001Good evening. I'll call this meeting to order here March 9th at 7:00 p.m. Mr. Kosher, would you please take attendance? Johnson, here. Olson, Here. Skelton, Here. Bosward is absent. Winegar, Here. We have a quorum. Wonderful. Thank you. If you could please join and rise for the pledge pledge of allegiance. I 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. Thank you. At this time, any visitors who wish to who wish to address the board may do so. We ask that you sign in when you enter the room and please list the topic. If you have not done so, please approach the podium and do. I ask that you refrain from listing any student by
002name or any personnel by name. Is there anyone who would like like to address the board? As a reminder, no action will be taken this evening. Seeing none, we would move on to Tanager Happenings, Becky Sanderson. Good evening. Hello. >> In the daylight. We're excited. Yes. Um so, I just want to talk a little bit about summer school. We are looking at starting summer school at the middle school. We haven't had that in a while. Um it sounds like that has been something that's teachers have been asking for just to have a little level of accountability with kiddos that are either not coming to school, not passing classes. Um and the other thing that we're seeing with it is that kids are moving on grade level to grade level. Maybe they're not passing the classes
003in sixth grade and we move them on to seventh grade and then that makes seventh grade that much harder. And then we move them on to eighth grade and that makes eighth grade that much harder. And then we send them on to high school where it really counts, according to them. Middle school doesn't count. It does, because that is where you're learning all of those foundational skills in order to get to the classes that you have to take in high school that then do start counting on transcripts and college applications and that kind of stuff. Um so, what we've kind of been looking into doing, what I'm hoping to do, is just give a short, like 1-month session of summer school where we get a chance to get some of these kiddos that haven't been
004at school, that maybe are failing some of these classes, give them that opportunity to make up that time, build those skills that they are lacking, so that they have a better chance to be successful in the next grade level and moving forward, because that is ultimately what we want, is we want to send kids on into high school ready to go. Um so, what this is in the early stages, but what I'm kind of looking at right here is um during the month of June, uh we'll use ingenuity, which is something a program that we already have. It has lessons built in. We can um pick and choose within the program which specific lessons get taught, and so they get a chance to watch some videos for learning, do some practice tests, and then they
005have tests that they take at the end of each unit to assess their skills there. So, that would help get them through, making sure that they are learning and getting those skills that they need. Um we would have certified or classified staff running the summer school. Ideally, we have different staff that have different strengths, so that we might have some days where we have math strengths and some days we have more of language arts. And so, that as they're going through these classes, if they have questions on math, then when that math strong person comes in, they can say, "Hey, I'm really struggling with this. Can you help explain this to me? Cuz I this is just isn't making sense." And then same thing with language arts. Um it just kind of helps build those
006skills and again makes it about acquiring skills, not just a tedious thing that we're having them do. Um what we're looking at as far as where how a child will like be identified for summer school, we're looking at attendance. That's kind of been our focus as a district this year is attendance matters. And so using that as a framework, any child that misses 20 days or more would be a candidate. Not saying that that'd be a guarantee um because there are some kids that have missed that many days for very valid reasons. Um and so we don't want to say that that's going to be the end all be all, but that is a pattern that we tend to see is kids that miss high numbers of days also tend to be kids that are
007failing classes. And so if we get those that are doing both where they're missing a lot and failing classes, if we can start getting them caught up and moving them, I think that'll be a big step in the right direction and we can just kind of build on it from there. Um if a kid is assigned this and doesn't come, um that would be something where we would talk about having them be a candidate for either retaking that grade level class. So if they failed sixth grade math, maybe that's the only class that they failed and they didn't put in forth any work and so maybe we move them on to seventh grade, but when it gets to that math class time, they really need sixth grade math. And so we put them in a
008sixth grade math class. If they are failing lots of classes, then we have that conversation with the kids, the parents, um and teams, superintendent about is this a kid then that we want to retain in grade level. Ideally that is not what we want for most of these cases, um but again, we want the kids to be successful and if they're not getting those skills, moving on to a grade where they don't have the skills makes it really hard. So we we are just we're trying to get the most success for these kiddos. Um we're identifying those kiddos now Um um and I I'm running reports and I can run reports for miss kids that are failing classes, I can run reports for kids that are missing however many days that I want. Um if
009I were to run the report right now for kids that are missing 20 days, that gives me a list of 34 kids. When I take off the kids that are no longer in our district or for other reasons maybe wouldn't be eligible, we're we're down to like 19. Um which isn't an extraordinary large number of kiddos. Um but if we can help 19 kids build up those skills and feel more successful going into the year, um I think they'll have a much better year. So that's that's the goal behind it. Um and then now it's gets the details figured out with the teachers, finds people that wants to do it um and identify those kiddos and have those parents contacts with them um and let them know that's hey this is something we want for
010your kiddo because we think that it would be beneficial for them. So. That's what I have. Do you have any questions? I've got a just a couple points to add to that. One um would be um we will really get more details for the board and have more formal presentation with the some of the details. So I I'd encourage you to to send us any questions you would want answered or uh that way when Becky and I are working with staff, we can get those answered and make sure the plan is is solid as it can be coming in next month. The beauty about this time of year is um we've had some small conversations with families about their attendance throughout the quarter uh this quarter as well as last semester. This gives an opportunity
011for somebody who's maybe on the wrong path right now for the next 10 weeks of school to really buckle down and improve and they may not be a candidate then. They In other words, uh right now they've missed a bunch of days that are unexcused, their their grades are not reflecting well, but maybe after a conversation with the principal and some parents and things that all of a sudden this kid says, "I need to buckle down a little bit." and their their attendance gets better and their skills develop. And I think that that's the nice thing about this is right now kids will get the message that you still have time to recover and we see a positive trend before the end of the year, then we're not going to consider you for this. But
012the flip side is also true, which is if we don't see improvement and we see kids with failing skills, uh then we would have this as an option. There's really three things that I like about this. Well, there's a lot of things I like about, but three main [snorts] ones is our staff have been asking about this at the middle school for a long time as what can we do to to get kids more prepared. Some of our kiddos are failing multiple subjects. We're we're getting them onto the next grade level. They're dragging behind their peers in the next grade level that impacts the ability for themselves to progress, but it also impacts the ability of the entire grade or the class to progress because we're spending a lot of time with re-teaching. Second thing
013is is ultimately it's about re-teaching skills that kids might have missed and getting them the opportunity to have that happen during the summer at their own pace and get them ready for the next grade level is the ultimate goal here. And then third thing is is in an ideal world we'll see a student that comes here and and gets the needed skills and we see a transformation in them the next school year. Both their attendance, their attitude, their their engagement in school might just be altered a little bit where they suddenly enjoy the school experience and it and it just maybe gets contagious with them, the families, with their friends and suddenly we've we've we've been the thing that we've done something that changes this the the trajectory of these students. So, I think this
014has a lot of upside for those reasons and we look forward to producing more, you know, information for next meeting. Ultimately, we're trying to get them off of this wheel where they don't come to school because they don't know the material very well and so they don't know the material very well cuz they're not coming to school and they're just on this big cycle. We just got to get them off of that that wheel and just get them a new path for them. And sometimes that takes some strong efforts. So, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Enjoy the concert as well. All right. Um we'll move on here to um our agenda and conflict disclosure. So, item A, um are there any agenda changes, Dr. Eldi? >> No, there not. Wonderful. Um hearing that, I
015would take a motion to approve the agenda. First by Mark. Second by Ryan. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Uh next up here we have item B, indication of conflict of interest per South Dakota Codified Law 3-23. This is Rachel and I have none. This is Jake and I have none. Mark and I have none. This is Ryan and I have none. Wonderful, thank you. Moving on to our consent agenda. Um this evening we have approval of our minutes, resignations, new hires, open enrollments, and bills. Um first up we have our meeting minutes from January 9th. Um resig- resignations, John Schloss, chemistry, uh Jean Hanson, junior kindergarten. I do want to take a moment to thank her for her 36 years of teaching um within the district. I don't
016know all the uh different positions she's had, but I'm sure there's been many, but most recently a wonderful junior kindergarten teacher. So, thank you um Jean for that. Um Caleb Wismann, behavior room. Tracy Larson, administrative assistant. Todd Steffen, special education. Anna Olson, sped aid. Gary Colver, head wrestling coach. And the new hires, Lucas Edwards, project skill mentor. Um would anything like to be pulled from the consent agenda this evening? Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve. So moved. First by Jake. Mark. Mark, okay. Second by All you three males are hard for me to keep track. Um so, [laughter] thank you, uh Mark. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those in favor say aye, motion passes. I need Carol here. Um, we are in need of no unfinished business this evening,
017so we'll be moving on to new business. Um, item A is approval of surplus items. Uh, this time of year will be you'll see a lot of surplus things throughout this time of year in the summer, but at this point, um, Mrs. Uh, Jacobs has surplus some Dell Chromebooks, um, and some Lenovo Chromebooks generation three at zero value. Um, we'll either recycle or try to get some dollars for those, but uh, those are our surplus items this evening. Um, any questions on those? All right. Um, we can probably take a motioned, uh, for the surplus items. So moved. First by Jake. Second by Mark. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those in favor say aye, motion passes. Uh, next up here, item B, we have a set our first negotiations meeting date and
018time. This is just a, uh, a formality at this point. We've already held the first meeting with our Vermilion Education Association. That was this afternoon after school. Uh, we've already scheduled the next two weeks worth of meetings, uh, with the, uh, certified staff and then classified will follow once, uh, the legislative session is complete in this week. We'll have We'll be able to get, uh, going at a little faster pace. Wonderful. Thank you. Uh, next up here then, um, we have a report to Mr. Alvey. If you'd like to continue. Absolutely. Um, we would like to take just a second. Uh, this time of the year one of the, uh, neat things in our district is our opportunity to, uh, recognize colleagues in our buildings, um, for their outstanding work. And we have students, parents,
019and teachers who are eligible to nominate an an an employee of the year, like a teacher of the year, or a classified employee of the year. And, um, as usual, we had great submissions, um, and all those submissions always remind us of the great things that are happening. You see it once in a while when I'm in the building or other administrators talk about it, but when your colleagues write about it, it reinforces the fact that there's some really special things happening in our buildings and and colleagues notice it or parents notice it or students notice it. So at the elementary school, our two honorees, our classified employee of the year, was uh Liz Franken who does library at the elementary school. And our teacher of the year was Gina Marzola who's a elementary counselor
020at the elementary school. Our middle school classified employee of the year was Charlotte Kerlin. Charlotte Kerlin has a dual role for us. She does classified work and she also does teaching certified work. So she was a nominee for the classified award. And our teacher of the year was Aaron Fader who teaches social studies uh at the middle school. And our high school um classified employee of the year was Ashley Stelling who is the high school administrative assistant. And our teacher of the year was uh John Schloss who was our chemistry teacher. And um at the end of this this process, after the nominations are given to the principals, the principals compile all of those data and then we bring them back a member of the school board and the administrative team together to basically talk
021through all of those nominees and talk about um uh who ends up winning all of those distinctions. But if the part of that committee's job is to pick the district teacher of the year. So from all of those great nominations, Aaron Fader, middle school social studies teacher, was honored as our district teacher of the year. So they will all receive plaques at the end of the year celebration in May. So congratulations to those folks. Our state assessment time is upon us. You'll If you're visiting our buildings, uh you'll notice that our teachers are preparing for our assessments. And um so this is a good time to remind our parents that, you know, um extra rest, more time, you know, to get some some much needed rest and relaxation for the kids, good breakfasts in the
022morning before school are all helpful things for our balance for our test assessments. The Smarter Balanced is the statewide assessment for grades 3 through 8 this year, and those classes will all basically be taking them the month of April. Our grade 11, for the first time, will be taking the state assessment will be the ACT, the national exam that most of our juniors and seniors take to get into college. This is just South Dakota's first year of doing the ACT as an assessment of high school standards. So, we'll hope we'll learn a lot from this first assessment. One is how well does it align with current South Dakota standards, and two, the fact that we're requiring all juniors to take them within the school day versus a voluntary test that students that would take for
023admissions in the college, how does that have an impact on perhaps the the engagement in the test. But that test will be taken on March 17th. And as part of that assessment day at the high school only, the ACT requires that there's no just like when you took it if you took it as a high schooler, you are in a sterile environment. You can't bring water or treats in. You're in a place that has no bells going off. There's no activity in the building if you remember those days. Well, we have to provide that same environment at our high school that day. So, we will be asking our freshmen, our sophomores, and our seniors to have a remote learning day that day. What will what it will basically entail is juniors will report for the
024test and have the whole academic wing to themselves quietly without the bells. They'll be providing breakfast and lunch for them, and they'll have their five subtests that they will complete during the mandated time allowed. In the meantime, we will use the commons area of the high school for a remedial time for any student who wants help or is getting a D or an F in a class at the high school level. That would be any freshman, sophomore, or senior. Those folks will be required to come to a remedial tutoring period for 2 and 1/2 hours. It could be a come and go. If they get their work done in that time, they can go. Um but those folks will be uh asked to come in and get that extra time dedicated uh in a quiet
025environment to get the help they need uh for their last 8 weeks of school. Students that don't fall into that will be asked to complete an assignment online that will be pre-designated by their teachers, sent out through their Google Classroom, which they all currently use. And uh it it will be things such as uh it'll be no new ac- academic material. In other words, a teacher won't introduce a new concept through the uh that day and expect the students to bring it back and have it perfected. It will be a remedial day where uh perhaps you have to search out a a new topic uh in the news, and how does that relate to a class that I'm taking? Maybe it's a science class. Maybe it's an English course. So it'll be something that will
026use previously earned skills and ask them to reflect on their learning and and what they're doing in high school and how those two might be working together. So it will be a rather um uh really for the ninth grade, 10th grade, and the seniors, it'll look much different, but there will be some some good things that they can still capture from that day. Um Mrs. Andr- uh Sanderson did already mention our attendance matters campaign that's been going on this school year. Uh some of you that uh have seen these messages, you know, we send messages home through our Parent Square or through uh personal emails. We've uh increased our rewards and incentive programs for good attendance at the schools. We've done lawn signs and messaging of important attendance data on our big board at the
027high school or the boards outside the outside the school buildings. We've done parent letters. We've increased our meetings with parents and students about their attendance concerns. And we have an automatic call system that does call home when there's an absence of a student in case mom and dad are unaware that the absence is is happening. And so all of our enforcement and our efforts have been really to shine a light on attendance and the correlation between good attendance and better engagement in school and likely better outcomes for students. So we've worked with that this year and we'll have some some some supporting information next next meeting but the middle school summer school experience is just another step to help promote that which you heard here earlier. Last couple things here our parent-teacher conferences were held
0282 weeks ago. We did not have our Friday parent attendant parent-teacher conference because we used that day for a staff in-service half day. And we really did receive a pretty good response. We had 81% attendance at the elementary school pretty standard for our spring attendance. That's down you know about 10% from the fall which which is pretty normal for us. The middle school we had about a 39 percent attendance rate and 50 less than 50% at the high school. But I don't think that any of that was due to the fact that we weren't available on Friday. Our staff was made available Thursday and of course anytime else that the mothers or fathers in the district wanted to talk. So it was pretty much standard for our spring attendance regardless that we missed the Friday
029day. And then finally of course uh week we do have our spring break starting with no school. Um we get out early on Wednesday and no school Thursday, Friday. And then, of course, getting into the next month, we do have our Easter break with an early dismissal on April 2nd and no school on the 3rd or the 6th of April for Easter break. So, that's what we have going on. Nice weather. Very nice weather. >> [laughter] >> All right, thank you. Um next up we'll move on to school board reports. Does anybody have any committee updates? Is this microphone on? I don't know. Okay. Um the building committee? The building The building committee met this month. Uh and we've got some work ahead of us. Uh we need to do some work on the middle
030school roof, uh which uh should I mention? I won't mention the up costs. >> [laughter] >> Uh the high school parking lot is in pretty bad shape and that looks to be a 2-year project. Um we need a new vehicle for activities and uh that will free up uh another van, uh passenger mini bus, actually, for the preschool program. Um the walkway to the auxiliary gym is something we'd like to do. This is so that when people come in and want to see the JV game, they don't have to walk through the varsity game. Uh and it's a safety feature. And finally, the vestibule, the entranceway into the middle school. Uh if you've ever gone there, you have to press a button and hopefully someone is is is there will unlock the door for you.
031And what we want to do is change that. So that you can come in, but there'll be another locked door. So you'll get out be able to get out of the weather. And that's about it, isn't it? Right. And the Vermilion Public Schools Foundation met in February. We have a few items from there. First, I'm glad Dr. Alvi mentioned ACTs and the importance of a good breakfast. VPFS received a request for some funds to provide breakfast burritos. I think they'll be catered by Hy-Vee. And we we are funding that, actually splitting the cost with Feeding Vermilion. So splitting that 50/50. So So they will be getting their breakfast burritos on the 17th. Also, had a request for some funding for the from the Educators Rising Group. And I just wanted to tout this group of
032students. They had There were five, I believe they're all seniors. Five who were either national qualifiers or received a gold rating. And those were Madeline Eisenbeis, Katie Neighbor, Hayden Praster, Reese Williams, and Ruby Ruby Wilson. And for that state competition, they all had various various projects that they worked on. And Ruby Wilson's was actually a children's book that she wrote and was, you know, published and bound. We actually had a copy at the meeting. I was hoping to bring one here and I was not able to get my hands on one in time. But we had that and the VPFS also voted to purchase five copies of her book. And then really the other things were just wanting to get the word out about their scholarships. VPFS offers scholarships and the the number of applicants
033is usually surprisingly low. So just tell your friends, there are scholarships out there to be had. Just apply and you'll be considered. And also the VPFS is looking for new board members. So if anyone is interested, as long as you're not a school and an employee of the school, I believe you're eligible. So, uh out on vermillionpsf.org, there's a contact us link. You can submit a little thing or just get a hold of a board member or myself and we're happy to hook you up, but there they said there I'm not even sure they they've got several seats open, so the more the merrier. As our ICAP group met as well, which is like the city, the county, the school, USD, and the chamber. Um we are we're working on our kind of five-year plan
034um for buildings and improvements around the community. And it's interesting when you look back at the last plan, everything really that's been accomplished minus the community center. So, things that um were in this plan that have been completed are school administrative office, alt school, a new elementary school is in there, our downtown streetscape, which has been completed. Um a bike master plan, I think it's that's sort of city-ish, right? Health Sciences building on campus, the indoor pool at the wellness center addition. Yeah, elementary school as I mentioned, public safety center. Um so, really great things um minus the community center. So, right now all the entities are working on what their next five-year big projects will be. We'll get that updated and see if we can make some final things on the community center. So,
035good to see. Yeah, only thing that I had was the negotiations. We basically met and set our future dates. Perfect. All right. Thank you, everyone. Um we'll be moving on here then to our financial reports um item A, which is our funds. Mr. Koscher. Yeah, financial report in your packet again this month. Don't really have a whole lot to highlight, but I would take any questions you might have. Um did want to mention that uh you have your audit report from the FY '25 uh audit there in front of you. So, um any questions on that as you're able to take a look through it, just let me know. I do see here Ryan the Educated Rising. I think they have about $300 in their account and since they made it to Nationals, I know
036they're doing some fundraisers. I think they're doing an Easter egg drop here for Easter. A great fundraiser to help that crew going to the Nationals, which is in Portland? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. In June. So, they could use some more dollars in that fund account. But, any other questions for the funds? Then I'll take a motion to approve. I'll move. We'll do first by Ryan, second by Mark. All those in favor say I. I. We'll say the same sign. Motion passes. Are we in need of any future agenda items for April? All right. Seeing none here, we do have our next meeting here on April 13th followed by May 11th. We are in need of executive session tonight for South Dakota Codified Law 1-25-2-4. So, I would take a motion to enter in executive
037session here at 7:27. So moved. First by Jake. I second. Second by Mark. All those in favor say I. I. We are now in executive session. Thank you.