001Good evening. I'll call this meeting to order here on January 12th, 2026. Uh, Mr. Kosher, could you please take roll call? >> Johnson >> here. Olsen >> here. >> Skelton >> here. >> Boss Ward >> here. >> Wine >> here. >> All present. >> Thank you. Thank you. If you could please rise and join me for the 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. >> Thank you. At this time, any visitors 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
002I ask that you refrain from listing a student by name or any personnel by name. Is there anyone who would like to address the board? As a reminder, no action will be taken this evening. Seeing none here, we will move on to our agenda approvals and conflict disclosures. Uh first up here is item A, agenda changes. Are there any changes, uh Dr. Elby? >> There are not. >> Wonderful. I would then take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> First by Carol, >> second by Mark. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Pull same sign. Motion passes. Uh, next up here, item B, we have indication of conflict of uh, interest per Southakota codified law 3-23. Uh, this is Rachel and I have none. >> This is Carol. I have none. >>
003This is Jake and I have none. >> This is Mark and I have none. >> This is Ryan and I have none. >> Uh, wonderful. Uh we are moving on to our consent agenda. We have approval of our minutes, resignations, new hires, open enrollments, and bills. Uh first up here are minutes from our December 8th and December 17th. Uh new hires, Carly Olrich, sped. Thomas Rotor, lunch aid. Kinsey de Haven sped. Michael Strainer sped. Ashley Yogurt, custodian. Thea Chance, lunch recess aid. Irwin Gerletch, lunch recess aid. Um, and we also have an open enrollment 26-5-E. Would you like anything pulled from the consent agenda >> this evening? Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> First by Carol. >> Second by Mark. All those in favor say I. >> I.
004>> Post same sign. Motion passes. Unfinished business. We are no need of unfinished business this evening. So move on to new business. Uh, first up here, we're going to do two approvals of facility agreements. We'll start with VTO. Um, I believe we have Michelle Hinsath here with us. >> Hi. Um, I'm Michelle Hinsath. I'm the president of the Vermillion Area Dance Organization board. Um, VTO is a nonprofit dance studio here in Vermillion. We have 196 dancers enrolled with us this year. 130 of those are students within the Vermillion School District. Every year VTO has our dance recital that attracts between 900 and a thousand audience members between two perform two performances um at the Thomas H. Craig Center for Performing Arts. Recital this year is scheduled for April 18th and 19th uh with dress rehearsal
005on the 17th. Tech day on April 12th. Um our studio manager Audrey Job has cleared all of these dates with Mr. Huska, Mrs. Fischer, and Miss Begley. And VTO is asking if the school board would wave the facility rental fee um and charge us for the cleaning fees associated with recycle as we've done in the past. Any questions? >> How's the work being in April and May? >> We had to do end of March last year. So I think April will feel pretty good in comparison. [laughter] So yeah, but no, we're we're doing good. So kids start back tonight actually. So, >> any questions for Michelle? >> Okay, thanks. >> Next up here, our second facility agreement will be with Bermian Soccer League. Samantha. >> Hello. My name is Samantha. I'm the president of the
006Vermilion Youth Soccer League here in town. And I just wanted to go ahead and say that we are going to go ahead and put on our second ever tournament here uh coming in February/marchch and we are going to go ahead and have um I already have people from Rapid City signed up. So we're pretty excited to get this ball rolling and we are going to go ahead and have it on the last weekend of February slash first weekend of March. And so what we were did last year is have the facility fees waved. So I was just wondering if we might be able to do that again this time. >> Plus the custodial fees though. Correct. Because we had to have custodial on site for uh most of the event. Right. >> Yes. >> Right.
007Any questions? >> I know you said you have people signed up from Rapid City. What other places do you anticipate people will come from? We'll have Yankton, Sous City. Um we have a Brookings team that's going to be coming. Um I have a couple of people out in like Aberdine and Watertown, but they we try to go to each other's, but it doesn't usually work out. So just because of the weather. So hopefully at some point we can get even more to come in to us. >> How many teams we have last year? Last year we had 32 and we opened it up this year for even more age groups. So we are going to be using the armory as well across the street so that we can have four gyms going at the same
008time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for bringing all of those folks to our community and it's really nice to have so many things happening in our town and in our facilities for our youth. So, >> thank you. >> With just a few items, we can go unless Sam wants us to make a motion. We sure can. For items A through. Let's do that. Um, should we make a motion for items A through B? >> First by Mark. >> I'll second. >> Second by Ryan. All in favor say I. I. >> Same sign. Motion passes. There you go. Get on with your evening tonight. Thank you. All right, looks like I got a calendar next on my agenda. So, um, item C here is approval of the beginning and ending dates of the 2627 school year.
009>> You bet. Um, thank you, Daniel. Um, really, uh, what we have in front of you tonight is a kind of a mirror of, uh, this year's calendar. Um, what we need from the board tonight would be our beginning and end dates. There's still a little bit of flex being done in the internal dates, but largely we suspect that most of our dates will fall in line with this year's calendar. Um, last year when we uh were putting the calendar together, we we gathered some staff input about some of the dates and maneuvered some things around um namely the uh end of the year in service, which this year will be the first year of that. So, we're assuming that that will be a um another welcome addition to the calendar. uh but we haven't
010really experienced it yet. We'll experience it this year where we hope to do our uh data um day with our staff at the end of the year versus waiting till the fall. But um what was uh suggested and and recommended for this year's start date would be August 12th, 13th and 18th with um inservice days for staff with some breaks in between there and an official start date of August 19th for students. um the first uh seme uh quarter being about 40 days long uh with parent teacher conferences near the end which is similar to this year's calendar. Homecoming date is already written in there although we don't know what the homecoming date will be because this the the state puts on the football calendar. They schedule the games for us. So once we get
011that calendar item probably in May, we'll be able to adjust where homecoming will fall in that first quarter. Uh second quarter falls largely uh just like this year did with a three-year or excuse me three uh day Thanksgiving and a full 2 week uh Christmas vacation uh with staff returning on January 5th in the third quarter typical third quarter breaks parent teacher conferences PLT dates uh and spring break uh on our traditional date as this this year USD's um break spring break is two week or is a week later than ours this fall or this spring and next year. Two years from now, it falls back on our date again. So, I'm not sure why USD had those flux in their schedules, but for two years, they were off schedule and they will return to
012our traditional um spring break schedule in two years. And then the last week or excuse me, the last quarter there is basically uh wrapping up with with Easter break in there with our last date of school on May 19th with an early dismissal staff in service the following day. So tonight I'm just requesting beginning date of August 19th, end date of May 19th and then uh in the coming months we'll fill in the blanks, but it'll look largely like this calendar here. And I know the online the draft 2627 calendar has been available. >> Yes. >> Anticipating the same thing for 2728. So we can maybe put out a draft. >> Yes. You have it in your uh uh board packet. Uh but we'll put uh the draft of the 2728 year school term out
013on the um the website as well. And it's again very similar to this calendar with an August 18th start date. and a May 17th end date. Uh with of course the middle to be determined, but uh the next couple years allow for those full two weeks of Christmas. Eventually the calendar is going to back up enough that we're going to have to make some decisions. Are we going to cut some days off of Christmas vacations or are we going to come back and end in middle of the week type of scenario. So that's a couple years down the road, but right now the next two calendars do have a full two weeks at Christmas if the board chose to use those. So yeah. So at some point we'll just need that approval for August 19th.
014May 19th August 19th. >> Correct. In a May 19th. Oh, that's easy to remember. 1919. >> Yeah. There you go. Okay. Wonderful. Um that was item C. So moving along to item D, which is approval of administration intent to rehire. >> Yep. This time of the year is typically when you've asked me how things are going. Um we are into our evaluation cycle with our uh all of our administrative team which includes principles, business manager, facilities director, curriculum director, sped director um and uh technology director and everybody's in good standing. So at this point I would recommend um the rehire of our administrative team. >> Thank you. Moving on to item E here is approval of adult volunteers. Um we have Lucas England uh for wrestling along with a class USD students have filled out
015and submitted a volunteer form to help with recess, lunch duty or reading with students at the elementary. So I won't go ahead and read those. Um but there's got to be what 25 30 names maybe >> um names on there. So, is there a certain class that that's with or any group particularly? >> If I remember right, this is um I don't know if it's the PE group again or if this has got to do with um I'm just looking at some of the names. None of them come out to me for some reason. >> Nope. I'm not 100% sure which group this is with. >> No problem. We I know we appreciate the help. >> Absolutely. [laughter] especially with no snow out there. There just a lot of basketball and football playing, I'm guessing,
016at the elementary school going on. Um, any questions for those adult volunteers? >> Okay. Uh, moving on to item F, approval of combined election agreement with Union County for the 20 26 election, Mr. Kosher. >> Yeah. Uh, last month you approved our agreement with Klay County for our upcoming election. Uh we do have registered voters in Union County as well. So we need to have this agreement um uh approved here as well tonight. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you. Um next up here then is item G, which is approval of early graduation request. >> We had uh an additional senior ask for this request. Uh you had done some earlier in the fall. Um, upon meeting with the the teachers and the parents and the counseling staff and Mr. Fry, uh, we've agreed to honor this
017request of met all the requirements. It just came in a little later than we normally would allow, but uh, otherwise has met the standards. So, uh, we're moving forward with a request to honor his early graduation request. Wonderful. >> How late is this about the latest we should be seeing these? Correct. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay, [laughter] >> thank you. >> It is the second semester. >> Okay. I mean about 4 days in, right? So, okay. All right. Thank you. >> Um and then next up here is item H is approval um to alter our parent teacher conferences here on February 13th. >> Yes. This is a a a new addition. This came in after our inservice on January 5th. Uh as you know when I reported um in December we were bringing in um compass
018learning to talk to our staff and do um sessions on um artificial intelligence. It was an item that our staff had requested at our fallin service uh and through our survey that was maybe an area that we could do some more work in. So, we brought in these experts from Rapid City area and they did a nice job of explaining how AI is is really a a tool for education, although it's, you know, that balance between a tool that's used to learn or a tool that could be used to maybe cheat on the system. Um, but either way, our staff have embraced the use of AI. Um, and our sixth grade team went a year ago to an AI training and sort of got the juices flowing. So um we brought this group in and
019after three and a half hours we found out we got all the things covered we wanted to but our staff had get received almost no time to work on those news newly acquired skills. So in talking with our administrative team we looked at our a time and a place that we could we could get time for our staff to work and really what came to light was that half day on February 13th which is the half day of parent teacher conferences. Uh while we value that and do not want to uh disengage any family member from coming to conferences, our Friday is pretty low attendance with families and our staff tend to be working on things or or collaborating where they can just waiting for a parent to come in. So we are asking that
020what we would do is uh we would take that half a day Friday and offer that as a workday for our staff to work on AI and some of those skills they learned from the the the that half day of inservice on January 5th. And in return we would ensure that people that were planning to come on that Friday would get to have a chance to have a makeup. they could do a phone conference with the teacher that week or the next or come in before or after school or uh the teacher could send him an email and say, "Hey, Johnny's doing great in in this area. You know, maybe a concern with spelling or whatever that might be." Um, our teachers do a really good job of talking to parents along the way with
021our other tools with parent square and Seesaw and the other things. So, I don't feel like we would be pushing parents away from parent teacher conferences. the opportunity would still be offered to to meet with teachers to do that. But what it would do is offer four hours for our staff to collaborate and work together because uh it's a skill that we want them to use and if they have to wait till May when we have our next teacher inservice break, uh they'll lost some of those potential skills. So uh so the ask is is that you allow me to just alter the calendar, get that communication out to parents tomorrow. gives us a full month as we're rearranging schedules to accommodate the parent needs for that and then we can also work with our
022staff about what's important to to accomplish that day. So that's the ask tonight. >> May I ask in return that you send out parent teacher signups this week because it's a month out and we haven't seen parent teacher signups yet. >> Can we ask that in return? >> I will do my best. I got to get the principles to see [laughter] we'll do what we can >> just because our staff schedules are already out for many employers. So, if you are going to start to change things like that, um we want to make sure that staff can or parents can get uh signed up and have that uh early advanced notice would be best. But otherwise, I think it's a great great use of our time. So, we always know and I don't know the
023statistics off to off my top of my head, but that spring Friday is always one of our lower ones that we've kind of already been debating upon the last couple years. Anyways, so thank you for bringing that to our attention. Good, good request. Um, since the next one here is a review of strategic plan, why don't we go ahead and make a motion items C through H, unless anybody has anything want to pull for further discussion. I don't have anything I want to pull, but can I just make a comment? >> I am looking at that list of volunteers and there are a lot of names on there. >> Did you count how many? >> Well, I think there's got to be close to 50. >> Is it okay? It's a significant >> and [laughter]
024it just also makes me think of it's been a while but at one point um you know I did um kind of ask about um you know the number of student teachers that we host in our district and the number of students who are in their school psychology program or their speech and language um program and it was a high number and so I know we we appreciate the the volunteers years. But I like that is a very um big commitment um that we take on in our district of hosting these um people who may be going into education so that they can get an early experience but as they continue on. So I just want to thank all the people that facilitate that because that's that's no small thing and a very valuable thing
025as we build up people in the field. So so thanks to all of those people who do that. Thank you for that, Carol. Any other comments, concerns? Now, I'll take a motion. Second. [laughter] Well, I'll take a motion here to approve items C C through H. First by Mark. >> Second by Jacob. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Uh, next up here, we'll take a few minutes here. We're going to review the strategic plan. Yes, Daniel, if you would go ahead and get us to I think it's the academics goal first. It is. Um, I just want to thank uh our all our staff for a second. Uh, you know, when when we went into this process about 18 months ago with with uh strategic planning. Uh, just
026to give everybody a little history, we had um surveys of staff and students uh of our community and of our administration and school board. And then those goals were placed into a big hopper and and and that group those groups got the opportunity to be led by an outside agency that talked and discussed those things. And after everything was sort of melted down together, we found out several goal areas. And one of them was academic, student behavior, and student supports, which you'll see in front of you now. I'll just take a minute to kind of kind of speed read through some of those to show you the progress that's going on. Some of them are are complete and we felt like we've done a really good job and gotten to the point where we could
027say that we've successfully completed that. Some are ongoing which you sometimes never really get to the end of a goal. It's just that you're working towards that end and and that's okay. And then some are still in their infancy stages with where we can still do some improvement. But um the first one there underneath that was teachers and principles and counselors will have meeting times at the high school to cover their postsecary opportunities and the principles counselors and teachers have started to work on that. And um the things they've been doing the last 12 months is you know the the counselors meet with students on credit completion making sure that they have their um um South Dakota My Life filled out starting as eighth graders to kind of guide their plan for high school. And
028then they review that annually every year with those kids so that they can find out that hey uh Johnny has stayed with his exact same plan since 8th grade. He knows what he wants to do as a senior. He's on course with those coursework. Or Johnny may have gone a completely different direction and we need to update his South Dakota my life plan because he no longer wants to be a vet. He wants to be a power linesman and that changes the pathway and coursework that he takes. Uh so our counselors, teachers, and principles are working hard to do that. And of course, we've added things such as the jobs for America's graduates program, the JAG program, who helps students that sometimes have never their parents have never gone to college perhaps, and they don't
029know all the loopholes and all the paperwork and all the things that might be uh obstacles to those. So, that JAG program has been designed and brought in through a grant the last two years now to help deal with students that are first generation college kids. And then of course we've continued to utilize our Google classrooms and uniform um displays and classroom platforms to try to make it common knowledge, common language. Um next one with staffs and students will review all their handbooks. Uh that's done at all levels through um staff meetings with staff to talk to them about u cell phone policy or grading policy or maybe there was a new policy or practice that's been brought up at a certain grade level. And so that is brought awareness through to the staff by
030the principles at those meetings. The same is done at different levels. U middle school, high school, they have grade level meetings where they actually go over handbook changes. At the high school level, they meet with each grade level uh at the beginning of the year and now quarterly each year. That's a change that's been made as a result of our strategic plan is they meet with them quarterly rather than just one time a year to continue to reutilize those those uh times with kids to to talk about things that might be important. Um and then it's also was a time to expand some things with our CNA program, our manufacturing technology programs and educators rising. another area that that principles and teachers will hold each other more accountable um to following rules and regulations. Um
031that was one that's just sort of an internal one where they said, "Hey guys, if if I see kids wearing hats in the building, I've got to address that in there. If I h if I'm not taking good attendance first period and the teach the kids aren't caught till second period, uh me as the first group first period teacher should you should have taken my attendance and gotten it to the office on time." we found out through this process that we probably had some room to improve there. So, just some collaboration between the principles on who's going to be asking those questions and who's going to be uh discussing them with teachers. Uh at inservice days, um principles in different buildings will be asking talking to teachers about different things about rule enforcement or you
032know at the elementary it's simple as playground rules making sure teachers are enforcing playground rules or hallway rules. uh similarly because kids will know the difference. Middle school and high school it only exasperates itself when a teacher or an administrator isn't consistent. So we talked about that and are trying to find ways to continue to be promote consistency. Um, we'll the next one was the the district will continue to partner with USD and uh, Carol just highlighted the fact that when we have this many volunteers coming from one organization, that goes to say that people are working hard to make that happen and we appreciate the the community partnerships with all of our partners, but USD is a is a really good partner there. Uh, just a few things there. We have high five Fridays
033at the elementary where you got athletes and people from the university high-fiving kids, welcoming them to school. Uh you've got your administrative team. We teach and do things at the university or we're invited in to speak on programming uh and classwork there. Of course, we have great student teachers, internship programs, and practicums with the university that that are thriving. Um I serve on three different councils at USD. Their advisory council, their professor professor hiring committee, and their teach committee. So that gives me an opportunity to get into the buildings at USD a lot. And then of course we get uh judges and practicums and tutoring from USD in a variety of places and and those are great things that once again don't happen in most communities because they don't have a university in their backyard.
034Uh so that I feel is one that we're really solid at. Uh number five was again is just another uh way of reating getting handbook changes out and that was just through our newsletters and class meetings and making sure we're just communicating any of those. The sixth uh goal there was to provide detailed information about transitioning between elementary to middle, middle to high school, St. Agnes to to uh our school. And so we have arranged visits for any of those guests that are moving up to those places. So principles will go down and meet with the those types of uh those groups of kids like Mr. Fry, Mr. Huska, actually go down to the eighth grade class and meet them. And then we bring the eighth graders up to the high school. Fifth grade obviously
035comes up to the middle school and visits the sixth grade and we invite St. Agnes over to visit the sixth grade as well when it's time for those kids to transition over. So we feel we're pretty solid at that one there as well. Um the changing of definition of FASA nights at the high school. That's one that's kind of an ongoing continuing. We had an event last year. We didn't change the name though. It was still under FASA. So I don't know if a rebrand is a good idea for that or not. They're working currently on the 26th. This spring there'll be a night where they invite post-graduate or parents of seniors to come in and learn about four-year universities, tech schools, and all the requirements for those those groups there. The eighth goal was
036talking about uh we would consider art at the K12 and all buildings. But I'll be honest, that continues to be a goal. Um uh but right now there's not it's really not in the cards to to hire a an art teacher at the middle school um with the with the um current constraints that are being placed on us at from the state level. Uh so what we're asking our principles to do and the teachers to do is there a creative way to create a schedule and we can use our current staff and offer those things at the middle school. This year, what we did as a a way to help um uh encourage more encors is we brought our CTE to the uh middle school. And so, Mr. Nitsky is doing uh woodworking projects and
037things at the middle school as a introduction. Um it's not really art uh traditional visual or um to that type of art, but it is another offering that's new to the middle school this year. Uh number nine, an overall review of the completed u inconsistency with the high school schedule. Um right now, basically the elementary, middle school, and high schools do still share some staff. That schedule does get a little wonky when we have early dismissals or we have a substitute teacher or whatever. So that just required more communication between the admin team in early planning when we can to fill those voids. The unexpected things, for example, at the high school that showed up on our survey were things that included um you know, we had to have a Tuesday schedule on a Thursday
038because of state tournament or whatever. That happens in high schools and it's it happens in every school in the state. There's not much that can be done about that if you want to keep your minutes consistent and if you want to make sure kids uh aren't short changed one of their groups of course offerings during the week. So the administrators are aware of that concern and trying to make consistent schedules, but uh for example, when we had the assembly this week with um with our um gentleman um Nick Tokman, that required a schedule change and it just has to be, you know, just flexible scheduling just has to be that way. Um and then the last one under that uh particular group of academics was consider offering additional life skills coursework embedded in the curriculum.
039So, and at at all levels, there's this is just something we've asked staff to think about. But, you know, at all levels, our elementary folks when they have those students all day long, they're teaching kids about math, but while they're talking about it, they're talking about the banker and they might be talking about uh the business manager or they might be talking about budgeting at home. At the middle school, it gets a little more in depth and and you know, when we're bringing in our JA or junior achievement partners, they are hitting a lot of these life skills like uh budgeting and uh things like that that sometimes people don't always know they're being taught in our schools, but they are being taught in our CTE programs and our business courses. You know, you're talking
040learning about interest rates and how to how to uh play the market, uh uh how to invest money. Those are real life skills. balancing a checkbook that comes in personal finance. Um, so those kids are learning some of those things. We've just asked our staff that wherever you can embed it in your curriculum, whether you're reading a book or if you're doing math or if you're doing spelling, there's chances to kind of take it one step further. But we do have it embedded into our coursework. So, that's one I think our staff have started to really put a a little bit of a light on, and I I think they're doing a great job with that. Um, continuing on, the next goal was on communication, district PR and culture. Teachers and administrators will provide a
041minimum of good works article for the newspaper or website annually. Uh, that's ongoing. Uh, some of you have seen some of the work that our teachers have put in either on our Facebook page. Uh, a few articles of the paper and a few things that have popped up on the website. Um, our adviserss are really pretty good at it. You know, you'll see our fine arts highlighted a lot and our co uh you know, our sports. We're still working on trying to get the academics things, but you notice pictures tonight in the board packet shows our spelling me winners. Um Nicole's done a great job on Facebook when teachers send them information about something that's going on um and and rewarding kids and even on our big board at the gymnasium at the high school.
042uh superintendent will consider holding minimum quarterly meetings for staff to update uh what's going on in the district. Uh last year I completed all four of those, one per quarter. I've done two uh this semester so far and of course there'll be one in the third and one in the fourth. Uh Mr. Kosher accompanies me from time to time and depending on the topic, you know, we just put out a feeler. If there's something you want us to talk about, we'll tailor our talk. Otherwise, we talk about whatever we feel is going on, which usually has to deal with budget or or, you know, tiffs or things that are just burning people's, you know, u minds about what's happening there. So, uh, but we really are serious about if there's something that the staff want
043us to talk about, we're happy to do so. Uh, teachers will do recognition notes home, uh, at least once per year for their classes. Uh, last year I saw a lot of those coming through the mail. We've encouraged more of that through um um our Seessaw and our parent square and things because the our our postal systems gone up to 78 cents a mailing so it's expensive but last year there was a lot of mailings going out. When we p first pushed this out our staff were lighting writing postcards. There's nothing like a handwritten letter. So we still encourage staff to do it but um they've kind of went to other things like email and some other things to make it happen. But our teachers have bought in the fact that it's really good to
044reward kids by telling mom and dad what they did was good. It comes really naturally at the elementary because it's just the way it works with everything that's going on there and middle school and high school have bought in. So you I've seen teachers that have done a really good job of it and but it's one that we got to continue to work on because we want every kid to get something during the year from their teacher. Um a state of the district newsletter from the superintendent. I did one last year. I've got one planned for this spring. So, um I try to incorporate them as as well with my group meetings when I go out and speak to the the Eagles or the Rotary or whatever else. Uh administration will identify a person or
045policy to ensure consistency in social media. Well, that's Nicole. We've we've really done a good job with that, I believe, where our teachers have sent things to Nicole and she gets it on Facebook almost instantaneously and then repeats it over time. So they get a good coverage of that as well as getting it on our website. So I think we're doing a pretty good job with that one. Communication consistency between grade levels um to helping parents because you've got kids in different buildings. So we've really tried to use parent square as our main communication device and you'll see a lot of our communications are with that. But at the elementary they still use Seessaw and that's that's pretty popular with most parents because it comes directly from the classroom teacher. when they see parent square,
046it can be any one of us from the administration group. So, um we've really kind of squeezed it down to just a couple main things which I think is helpful to parents. Um and now, um the board has asked us to try to do that with our coaches as well. So, we've got a pilot group of coaches that are doing winter sports with parent squared communication. So, that's ongoing. Still some work to do with that one. um teach uh the district will further recognize other achievements and do a better job of telling our story. Um that's an ongoing you know we're asking our our uh people to you know our boosters do a good job both music and um uh athletic and activity boosters do a great job of promoting kids with senior banners and
047uh recognition at at halftimes and during concerts and things. uh our Facebook announcements. We've had a few uh stories from Dave Lias in the paper on different events which I we appreciate his help. And then if you notice that uh each month our principles are writing a short blurb on on um parent square about happenings and the one at Christmas time was particularly long. It went through a lot of achievements. So, if you happen to look through that and made it to the bottom, there must have been a list this long of this person did this for oral and turban, this person got, you know, uh, show choir, this person got all state golf. It was quite a quite an impressive list. It just kind of recognizes the great things that our kids are doing.
048Um, and then I guess the last set of goals was uh data analysis and professional development. The district will consider an in-depth data retreat to continue to review truency rates and uh attendance rates and dropout rates. Um that happens bi-weekly at our principal administrative meetings, but um our school board has a summer and typical fall retreat uh that we would bring those things forward. Our our principles are going to have a retreat in April. Uh, as you know, we've met with the state's attorney and our school resource officers and our school counselors to talk about ways to deal with attendance issues and truency. Uh, so we we've really put a big light on that. Um, and but it still has some work to be done. Uh, the staff and administration will discuss and provide input
049on all past and future professional development opportunities. Uh, Mrs. Johnson does a great job with that. She has reinstituted the curriculum committee that we'd had over the years and then it kind of got uh last three or two or three years it just sort of fell apart when people came and went. Well, she's reinstituted that and they they are helping plan the the the the fall inservice and the winter in services that we have. Uh and then we send out a survey trying to find out if there's something that was missed or something we could do better. And that's hopefully will drive future inservice needs is once we hear from staff on that. And the last couple things under that goal would be uh the administration will consider reconvening the internal um groups that were
050specific to making this particular document. Uh we we may not be able to get that entire group back the original group. We will uh at the end of this year bring a group back of con of consern concerned uh teachers, staff, board members, community members so we can show the public besides just tonight what we've accomplished and what we can continue to work on. And then next year will be kind of the final year of this one. We would hope that we at the end of a year from now we'd be looking at doing this process again. Some of these goals may remain goals ongoing. Some will say let's move on to something else. And so that's what that group would be in charge of. And uh considered professional development uh uh in the area
051of block scheduling. We talked about at our high school level. So Mr. Fry is bringing in a guest speaker on 4x4 block schedules at the fall in service. A 4x4 block is basically the modified block that we use. And um it's been a long time since our staff have had any training on it. Some of our veteran staff have been uh with it so long and they remember the early days. Vermillion was one of the first schools to initiate that and kind of led that charge years and years ago. Uh, however, we've changed in a lot of staff. So, we've got a lot of new staff that aren't familiar with that block and and they have to learn it kind of on the fly. So, uh, hopefully we'll do a really good job this fall
052of of helping them understand what a 4x4 block looks like and how to use the time uh, for the benefit of kids. Uh, formal mentoring program to encourage first and second year teachers. We jumped on board with that. Uh we have assigned uh in local mentors for any new staff member in our building and we've also continued to participate in the state's mentoring program which they get paid for that. Our local mentors don't receive any any pay for their contributions to the profession but if they participate in the state level they do earn money for that. And finally, the last one on that that section was principles and teachers will discuss a more consistent use of student referral system to better track and monitor behaviors and needs. Um so what we did is we've sat
053down at one of our admin meetings and they went through um the infinite campus system. Our our data monitoring system has some bells and whistles that we were using at different capacities. One administrator was putting every single thing in about a student. It was documented. it was there for the next person to see. Others were taking handwritten notes, putting in a in a different place and wasn't always following the student. So once we heard that and once we looked at this goal, we said, "Well, well, let's get together and talk about our tier one, tier 2 kids. Let's talk about uh maybe they've been suspended for a reason. Maybe we've had parent meetings. Maybe they've had an extended illness that led to this this issue that we're having." All of those things are now being
054put into the system. So from elementary to middle to high school, it follows. It's got a running document that allows uh everyone to see the history of these students, whether it's attendance, illness, their grades, um guardianship, maybe they've been in foster care. So, those things are pretty important for everybody to know. And now we've unified the the front on that. And uh so we've done a good job of accomplishing that goal. So, uh, we wanted to make sure I know the board asked us to take a look at this because it's been, you know, six or seven months since you heard about any of these goals. Uh, but it really I think we've done a nice job. There's still some things to work on naturally, but I'm proud of the the the effort that our
055staff and our administration has put into it and feel really good that we've made some nice nice changes that hopefully you've noticed as patrons in the district or board members or parents where you've seen some of those things yourself or heard about them yourself. So, um, that was just kind of our review tonight of the the district strategic plan. >> Thank you. I um [laughter] it has been a while, but there certainly are topics that I know were brought up the you know, how familiar are are we using our block scheduling in the best way or are we um you know, utilizing um what we what we have and how we've worked with a student and is that being passed along. So, it is nice to hear some of these topics that were discussed and
056and see how that how they've been addressed. So, thank you for that. I guess I'm interested like um I know that this is still in play like are there as we go forward and looking at future strategic plans? Are there lessons learned that of you know how you might go about this process in the future? >> That's a great question. Um would we need to spend money and hire an outside consultant? Um the very first one like we did I think was really wise because it sets the model and the structure for for doing it. Could we take this particular model and replicate it ourselves now that we have it? We probably could. and you know, but sometimes the outside voice is a good voice because um they're running the meetings. It's them asking the
057pointed questions. It's them inviting the people to the to the table. So, uh we could have that discussion on how it look, but um I'm really glad that we hired an outside agency to run this for us the first time. The lessons learned were kind of suspected. A lot of the things on there are things that we hear from our staff. It just showed up in a written form. and when it's written, >> it gets addressed better than if you just hear it. So that is nice that it's put down because you're held accountable when you see it on paper. We got to check the box that we've done something with it. Um and so that is is good. And then secondly, I think the process was really good. Um students had an opportunity, parents,
058community members that don't really have anything to necessarily do with the internal works of the school. They're still taxpayers, they're still patrons, and then know naturally schoolboard staff and administration. Uh, I think that's a wise group to follow up and do again because they are our caret, you know, our our patrons, our our um people that we we're either taking care of or they're they're they're doing things in our community that that we need to be replicating. So, so yeah, I I I think this the system itself is set up for us to to replicate it again. And if he chose to hire it, do it again, I was completely satisfied with the outcomes of this one. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> Perfect. Um, if we got a breather, you ready to go?
059I got a drink here. Okay, I'm good to go. >> I can change the order, but we already approved the agenda. So, if you want to go ahead, uh, Dr. Elli, for your superintendent report. >> No, lot lots of good things to report. I I don't mind having a long report with that because it's always good stuff. Last month, we talked a lot about those groups that have been helping us with um getting things for needy kids. It started back in October. Well, really earlier than that when the government had their shutdown, um we had people that stepped up to help kids get food and get other items because moms and dads might have had some struggles. Well, that continued into the Christmas season like it always does and still continues today actually. But we
060had organizations that donated to our kids and to our families around the Christmas time. Specifically, the the St. Agnes Knights of Columbus, they always have a coat drive where we get brand new coats from that group uh every year. the the Sous City Elks Club gave us boxed food for families. So they they came way up here out of Sous City and and and helped some folks in our district. The PEO, which is a local student group, gave student gifts. We had the Shop with a Cop event, which gave kids that that might need some gifts under the Christmas tree, an opportunity for that. We had a Bad Habit Boutique who donated coats to the kids, um which is pretty cool. Claire's uh gave accessories that some, you know, kids that would like to get
061earrings and other accessories. They had opportunities for that. Uh Trinity Lutheran donated blankets to the to the school to give to kids and families that might be in need at the this time of year. We had some anonymous donors that gave bath and body works and hygiene products. Um and then of course um uh just the things that our staff do, you know, our staff donate every year to kids and to uh the giving tree and and to things like that. So, what a great warming time for the for the Christmas season that these these families were taken care of by by our our school district and our our partners in the in the community. I wanted to also thank the Vermillion Public School Foundation for bringing Nick Tokman in. He was uh he's a
062cast member from The Deadliest Catch. If you ever watch the the crab fishing show on TV, uh he came into the middle school and high school and talked about one resiliency cuz he talked about his childhood and you know kind of a abnormal uh upbringing and just kind of a rough life and didn't know what he wanted to do and and nobody to guide him and and he was resilient. But he also talked about um making good decisions and just the fact of um there's a lot of challenges and a lot of things in life that could drag you down whether it's you know uh it could be drugs or alcohol. It could be a bad relationship. It could be u family issues but find an adult find a structure that will support you and
063go after your dreams. And he was a he was a wild guy. He he had a lot of energy on that stage and even got Mr. for Friday to get up and dance in front of the high schoolers. So, you know, to do that, it shows you he had some energy. So, that was good. Um, we wanted to congratulate one of our ninth grade students, uh, Adeline Botliffson. Uh, she is one of 17 students in the entire state of South Dakota who received a perfect score on the South Dakota Science Assessment last year as an eighth grader. um what an outstanding uh uh score, but also just a great student and tells you the good things that are going on, you know, with her as a student, but things going on in our elementary, middle
064school that she was ready for that test. And um so we have a letter for her and of course they'll recognize her at the high school and at some future events here as well. Uh we're working with Mayor Cole to um work with uh uh offering a mayor for the day event. You know, a few months ago, I came to the city council. He had pitched that to the city council. They absolutely thought that was a great idea. The students at the eighth grade will get an opportunity to write a an essay about uh student government or about government and then some group will uh actually uh do a a contest to say who was the winner of that essay contest and they'll get to work with Mayor Cole for the day at the school
065at the uh uh city hall here. So that we're looking forward to seeing that happen this spring at some point. uh just for committee work here at the uh at the board level. Of course, finance committees coming up at the end of the month and negotiations will be getting um going strong um at the next uh middle of the next month or so. Um, I have extended on the board's behalf a letter to the uh an email to the VA saying, "Hey, it's that time of year that we will be getting together and it looks like that March 9th would be the Monday um before spring break would be the time that we could have that first initial meeting that's required by the negotiated agreement." So, uh, our negotiators will get a personal invitation for
066that. Uh just a reminder for all the folks in the uh audience and the ones at home or our board, if you've got a teacher or classified person from our district that you know is doing great work and you want to honor them, uh you can go on our website and get the teacher of the year nomination form or the classified employee of the year nomination form and write a little bit about what's uh makes that staff member special. And uh over the course of the next month, we will get those together and then eventually we will whittle that down to u an honore from each building uh which you the board will honor at the end of the year at the end of the year awards as well as a district teacher of the
067year. So uh everybody's encouraged to find a teacher or an employee that's doing something special and reward them with a nomination. We always have good ones. Um, basically Daniel, if you could put our pictures up, uh, the we're looking at, uh, we do have our restroom projects done at the middle school and the elementary school. So, we wanted to make sure you had an opportunity. I know our building committee has seen this. This is the uh, uh, north end of the middle school. It's up by the um, science rooms. If you're familiar with that building, this building, if you're looking through, this used to be a girls restroom. Um, and what we did was we put three individualized stalls in there. Um, and of course a wash station and things. And the one on the
068far left door there on the bottom right picture is a handicap accessible large space there that if we had to uh put a changing table and other amenities in there, we have that capability there. But now that end of the building has restrooms finally. Um, these are the elementary restrooms. This is this is the newly constructed wall right outside the auxiliary gym near the boiler rooms right before you get into the middle school. And it's just an example of the uh the entrance going in. You go right or left. Left goes girls. Right is the boys. The picture on your top left there is the boys restroom. But the girls restroom is obviously looks almost exactly the same. Has three stalls. Uh great lighting, great flooring. Uh the project really came out very very nice.
069and the middle bathroom there uh uh is a handicap accessible uh unisex restroom there. So, both of those are much needed additions that the board gave permission to work on over the last uh long time and now we're finally done and uh get get good use out of those for our kids and our uh it'll be particularly nice when the soccer tournaments and basketball tournaments are held at the elementary school. That bathroom there will be really a great place, great location. Is it just used non-stop at lunchtime? >> It is. Yeah. Now the kids don't have to walk clear down to the to the halfway through the building to get to the bathrooms, too, because inevitably it gets contagious at elementary lunch and when somebody goes, everybody's got to go. >> Um, >> and Walker
070Construction did both of those projects. >> Walker did both of those. Yep. So, thank him for his good work. >> Yes. Especially for getting the middle school ones. >> Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Um, the next thing on there is is there's been some asks about, hey, what are we doing with Finland? I haven't heard much about that this fall. We intentionally took the fall off with our our transform ed projects. Um, basically the next phase is coming up in the next few weeks. What we are doing this year is uh we we've kind of decided to go with a smaller scale project that we've still encouraged teacher collaboration between grade levels. So your kids might have said, "Hey, the third grade class was partnering with the seventh graders for some writing project for some reason." it
071it wasn't necessarily geared towards transform ed. It was just another tool that the Finnish use which is collaboration and getting cross uh age groups together and and and working on those skills. So we've been doing that in the fall but we're really pushing now in the next couple weeks a smaller scale project where kids will work mostly on individual um wants and needs um of their own. And it kind of falls in line with what's called the LetGrow project. And let Grow is basically a project where you challenge kids to do things that they haven't done before. Um, in this new f phone based world we live in, kids spend less time in play-based worlds, like hanging out outside with their friends, walking to the store by themselves, getting to go to the playground and
072hang out. they're often um supervised by mom and dad at home or put in front of a a device and now kids are missing some of those skills. So, let go. Ask kids, find something you want to do. You might be a fourth grader that's never made pasta at home. Well, we're going to ask mom and dad to let you make pasta. Maybe you're a seventh grader and you are want to take on your first babysitting jobs. Well, what do you got to do to get yourself into the babysitting world? You know, should you take first aid? And how would you advertise that? and and what what what would you do and how will you do it? So, you're going to hear us talking to kids and some of this will be collaborative group effort
073where we get a bunch of kids together that want to do the same thing and they'll have be encouraged to work together and collaborate and communicate and things like you've seen in our previous projects, but a lot of it will be individual skills. What does Damon want to do for the Let Grow project? And and then what do we do? We've got to plan for it. We've got to execute it. And then you've got to come back and report on it. So that's what's going to be coming out in the coming weeks. Still talks about transversal skills, communication, working together, teamwork, uh all the things that we've talked about the last two years with the Friendland projects. Uh this will be an extension of that. It'll just look different this year. And by intention, we
074did not want to uh do another year of transforming kids across transporting them across the district. This year, we decided to give everybody a a break from from uh monthly trips to another school. And I I think that was sort of appreciated because it was a it's took a lot for teachers to do that. And so we took a year off intentionally, but we do think this will have great value as well. So more to come on that. Um couple things that are coming up in uh the next month or so. Um the middle school summer school program proposal. You're going to hear uh Mrs. Sanderson and I talk a little bit about um working with our teachers uh to develop a little bit more accountability at the middle school. You've heard us talk a
075little bit about the attendance. You've heard us talk a little bit about how um potentially kids aren't achieving to the maybe the level they should and then being promoted to the next grade level. And are we really preparing kids for their futures if we're letting them go to the next grade level um not completely prepared? How can we get that back and reel that in? And one of the things that Mrs. Sanderson has has worked on in her previous world was summer school experiences at the middle school level, not only the high school level like we use it, but bringing it down to the middle school level where students have to make up some time and they have to make some um improvement in their grades to be promoted to the next level. And so
076there's some things we have to work out in terms of costs. What does it look like? uh engagement, how do you get kids there, how do you get buyin from parents, and we'll hope to answer those questions for you in the coming month, and then have a formal proposal for you because this will be something that's new at the uh middle school and does cost money naturally. Uh at the high school, we pay two teachers to come for six weeks to work with kids on credit recovery. And that's what gets some of our kids through school and gets them to stay on course with their cohort or to graduate because we have seniors that sometimes have to come back and finish a class or two. And so it's valuable and it gets kids prepared. We'd
077like to maybe consider moving that down to the ele or the middle school. And we'll we'll gather your feedback in the next month about that. And finally, the last couple things. Um, we did uh uh continue to work on our attendance matters campaign. You've heard me talk about that this fall. Uh, we continue to sew the importance of attendance with parents and families. Our principles are meeting with students that are maybe having um attendance concerns and talking to parents. What obstacles are in the way? Is it is it a ride that's been missed? Is it do we have to come pick up your child? Do you need a bus pass? Uh, is it something that we can help out with? And and we've done that. We've we've sent people to go to houses and help
078get kids there and uh we've bought alarm clocks for kids. We've made phone calls. Um but the the the the main thing is is that our staff will get kids to do good things if we can get them in school. And that's the message. So we surveyed our staff and asked about where are the tr the problem areas at the elementary, middle school, and high school. How can we address those kids? If it's the kids issue, like middle school, high schoolers, we'll deal with the kids specifically on that with parents. Often at the elementary, it's it's it's a parental issue or some obstacle that we have to overcome. But we got some good information from our our parents um on some of those. Our staff have been wonderful with trying to support those kids when
079they come back. Uh we've done that PSA with USD, you know, the commercials that you've seen. We've done social media platforms. So, we really want people to know that we want to be uh a partner in this. Uh but ultimately, we have to get kids to school. You can't miss 20 days of school, you know, one ninth of your career in a year and expect to be proficient and go on and do good things the next year. Uh you're going to have some lag there. So, we're working really hard on that. Um so, there'll be some more to talk about in the coming months there. And then my last thing was we wanted to honor a gentleman tonight. If I could find my Could I use yours? Thank you. We had um the honor tonight
080of or actually this week we received a South Dakota Forensic Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee plaque uh for a former teacher of ours. We had a teacher uh by the main uh the name of Don Doesh who was a teacher here in the 70s. Ended up retiring from Vermillion or leaving Vermillion in the 19 in 1979 after being u debate coach of the year for the state of South Dakota. And then he opened up a business in Sou Falls and then his family moved to New York uh where he unfortunately he had passed away last year. But the South Dakota Forensic Group um recognized that during the 70s, Vermillion had a very robust and healthy uh forensics or debate club and we still do. Uh however, this gentleman uh was nominated and received a
081Hall of Fame induct induction and we received this plaque in the mail uh this week for that. So, we will make sure that we get a hold of Don's wife and let her know and we'll probably proudly display this in our uh where our hall of fame and our other awards are for our uh our fine arts and our um debate groups as well as our activities groups. So, Don Doash uh 1970s teacher, debate coach from Vermillion was honored just this uh last well in the last couple weeks. So, that was pretty cool. So, lots of good things happening in the Vermillion School Districts this last month. So, >> thank you. Uh, we can move on then to uh the school board. Any committee reports? It's kind of been Christmas break. So, [laughter] but looks
082like we have a few coming up here as well. Finance negotiations. Um, anything with the public school foundation? Um, >> uh, no, they did not have a December meeting, so they do have one scheduled for sometime this month. >> Boosters. When is is the booster announcer hall of fame? >> Yes. >> Is that April? End of April, right? Is it going to be back? Not at the high school this year. >> It's planning to be out at the Dakota Center Pizza Ranch in April >> 24th. 25th that weekend. Okay. Yep. April 25th, 5:00. >> Perfect. I believe too we have a benefit coming up for a teacher next week as well. >> Yep. We're doing a a nice little tribute to Gabby um Tagert uh Tiner in our elementary school. And so we are doing
083an event with Elk um Elk Wing, which will be kind of a >> u tough or teal is tough. I don't remember the name of the event, but basically both teams will be wearing uh matching um warm-ups and then there'll be a bake sale and there'll be uh food and things as well as uh things that will be auctioned off and with the proceeds going to Gabby. And so yeah, I want to thank all the people that have been in charge of that, the boosters and uh the teachers at the elementary and of course uh Heidi over at Bunions, all those same group that continually look out for community members are in charge of that event as well. I think that's next next Tuesday, right? >> Yep. El Point Jefferson here. >> Wonderful. Okay. Um
084anything else then we can move on to our financial reports. Um item A funds, Mr. Kosher. >> Yeah. Uh financial report in your packet again this month. Um really don't have a lot to highlight. This is the halfway point of the current fiscal year. Um so just wanted to report that you know everything uh related to our original budget is pretty well online. The one you know unfortunate exception there is is our student number was a little bit lower than we anticipated and that does have uh an impact both on this current year's budget but also planning for the future. Um but outside of that um everything's pretty well in line with where we had planned it and uh we'll continue to move forward. >> Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Kosher? Not I would
085take a motion to approve the funds. >> First by Jacob. >> Second by Carol. All in favor say I. >> I. Same sign. Motion passes. Uh any future agenda items. I People have been asking me about driver's ed. It's probably about that time here that Mr. Settles comes in February, March, right? >> Yeah. It's usually during his budget [laughter] season that he'll come talk to us when we're doing negotiations. So I expect at any time we'll be hearing about that. >> I think those uh 13 14 year olds are getting anxious. So [laughter] um and then can we look at a census report too to see where we're at for the first six months just to see what folks came back here in January from break. Um then I was also curious for communication um
086just some stats on Facebook. I just was curious to see what uh Nicole's getting for how many followers she has or likes. Um and then like kind of maybe vice versa with parent square just to see 6 months in how is that going. Um I thought we were going to have a rash of snow for a while. Um but just a little bit how the early dismissals and that works with parent square and our other dismissals but >> absolutely >> just some see how it's using. We reported at the I suppose it was October Rotary meeting that data on Facebook and it was >> it was just unbelievable how many followers we have and how many times things are shared again how that just gets replicated and then there was three or four different countries
087that we were we were popular in or at least had had a few guests in. I don't know if people were visiting or if they're relatives or what, but >> or don't you think our foreign exchange students maybe >> never thought it could be a foreign exchange just went back. >> Yeah, we'll get that >> Finland. Yeah, maybe Finland friends. >> Well, we know the Finland folks follow us for sure. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Any other future agenda items? >> All right, seeing none, um we are in need our future board meetings here um coming up are February 9th and March 9th right before uh spring break. Uh we are in need of an executive session um for negotiations and personnel uh 1-25-2 and 1-25-2-4. So I would go ahead and take a motion to
088enter executive session. >> First by Mark, second, >> second by Jacob. We are now in executive session at 8:04. Thank you.