001I call this meeting here to order on November 10th at 700 p.m. Uh, Mr. Kosher, would you please take roll call? >> Olsson >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> Skelton >> here. >> Voss Ward >> here. >> Wigger >> here. >> All present. >> Great. Thank you. Please rise and join me for the 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. >> I should have had our littlest guests out there lead that for us. I apologize, Mr. Camden and Mrs. Marlo. Um, this evening here, we'll start off with visitors to be heard. We have taner happenings for the high school science Olympia. I believe it's Zach and Katie.
002Go ahead and please come forward. >> Yeah, take it away. Um, we'd like to request that Science Olympiad gets to be a club because I think it's really important to uh produce uh interest in science with how fast it's evolving in our society. And it is really important in places like South Dakota where maybe there's not that many other options for them to go do science related activities. And we have a lot of interest at our high school. >> And if the club is accepted, I would be the treasurer of the club. And currently we have, I'm pretty sure 16 members that are committed to representing the high school as a science Olympia team. And I believe that science Olympia should be a club because as Zach said, we have a lot of interest. And
003it's good for anybody wanting to learn more about science or anybody wanting to go into like a field of science. So I feel like since in high school you're trying to find like what you want to become and who you want to be, like if you want to explore science and if that's your thing, you can like do the club and like explore it more. >> Wonderful. Any questions here for Zach or Katie? Can you tell me a little bit about the activities that the club does and does it include a competition? >> Yeah, so we would go to competitions. Um, apparently they tend to be hosted at USD despite Vermillion not having a team. >> Mhm. >> Um, so it would be things from like every area of science. There's a chemistry lab where
004they would give you like an objective and you have to design an experiment to find that. Um there's like robotics applications and medical applications >> and like there are many different like subjects you can compete in and in at the competitions it's usually like it's usually not solo activity usually you're usually with like your other teammates. So it also like you compete alongside your friends and you can like adapt a lot. >> Very nice. Thank you guys. >> At this time also if we have any other visitors who would u may 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 and I do ask that you refrain from
005listening student by name or any personnel by name. Is there anyone else who would like to address the board? Seeing none, uh we'll move on to our agenda here. Um first up here we have agenda change agenda changes. Dr. Elby. >> Uh there is no changes. >> Wonderful. Um hearing that, I would take a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Well, first by Carol, second by Jacob. All those in favor say I. I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Next up here we have indication of conflict of interest per Southakota South South Dakota codified law 3-23. This is Rachel and I have none. >> This is Carol and I have none. >> This is Jake and I have none. >> This is Mark and I have none. >> This
006is Ryan and I have none. >> Wonderful. U moving on here we have our consent agenda. We have approval of our minutes resignation new hire um bills and open enrollment. We have um our meeting minutes from October 14th. Resignations Ashley Newman, admin assist at the middle school. Alyssa Brit, sped aid, new hire, Mercedes Hoffman, sped aid, Libby Sikkes, and Daniel Herrera, head debate coach. Would anything like to be pulled from the consent agenda? >> We have one more. Oh, I apologize. Taylor Berley or is that for a volunteer? >> Sorry. >> Oh, she's a volunteer. Okay. Wonderful. So, what I have mentioned here, um, anything like to be pulled from the consent agenda. Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve. >> So, move >> first by Mark. >> second by Ryan. All those
007in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Next up here, we are not in need of any unfinish finished business. So, moving along, we will head on to new business item A, which is approval of our adult volunteers. We do have several this evening. Alyssa Barlet um with uh Mrs. Whistler, Gage Palmier, girls basketball, Gina Mlin, Amelia Long, Mattea Yellow Mule, Carly Stan, Kinsey Lyman are all with Trinity Red Day, and then Taylor Beverly with the same group as well. >> Yes. Wonderful. Um I think we have several here that we could do as one motion. Looking ahead. Um looking ahead to item B, we have approval of our high school science olympiad trust and a agency accounts. Uh Mr. Kosher. >> Yeah, the students came up here and gave you
008a little bit of information about um high school science olympiad. Uh this would be to uh take action to open a trust and agency account for that. any fundraising that they would do, the revenue would go into that account and then they would be able to use that uh account for any expenditures that they would need for the club. Um there are certain rules just like uh we discussed last month with educators rising. There are certain rules that we have to have in place. They have to have bylaws and uh record meeting minutes, have officers and all of those things. and the uh group does intend to uh to uh follow all those rules and and we recommend that they do pass this. >> Excellent. Any questions? Maybe for the group here, we could go
009ahead and give them a motion for item uh A through B. >> So moved. >> All right. First by Mark, second, >> second by Jacob. All those in favor say I. I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Congratulations. >> [laughter] >> Um, next up here then we have item C, which is approval of early graduation request. >> We had uh one that came in late from last month. Last month you had uh approved four students. Uh, this gentleman, Remy Wood, also qualifies for the early December um, senior graduation. >> Wonderful. Congratulations. Um then next up here we have item D which is approval of board policy reading 32 school meal program and meal changes changes. >> Yeah I'll go ahead. >> Yep. I'll let the policy committee go ahead and discuss that. >> Okay. Uh
010yes we discussed this um last week in the curriculum and policy meeting. Uh so policy 312 uh entitled school meal program and meal charges. uh we under the meal charge policy we are currently uh using some language twice and because of the order of that language it's a little bit confusing. So we are um currently uh saying that if a student is has no funds available to pay for a meal they will get the uh five courtesy meals um but that actually comes after charging meals on account to a negative $25. Basically, we would just be striking that first reference to the courtesy meals. Um, which would then put that sequentially after the the charging meals, which is the order that it actually occurs. So, I think by just striking simply striking this and combining
011points A and B into one, uh, it will just clarify the policy. So, no, no meaningful change to how it would be implemented, but just a point of clarification. It's a good reminder too on your infinite campus that you can set your notifications too on when you want to be notified for when your kiddos are taking down your dollar. So if you want to be notified when they get down to $20, $10, etc. So it's a good reminder. >> I actually didn't know that. I I I get those reminders about once a >> or if [laughter] you have it set and then maybe the summer starts and you don't want to get an email every week in the summer that your kids are at $10, you can also change that notification in infinite campus. >>
012Good to I'm not the expert, but I know the administration team is expert at helping you through that if you need help on that. But, um, thank you the policy committee for reviewing that. Any questions? Wonderful. Um, I believe the next one is just a, um, conversation. So, we can move to approve item C and D. Take a motion to approve. >> I will move. >> Uh, first by Ryan, >> Second by Carol. All in favor say I. I post him sign motion motion passes. Next up here we have our final fall enrollment. >> Uh as we talked about in the past, our fall enrollment comes out the last Friday. That's the la uh that's the date that the state grabs our infinite campus um information and the the students that we have enrolled at
013that point become ours for the year. And uh whoever comes and goes after that point, it's just sort of kind of moot. We get paid for the students in the seats on that date. This year, our fall enrollment count was uh 1,35.81. Uh the 081 are our part-time kids, the kids that are maybe taking one or two classes with us. Kids that we're providing services for over at St. Agnes get lumped in with uh with seats in our district. So, uh that is down um from where we budgeted ourselves this year. Um unfortunately for two years in a row uh we've lost about 80 students in this last two years. So about uh 35 40 this year and about 40 last year. So that will cause us some um debate this spring when we're bu
014building budgets and things. Uh so we'll be talking about that of course with finance and um personnel and committees and all those folks involved throughout the year and keep everybody informed. But uh we've got 1,35.81 81 students in the district this year. >> Thank you. U moving on here, we have our reports. Uh Dr. Elie, if you want to start off. >> You bet. Uh just wanted to first say thank you to a bunch of groups. Again, um you know, this time of the year, we have a lot of people that help us get things done around the district. Uh and USD is one of those. They send over students from many departments whether it's a school of ed or the athletics or the nursing department or the oral uh or the uh hygiene the
015the dental hygienist groups. Uh sometimes they're there to help tutor or read the kids. Sometimes they're just high-fiving kids on the way into the buildings and getting them excited for school. Uh but we've had a lot of those uh groups from USD. So we wanted to thank them uh and those particular groups because it's it's really neat to have them around. but also want to thank the athletic department in particular because they helped invite our students to the USD Air Force women's basketball game last week. Um, and I think that it was a great experience for our kids and for our staff to go. And you know, you can see in the picture there, uh, what it doesn't do justice for is when the kids had the opportunity to sing and dance. And, uh, when
016the score hits 67, you can imagine what was going on with the kids in the audience. But they really played along great. And, uh, thank to to our staff who helped make that happen because it's not easy to take a thousand kids from elementary, middle school, and St. Agnes across town to that to the to the um Kyle student center or the athletic center and and and have a couple hour field trip. So uh to help make that happen though, Walmart donated 920 bottles of water uh to the cause because our kids had to either bring their lunch or bring a school lunch and of course they needed to have water and things to go with that. So Walmart stepped up and they heard that we needed some waters and so I wanted to thank
017Walmart for their donations with that as well. Uh other things that are on our kind of on our radar right now is some of the election um data and changes that came out as a result of some state law changes this spring have um Mr. Kocher and I are kind of working with other departments in the state to talk a little bit about what the election calendar looks like. It uh our the election calendar for Vermillion doesn't change much because we've always held our elections in June. Uh so if our school boards were always in conjunction with a citywide or countywide election or we on odd years we'd hold it ourselves if we had a vacancy. Uh so uh the state law didn't really impact us that way. One thing that we're paying attention to
018is um did it change the listing of schoolboard vacancies. We typically open those up in January and then had a February and March uh type of time frame where somebody was applying for school board and then they they would um have an opportunity to petition in to uh get on the ballot and then they could be voted in of course uh later on. However, um we we've heard now the election changes uh might cause us to put post our vacancies in December for our school board election for the following spring, late spring. So, uh, that will be coming. That'll be more information coming out, but just so you're aware that we're working on that behind the scenes. Uh, parent teacher conferences were held last month and we had our attendance rate at the elementary was
01986%. Uh, which is pretty close to typical for them. Our, uh, middle school sixth grade was 65, 7th grade was 62, and our eighth grade was 39%. And that's not far off from what their averages are. and down a little bit for us for the fall in service was our high school with about 27% attendance rate there. So, um you know, we'll have another opportunity to talk with folks in the uh parent teacher conferences in the spring, but I would encourage any parents at any time that they have concerns or even staff to make sure they're communicating those concerns back and forth. And we have a uh one of the reasons we think that maybe our numbers dip a little bit is because we are doing what I would think is probably a better job
020than ever communicating. We've got more platforms to communicate with moms and dads. Infinite Campus is back and forth between um concerned parents and teacher. So, lots of times teachers have gotten information long before parent teacher conferences and might feel, you know, I already I just talked to a teacher last week. I don't feel a need to talk to them again this week. So, um hopefully everybody's walking away feeling communicated with is the is the point there. Um along those same lines, you've probably seen our efforts. uh attendance has been a concern that we've been talking about really over the last couple years statewide, but particularly here in our own district. And so what we've done is we've talked about um you know, we've probably seen some yard signs around the schools, uh specific messages going
021home about the importance of attendance, maybe something on our um electronic message boards outside the schools, things like that. Um what you will see coming out in the near future is a partnership with USD um the coyote um creations class there uh came over and they've videotaped and are making a commercial of our kids at our high school, middle school and elementary. Uh the filming is done. Now the hard part for the college kids is to edit that down to a 30 to 60 minute commercial which will uh showcase the importance of attendance. And so at this point uh they're working on that. It's something you're going to continue to see as a a line of focus from from the district is uh we firmly believe if we can get kids in our buildings and
022get them in front of our great teachers, we will get them through, which is our ultimate goal. But right now, we do have um kind of that 11 days of school that's missed is sort of our threshold. That's when we start to to be talking to mom and dads about the the potential for truency charges or other things. Uh between there, we've had multiple opportunities to have letters and communications with moms and dads. If it's a a problem with uh getting kids to and from school, we've given out free bus passes with help of the uh the angel fund at the district level from the foundation. um we've had kids that didn't have alarm clocks or things like that and we found donors and opportunities to help that. So the point of the conversations is
023to tell take away any obstacles kids might be facing to get them to school. Providing breakfasts and lunch opportunities for those kids is extremely important. But what we did find is right now we've got about 10 students at our elementary that have missed 11 or more days and on this trajectory they're going to be on par to miss over 35 days of school. A month and a half of their 9-month education could be impacted. Now that's worst case scenario naturally and we hope that we've we've intervened and been able to solve that long before that. But that's why it's so important to us is because if you're missing 35 days of school it's going to have an impact on you. At our middle school, we have 18 students that have missed 11 or more days
024at this point. And at our high school, we've have 46 students who've missed 11 or more. Um, now, some of those are related to illness or other things that are beyond a student's um um potential to correct, but some of them are not. And so, our goal is to work with our teachers and our parents so that we can help get those kids into school and take away the obstacles. So, you'll hear more about that. Uh, our cell phone update. Just wanted to to just again report to the board um administration of of the policy and practice continues to go well. The book study with our administration. We talked about it last Friday and kind of talked about some of the stats that we've read in the book. Some of the impacts that the the
025author talks about with long-term impacts on students and how we feel like our transition to this is is really meeting the needs of the district at this point. Um, basically, uh, at this point, you know, the board has had some opportunities to start reading that book and we'd welcome a coffee and conversation at any time that you wanted to visit with the principles or our staff about that because I think it's going going really really well and we want to thank our kids for for helping us with that. Um, I just wanted to report to the board that I will be at a educa education commission of the states conference uh that first week of December. This is that appointed position by Governor Rhoden that I had mentioned to you guys in the fall. We'll
026have our first set of meetings coming up in December and I'll keep you posted on that. And finally, uh just some dates here. Of course, we're really excited to present the Veterans Day program at the high school tomorrow at 10:00. If you haven't seen it on social media or in the newspaper, uh our our people at the high school do an outstanding job of of really recognizing and thanking the veterans that come. And it's really powerful for me to watch those young people get up and talk about essays or or sing or do some sort of tribute to the folks in the audience and to watch the older folks. Usually it's an older generation that attends to see the appreciation on their faces and then when they go back and have coffee and cookies afterwards
027and tell stories, they're so appreciative of of the school district honoring that tradition of the Veterans Day. So, I want to thank the the board for continuing to allow us to mark that important day with that event. I think the community really appreciates it. Um, tomorrow, uh, on the 12th, we have Angelina Boly. She Boly, she's a Native American author who's coming to the middle school and to the high school to the, uh, high school heritage class to talk about a recent book she's uh, written and talk to, uh, kids about the importance of, uh, native authors, native artists. And I we're looking forward to that this week as well. And then um you know this week or excuse me at the end of the month our personnel committee has their meeting on the 24th.
028And of course a reminder no school for Thanksgiving at the end of the month on the 26th, 27th and 28th of the month. So another quick and fast and furious month. Uh getting ready for the winter sports and activities to start. You're going to see a lot of concerts starting in the theater starting in about a week. So, [laughter] uh, uh, we're excited that the the change of seasons, but we're glad that we only I'm glad that first snow day came on a Saturday than then on a Monday. So, we got a good practice run in. >> Wonderful. I was going to say too, if we did a Where's Waldo, I think I spotted Mrs. Chandler on that on that second photo in there right away. So, could see you in that big crowd of
029people. So, [laughter] I won't we won't need to pull that back up. Um, looking here at school board's um, report. So, a policy committee got yours done here. Ryan, did you happen to have any notes with you from our finance meeting? >> Uh, I was trying to pull mine up, too. >> Yeah, it was uh, yeah, >> there we go. Get the microphone on there. Uh, yeah, just just uh, utilities and kind of how they are relating to what we had been kind of seeing from the first year of the elementary school. Um, uh, looking at the cost for property insurance. talked a bit about the fall enrollment count and then just looked at kind of staffing needs um as we go forward as well as the preschool program. So >> wonderful. >> Mark or
030Jacob, >> any other committees? >> Well, it's not a committee, but I represent the district in the associated school boards. And November 21st, I'm going to be meeting with a group of peers from across the state voting on the res resolutions that we going to bring to the legislature. Um, you know, 30 years ago, I moved here from Michigan and I was shocked that every person I met would ask me two questions. One, the first question was always, are you going to stay? The second question was, how do we get our children to stay? Folks, the answer is raise your priority on funding education. You guys, my peers on the board did a great job last year contacting legislators, excuse me, legislators on different issues and we could sure use your help again this year.
031For those of you in the public, please help support education during the legislative session. Thank you. We had a um IT committee meeting uh earlier this month. Um Damon and Mark and Ashley Jacobs and myself all met um and discussed some of the um updates and the status of some of our tech uh things in the district. uh the devices that we have at the middle school and the um high school. Um we talked about the state having taken over recently the fishing um education and um if you're caught in fishing jail that's being handled by the state rather than Ashley and Nate Jarkco. um uh some of the um other uh items, an upcoming site visit by some of our state um representatives that look over how our district is doing as far as
032um security and our tech protocols. Um and then I also attended a food advisory committee recently at the middle school. Mark, you were in attendance um with me at that. There were also some administrative um folks there as well as student representatives from the elementary school, the middle school, the high school and St. Agnes. Um they shared their thoughts about um food service, some of their favorite choices, some um some suggestions that they had. Um, and I also recently attended a booster club meeting and uh want to thank the boosters for their support and um our uh district's ability to have a new board at the high school that's going to be installed later. And thanks also to the sponsors who are supporting that. First Bank and Trust Premier Real Estate and Nutrient Egg. And
033then also market calendar. will have the Hall of Fame dinner on April 25th and the golf outing on July 27th. >> My partner takes much better notes than I do, [laughter] but I want to add on to the technology report. We are in really great shape and my background is computer science. That means something. And just to add on, since that meeting, Carol, we got our fourth anchor sponsor for the video board, uh, Ford Motors here in, um, town. So, I've got four great anchor sponsors that you'll see posted probably in our gymnasium in about a week. So, >> uh, Mark and Dr. Elie and I attended our Boys and Girls Club meeting last month, and it's just really good to see the growth. Um, the academy, which is the kind of that JK to
034second, they have 51 enrolled. Um, elementary is 69, which is amazing. Uh, teens, 39 coming. In the morning program, which is that 6:00 until school starts, there's 19 little ones coming before. So, um, they were a were awarded a technology grant. So, um, they're getting some funds doing that and we're still waiting to hear for a 21st century grant. So, hopefully hear that in the next couple months. As >> you can tell, Rachel also takes better notes than I do. I have a I have a handicap that people >> our technology I just pull up the reports from our last meeting. Right. I'm multitasking here. >> But I'll add to the Boys and Girls Club that they're doing some wonderful work feeding the children. >> Yes. Thank you. >> And I want to thank them
035for that. >> Yeah. I was going to Yeah. add that there, you know, if you remember Austin Elementary doesn't have the most fabulous kitchen, right? Um it's more of a pantry. Um but they are doing a light supper right now. Um they started that about a month ago. It's a kind of an extension of the the summer lunch program. They're being able to get some reimburseable meals that way. So, um hopefully with this community um 21 no community block grant um that we'll be able to get a full kitchen maybe in the future where we can serve more robust meals. >> I sure hope so. >> Someday soon. All right. Um thank you everyone for that. Um we will then move on here to our financial reports. Item A, funds. Mr. Kosher. >> Yeah. uh
036financial report in your packet again this month. Uh did want to highlight October being the low balanced month. Uh we did get down to the uh an acceptable level as far as our fund balances. Um we did not have to use the second bill run that we uh had gotten prior approval on. So just wanted to make note of that. Um, we've gotten some of our uh larger tax payment already here from Klay County for this this uh current month here. So, the balances will shoot up a little bit once we close out November. Wonderful. Any questions for Mr. Kosher? >> All right. Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve. So, move >> first, second by Mark. All those in favor say I. I. >> Both same sign. Motion passes. Um, are there
037any future agenda items for the list? What did I give you today >> for to do >> for December? What was that? >> Um, bringing in >> somebody. >> Yeah, >> I've got it written down. >> Okay. It was a [laughter] good >> It was a uh It was tanning happenings for December. >> Yeah. Okay. It was something. >> I know what it is. >> Okay. We wrote it down. >> It's good to get an update on something. Um, help me remember. Is it December when we usually do the staff survey? >> Um, >> yes. >> Yep. >> So, we should confirm if it's going to be the the Google form or if it'll end up being the Qualrex form so we can get that out. >> Y, wonderful. Um, our next board meeting here
038is coming up in December 8th followed by uh January 12th. Um, we are in need of an executive session tonight. Um, South Dakota Codified Law 1-25-1 for personnel. Um, so I will go ahead and take a motion to enter executive session. >> So moved. >> First by Jacob, second by Mark. All in favor say I. I. We now in executive session at 7:29. All right. Thank you guys.