's my understanding. I believe so. Yes. Okay. This prohibition does not Oh, good. Because I didn't want to do that. This prohibition does not apply to the renewal of an employment contract of a person related to a board member who
059was initially hired before the board member assumed the trustee position. This prohibition does not apply. All trustees except the trustee related to the person to be employed or appointed to employ the related person. Trusty to the person to be employed abstains from voting on the trustee give 15 days written notice the times of the intended newspaper or general circulation school is located on so I've had this policy come up a lot um particularly um people that get on the board that were providing like contract services like the southerntherlands doing the lawn or something. Exactly. Um I've had this where um like for example, we had somebody who um was a mechanic, a diesel mechanic, and owned a garage and was working on the buses and we had to go with somebody else um when they
060went on board. Um sometimes board members have been substitutes and they're not able to be a substitute anymore. So this policy does come up with stuff like that from time to time. So that would be like Bill We couldn't use his correct. All right. 1700. The last one. Uniform compiance procedure. The board establishes this uniform comp procedure as a means to address complaints arising within the district. This uniform complaint procedure is intended to be used for all complaints except those involving challenges to educational material, those governed by a specific procedure in state or federal law that supersedes this grievance process and those governed by a collective bargaining agreement. The district requests all individuals to use this complaint procedure when the individuals individual believes the board or its employees or agents have violated the individual's rights
061under Montana statuto. or administrative law, the United States Constitution, statuto or regulatory law, or board policy. The district will endeavor to respond to and resolve complaints without resorting to this formal complaint procedure, and when complaint is filed to address the complaint promptly and equitable. The right of a person to prompt and equitable resolution of complaint filed here under will not be impaired by a person's pursuit of other remedies. Use this complaint procedure. Use of this Complaint procedure is not a prerequisite to pursuit of other remedies. And use of this complaint procedure does not extend any final deadline related to pursuit of other remedies. The administrator has the authority to contract with an investigator at any time during the complaint procedure process within 15 calendar days of the administrator's rece. to the independent investigator's report recommendation.
062The administrator will respond to the complaint and take such administrative steps as a administrator deems appropriate necessary. Level one in formal. An individual with a complaint should discuss it with the appropriate teacher, counselor or building administrator with the objective of resolving the matter informally. In the event that resolution is not achieved, the individual may file a written complaint within 30 days of completion of the informal resolution process. ception is that a complaint of sexual harassment should be discussed directly with an administrator not involved in the alleged harassment. Level two building administrator when a complaint is not been or cannot be resolved at level one. An individual may file a formal signed and dated written complaint setting the nature of the complaint and description of the event or incident giving rise to the complaint including any
063school personnel involved in the remedy or resolution requested. This written complaint must be filed within 30 calendar days of event or incident on the date an individual could reasonably become aware of such event or incident or completion of informal resolution process. When a complaint alleges violation of board policy or procedure, the building administrator will investigate intent to resolve the complaint. The administrator will respond in writing to the complaint within 30 calendar days of administrators proceed to the complaint. If either the complainant or the person against whom the complaint is filed as dissatisfied with the administrator's decision, either may request in writing that the administrator review the administrator's decision. This request must be submitted to the administrator with 15 calendar days of the administrator's decision. When a complaint alleges sexual harassment is a viol is a
064violation of title 9 or the education amendments of 1972 civil rights act or a violation of title two of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The ability administrator will turn the complaint over to the title N coordinator or district non-discrimination coordinator. The coordinator will follow the district 9 or section 504 g process. Administrator level three. If the complaintant or the person against whom the complaint is filed appeals, the administrator's decision provided in level two, the administrator will review the complaint and the administrator's decision. The administrator will respond in writing to the appeal within 30 calendar days of the administrator's receipt of the written appeal. In responding to the appeal, the administrator parties involved in the complaint. Conduct a separate or supplementary investigation. Engage an investigator
065or other district employees to assist with appeal and or take other steps appropriate or help in resolving the complaint. If either the complaint or the person against the complaint is filed is dissatisfied with the administrator's decision. Either may request in writing that the board consider an appeal of the administrator's decision. This request must be submitted in writing to the administrator within 15 calendar days. the administrator's written response to the complaint for transmission to the board. Level four, the board. Upon written appeal, the board will consider the administrator's decision. In level two or three, upon receipt of written request for appeal, the chair will place the appeal on the agenda of a regular or special board meeting. The board will report its decision on the appeal and writing to all parties within 30 calendar days of
066meeting at which the board considered the appeal. The decision of the board is final unless it's appealed pursuant to Montana law. When a matter falls within the jurisdiction of county superintendent decision board may be appealed to the county superintendent by written appeal within 30 calendar days of the board decision pursuant to Montana law. An individual may obtain a written copy of this policy by requesting one through the superintendent. This policy is available on the district's website. should be. It's on our website, too. Yeah. Have you ever used Have you ever had us use this? Has this been used? In some districts, I've used it. Has it ever? I haven't seen it here. I don't think in any of the meetings I was here, but maybe it got taken care of before it ever got to.
067Yeah. It'd be very rare for something to be serious enough to. All right. So information on past and upcoming events. We probably got that right. So the next meeting will be November or just May May 19th, right? May 19th if you guys are. Okay. May 19th. Okay. Meeting is a journ. Tried to make it really