001Good evening. I call this meeting to order here on August 11th, 2025 at 700 p.m. Uh, Mr. Kosher, would you please take attendance? >> Olsson >> here. >> Felen >> here. >> Skelton >> here. >> Boss Ward >> here. >> Wiggger >> here. >> All present. >> Thank you. If 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. >> Thank you. At this time, any visitors who wish to address the board may do so. We ask that when you sign in um when you enter the room, please list us a topic. If you have not done so, please approach the podium and
002do. I ask that you refrain from listing any student by name or any personnel by name. If there's anyone who would like to address the board as a reminder, no action will be taken this evening. Seeing none, we'll move on here to tanager happenings. Miss Jacobs. Hello. Um, I'm just going to show you our new website. We had a new roll out this summer um just kind of freshened up the look of our website and gave us some good features to share with the community to allow easier use for our staff and um hopefully check off some boxes in that strategic plan of communication. Right? So that's what Dr. Albby says. Um so we're just going to kind of cover the homepage. I'm not going to go through a lot. It's a very userfriendly website.
003Um, a couple of features that we really like that are different from our first our previous website is up in the corner we have a language option. So, you can actually select a different language if you have a different language you prefer. Um, and then I think that covers anything that Google Translate covers. So, we're we're good there. Also, it is ADA compliant. So, if you have visual impairments, it will read it for you. Um, so yeah, that's a nice feature of it. And then the search, the little magnifying glass way up in the top corner. That's another great feature. If somebody needs to look for something on it, like, oh, I need the athletic forms, you could type that in the search and it'll bring it right up for you. So, um, basically anything
004that'll make it easier for our parents to be able to find stuff is what the goal is. So, um, we'll start with like the top headings. If you click on our district right there, it's going to show you all those different policies, assessment schedules, anything you might need. Everything is within one or two clicks. So, if you need something, just kind of hover through, kind of look through, read, see what you're looking for. We have the different schools. You can find school supply information, um handbooks, they're all at the different schools, whatever one you choose. We have the district calendar. We have the activities calendar. Um employment. So if you're looking for a job opportunity, we have that right up there. Most of our parents and student links are rates under that drop down. We
005have parent portal. If you are looking for a parent portal account, parent portal request is what you're going to fill out to get access to those student schedules or grades or anything like that. Um so they fill that out. they get a email back with the information and then you can log in to where it says parent portal. Um, and then the tanager streaming, that's where you'll see all of our concerts, athletic events, everything that we have to offer. And if you don't know what events they're on, go to the district calendar or the activities calendar that will tell you what's happening that night. Um, and then we have under the helpful information is just like some community sources that people might need kind of point them in the right direction. And then if you
006scroll down, we have some quick links of things that are able to make it easier for parents to find. New student registration, they can click on that, fill it all out. um our school Facebook page. That was one thing like our previous website, we could not embed our Facebook page and we're really proud of the work that Nicole Mockler does to get information out. So, we're grateful for that. This one allows us to have that little link there. And then further down, it's actually embedded on there. But some of those quick links are right there. Um and then something we are continuing to roll out is Parent Square, which is where our website is based out of. We had parents square at the high school last year. found it was a pretty good success. So
007now we are branching that out across the district and as our different buildings learn to use it more, we'll get a little more fluent in it as well. So um now as principals post stuff or Nicole Mockler maybe posts something, they can it they can actually stream it right to the website. So then it just goes right on that little timeline there. And if you have the parent square app, which I would recommend any parents getting, um it'll come to your app as well. So then as you scroll down further, we have upcoming events of the district. You can click and view the full calendar. Do our best to get everything in there, but we can change it really easily if times change. And yeah, and then that as we go down further, we see
008some pictures of our students. We have, you know, our Facebook page there. So that's every day that she posts, it goes right there. And then we have some school information at the bottom. So, um, pretty happy with the change. I I feel like it's going smooth. Any questions for me? >> Fantastic. >> I think everybody's probably used it recently to get to the parent portal for Infinite Campus while they're trying to find out their teachers. So, >> yeah, for sure. And I have gotten a lot of feedback from just like random parents like, "Oh, I love the new look. It's so great. It's so easy. Looks good on the phone." The phone is the big thing cuz that's what a lot of people use. So, but anyway, thank you for listening. >> Thanks, Ash. Yeah,
009thanks to uh Mr. Fry and those guys at the high school for helping to um get Parent Square into the system a little bit last year. It takes a while to transition and we always need somebody that's willing to take it on and do it. And so, Mr. Fry and his group took care of that. And then Ashley and her uh tech crew taking the the next step, which was, you know, we've been talking about a facelift to the district's website now for for a while. And now that we've got it, it's just going to be something that we'll have to play with a little bit. But, uh, we've heard really positive things about it so far, especially the integration of the Facebook and the instant communications. So, that's been a a popular feature, uh,
010in the first few weeks. So, thank you. Uh, next up here, um, we are going to go to approval of our agenda. Um, are there any agenda changes, Dr. Ellie? >> Yes. Uh tonight we'd like to add e cell phone discussion. Uh we want to just sort of kind of re u ignite that discussion we had this spring on uh cell phones. I know some of the board members and some of the administrators participated in a conference recently where they had some really good information about cell phone use um legalities from KSB and others. And um we've got some things we'd like to discuss and keep it on the agenda. Excellent. Um, I would take a motion to approve the agenda. >> I will make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Perfect. First by
011Carol. >> Second by Mike. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Next up here we have indication of conflict of interest per self codified law 3-23. This is Rachel and I have none. >> Carol and I have none. >> This is Jake and I have none. Mark, can I have none? >> This is Mike. There is one bill being paid to me tonight. Um, it's noted is being paid to me. It should go to the store if it's not too late to change that. But, um, either way, >> probably make that change. It's under your name anyway within the business. Okay. >> Uh, but it's not anywhere near the level. >> Just a few. >> Yes. >> Thanks, Mike, for letting us know. Um moving on here we have
012our consent agenda um this evening for a minutes resignation new hires open enrollments and bills. Um we have our July 14th meeting August 5th retreat resignation Shar Pavo custodian new hires um Curtis Lee Alyssa Britt Angela Marorrow for sped assistant Tristan Campbell part-time nurse Robin McAir sped assistant Mark Knitsky fall lawn help um and then we've added Trinity Ready and thank you sorry flip the page and Olivia Granis for parah for Mary is there anything that anybody would like to be taken out of the consent agenda. I see none. I would take a a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> First by Mark. >> Second by Carol. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Same. P. Same sign. M. Motion passes. >> Sorry to interrupt. Did we say Connor Lori for volunteer? >>
013I believe he's under the adult volunteer section. Is that correct? >> Yep. >> Okay. Good catch though. Thank you for double checking that. Um, we are not in need of any unfinished business. So, we'll be moving on here to new business item A, which is approval of the emergency bus pact. >> Uh, this is an annual review and uh for those at home, um we are uh like most schools in the state of South Dakota join this bus pack that if um a school were to come to Vermillion and their bus would break down, our bus company would arrange with that school district to get them home. If we happen to be in Lennox and our bus broke down, they would arrange transportation to get our kids home. So this is just an annual review.
014>> No, it was a good thing last year didn't have that happen for the rest of me. So always good to have that support. Um I think we can go through a few here. Um next up is item B, approval of the non-staff extra duty employment. I can't speak on that one. >> Yeah, basically it's just uh all of the folks that are uh currently under contract for uh being in our district for um assistance or head positions. And these are the folks that are not part of our teaching staff. So the people that are on that list uh are all um volunteers or or excuse me, these are paid assistants that are uh just people that work in our community and we thank them for being a part of it because there's quite a
015list there and without them we would not be able to uh man all of the activities that our kids participate in. >> Looks like a quick count around 22. >> Yep. That's a lot. Any questions for Dr. Ellie? Okay. Um, next up here we have approval of our adult volunteers. So, in addition to those um amazing folks, we also have a lot of volunteers that help out. Um, Dustin Socknis for >> boy soccer, >> boys soccer. Alexander Leers for um boys and girls soccer. Jansen Yun for Carrie Jensen varsity tennis. and Connor Rorig um for Vermlain High School. Any concerns? Great. Um next up here we have item D which is approval of the FY25 DOE district annual report teacher compensation report. Uh Mr. Kosher. >> Uh this time of year as we're concluding our
016fiscal year we submit a report to Department of Education. Um there's really at this point three elements to this annual report that we'll be looking for approval tonight. Um the first one is teacher compensation. If you remember a couple year or this last year for legislation u there was put into place some additional um accountabilities for teacher compensation for salary and benefits. Um, we submitted this this last month here based on the financials from the uh 2425 school year. The average compensation for the uh teachers in our district was $72,263. When you compare that to the target that we had uh of $71,462, you can see that we're sitting pretty good um in uh in comparison to that target. And then the benchmark that we would have to uh cross to make sure that we
017were in compliance and not getting penalized is $69,318. So, we are well uh above both of those targets uh which is good for our district. And we also are not uh the new base salary that we have put in place for this school year is $50,000. That was kind of a target of ours for a little while. The new state minimum of $45,000. That will be uh will impact a number of districts out there. Thankfully, we're not one of them. We are uh well ahead of that pace. Um the second one here is the cash balance accountability. We have to remain in our lowest month cash balance have to remain 25% or under when compared to the total expenditures for our general fund. Um we achieved that in October of 2024 uh by getting down
018to 23% there. Um that was just coming off of ESSER. That was a little bit of a challenge to get there. it made us pay some some things out of out of that fund that we normally would not have traditionally. Um, but we we were able to achieve that and now as we passed our budget last month, we're restructuring that a little bit as to where we're planning to to take certain things and uh kind of got a good plan going forward there. But we have achieved both of those accountabilities for the year. And then the third element to that is just our funds. Uh there's a summary of each of the different funds that we have as a school district. We've talked about some of those within our budget discussion last month, so I
019won't go into a lot of detail on those. Um, but then we'll also see more of a summary of that in our audit report, which should be coming out in the next couple of months as well. So, thank you, Mr. Goer. questions >> on the district average teacher compensation accountability form. Are is that fiscal year 2027? Are those projections were they just off the numbers off or I mean they're um locked out here? Yeah, the calculator just did not uh it it took the numbers from the 26 and put it down in 27. So we'll we'll know what those numbers Yeah, once once we accurate corrected out that >> um once we have a number to put in there for what we will be getting in additional state aid um percentage-wise from the legislature this
020next year, then we'll be able to fill in that one. So, yep. >> Thank you. And is a record count really an even 100 for the >> Oh, as far as the FTE that that count on there. Yes, it is currently. >> Did it pass through our auditors? So, was that that's a pretty >> just a nice round? >> I was trying. I know. I was like, how did you get it that round? Okay. So, that is our that's an >> that's FTE, not um number of people. I I guess it it is total total uh count for teachers. It can't be FTE because we do have some that are lower percentage. So that that is a total count. Yes. >> Oh, sorry. I just wanted to verify that. Awesome. Um if there is there
021any discussion here for items A through D? Not I would take a motion to approve. >> So move. >> First by Mark. >> Second by Jacob. All those in favor say I. >> I. Post same sign. Motion passes. Next up here then we have item E, which is our cell phone discussion. >> All right. Thanks, guys. Um, I'll have Mr. Fry and Mrs. Sanderson come on up. Um, while they're coming up, I just wanted to uh restart this discussion uh for just a little historical uh value. Last year, um, we noticed, uh, other school districts across the nation and even some in South Dakota who were taking a a different stance on cell phone use or really use of media in in the buildings, uh, to address a lot of different things. It was addressing
022bullying and um, social anxiety and depression amongst kids. Um, and now we're starting to find the distractions that the phones are are placing on young minds in our schools as just another thing that we're dealing with with our school district um as well as our youth throughout the the entire country. So, uh I'm not sure if any of the board members which uh sessions you went to last week. Some of you attended the uh joint convention and and there was two particular uh uh I guess discussions on cell phone usage and also the legalities uh and some of the pitfalls of social media. Uh that was really a replica of the KSB u talk that we brought to the district last year to our students and to our parents which was very wellreceived. Uh but
023KSB is now using that platform to talk to schools throughout the the whole state and they're gaining uh a lot of audience participation on that. But I've asked our our principles to talk a little bit about what we're seeing and what we would like to consider as we're thinking about some of the the um struggles that some of our young folks are going through in school. And is there ways that maybe by um limiting some of that cell phone usage in school if that could um maybe be something that would help? Right now our current um practice in the district is no phones in the elementary phone no phones in the middle school. There are rare exceptions for um students that might have a a health issue or something that have to have that, but
024that's all been um worked out ahead of time. And then at the high school, uh it typically what it is is kids can have their phones on them and they can use them in passing times and at lunchtime. Uh not supposed to be out or in use during instructional time. Uh however, that has not been consistently enforced uh sometimes in the within the district. Some some of our staff have um uh pockets that when a student enters the classroom, you place your cell phone in the pocket. It's easy for me to see it. It's out and it's not in your pocket. It's not being used. and other staff have let students have those phones on their person. Um so now tonight we're talking a little bit about some consistency in application that we'd like to
025share with you. So um Mr. Fry or Mr. Sanderson, you want to talk about some of the research or if you just want to talk about what we've talked about? I'll I guess I'll I'll open up and start with um this fall I start my seventh year in the district already. And one of the things as I look back over the previous six that I'll say about Vermillion High School is in my experience as an administrator and a teacher before that, I don't feel we have a major problem with phones. Um, I don't even know that I'd characterize it as a problem at this point, but I also will go so far as to say individual students uh, some of them do have problems with their ability to utilize the phone responsibly, to to have
026the self-control to know when to put it away and when to leave it put away And when you when you attend workshops and when you attend trainings like the the convention we went to last week in Sou Falls, they'll talk an awful lot about um the dopamine rush that that comes with notifications. And whether that that's a social media notification, whether it's a text message from a friend or a parent or someone, it's just that that that the sound of the bell or that buzzing of the phone, that that reminder that there's somebody out there that has sent some message of some kind that causes us to suddenly need that instant gratification of seeing what that is and then potentially responding. And the moment we do that, that teacher has lost our focus. If that's
027happening in the classroom, it doesn't matter honestly if as a student if I even look at my phone when I get the notification, the fact that I received it and I'm aware that I received it has broken my concentration. And we have to really start to pay attention to we know it you you'd have to be under a rock somewhere to not understand what's out there right now with regard to mental health statistics and teenagers and and the problems we're seeing as a country right now. And I think one of the things that stood out more than anything to me was one of the attorneys from KSB Law talked about and I believe he was quoting a book. Um he said if we want to look back and see where the numbers really spiked when
028we really started to see problems with teenagers and anxiety and mental health issues we can trace that year back to about the same time period the same year that the iPhone was introduced. And that's not to just condemn the iPhone. It's it's really to point out the fact that at that point in time um smartphones and social media suddenly became accessible via one's pocket as opposed to the laptop which was the previous portable version that we would carry. And so it when we really start to see that we really start to see that it didn't take long for that technology to trickle down to teens and and the impact it has had on them now over the last decade or or 10 to 15 years that we've seen this happen. we really do have to
029start to think about how can we be more deliberate and more consistent in what we're doing uh in managing this in our building. As an administrator, I'm going to go so far as to say I have always advocated that I believed high school students need to be taught the responsible way to manage the technology as opposed to banning it. I'm a big believer uh cuz I remember myself well as a teenager. When you say no and you ban it, you give me all the more incentive to go out of my way to try to get away with it. And to me, that's just asking for the fight. What I would rather do is is find a way to teach and partner with students to work on responsibly managing uh the use of cell phones in
030school. So, prior to this year, I have allowed teachers to kind of govern their within the four walls of their classroom in a manner that they're comfortable with with regard to cell phones. Some teachers had a table somewhere in the room and they asked students to place the phone on the table. Some teachers, as Dr. Alvie mentioned, might have a pocket, uh, a little calculator pocket or something like that by the door. Other teachers might be fine with it in their pocket. When I taught, I was fine. If I don't see it, I'm not worried about it. But what I will say is while that gives the teachers a lot of flexibility to be themselves and govern their rooms the way they feel comfortable governing, it sends a horribly inconsistent message to our students. And
031it forces a student who has seven classes throughout the day to keep track of which teacher expects what of me today. You know, second hour and third hour, my phone goes in the pocket. The fourth hour, I can have it in my pocket. You know, we're we're asking a lot here. So, at this point, one of the things we're going to look at at the high school is a way to kind of bring everybody under the same umbrella of having the same classroom expectation across the board when students walk in the room. And we're still going to say you can have that phone during passing periods. We're still going to say you can have it at lunch, but we're we're going to say during the class period that phone's going to be placed in a
032pocket. uh where and the teacher will designate it where that pocket is kept in the room. >> I've spoken a lot here. I'll give you the opportunity to take the mic. >> Um and just from the middle school perspective, we're still planning on maintaining the no cell phones in the middle school. Um it's they are still we're not there yet. Um and so we don't want cell phones at lunch. We don't want cell phones in the passing period. Um but again we do want that consistency and so the the conversation that we are and thought that we are very early on in is this something that we want to have at the middle school too where we also have a unified place for students to put their phones every time when they get to a
033classroom so they just have that consistency. Um, and what would that look like then at the middle school when we're talking about lunch and how does that relate there? Because again, we don't want to pull them out. We want them socializing with each other and talking. We have an awesome selection of games at the middle school where they they can go out and play. They stay in and play board games. They have giant connect fours up on the stage and so they get these really good opportunities to engage with each other and we don't want to lose that. Um but we also have to kind of explore that that consistency side and making sure that we are supporting our students and our teachers. So, >> I might add while while the board is considering some
034questions, uh we don't have all the answers yet. And that's kind of our goal tonight was to introduce the fact that what we want to do is continue what we've been doing, but we want to start to introduce to kids next week when we have our orientations and our staff this week. The fact that we're looking at making a change. We're we do not want to have even phones on their person because um part of this I think is going to have to come with a board as well as our staff doing some studying on a book called the anxious generation. So if you have not read that book by Jonathan hate um I would suggest that that that's something that that we do as a board and that our staff takes on as an
035administrative team and and does the book study with our um with our staff. It highlights quite clearly the um the the the things that are coming out in society have trickled down to our young minds and they are altering the wiring of our kids and it's starting at a very very young age. And while we can't control all of the things that are on those phones and the nights and weekends and all of that, we can control for six of the seven hours that we have those students. And we can say that that's important enough for us to consider this safety measure as well as a way to help um break some of these mental health crisises that some of our students have, the anxiety that some of those students have, the depression that some
036of those students have and um and really investigate some ways to help invigorate them. re reintroduce social skills and communication skills which are healthy and and um schools in South Dakota that we've talked to and the ones who presented um have taken on the task the last couple years said that by large there was very little push back from kids or parents once they understood the why and that they had to set some talk with us. you know, so we intend to have these conversations with student councils and kids uh when they return um and talk about what's what's the uh the end outcome. This isn't a punishment. This is because we care enough the fact that we want to try to stop some of the things that are happening in the situation. And before
037you what I gave you was just a synopsis of four key things that um that um uh Anxious Generation book highlights. And so they're talking about the digital underparing and the real world overparenting and the mental health impacts of kids. That book goes into real um real uh I guess um direction on what what the outcomes are and how we can get them to stop and reverse them. And so I think it's something that we would like to uh continue on with. And so I guess all we're asking for tonight is um just the permission to continue on and go forward. Um and then next month this will be another topic that will be on our board agenda for us to come and say hey this is some of the things that we heard from
038our parents. These are some of the things we heard from our kids and um in the meantime get the book study started and start talking about the real nuts and bolts of why this is such an important issue. So um that's the introduction for tonight. >> I think we talked a little bit at the retreat but for the public viewing can I think Mr. probably you can answer this too, but like the phone or IRT filter system does not apply to personal cell phones. So if I'm on Google on my phone, the school is not seeing what's going on, right? So if they're searching >> Absolutely. It doesn't go through the filter and and that becomes a problem because technically to receive the the the federal funding we receive, we've got to be able to
039uh regulate what a student is accessing via via the internet and things like that. And when they're receiving a cellular signal that does not go through our school filter, um, we can't regulate it. >> Thank you. >> I didn't attend the sessions um that highlighted the districts that uh implemented policies this year. Were there some highlights or tweaks that they're making that or lessons learned? >> Uh, I did attend one. Uh, it was um graduate and >> Oh, sorry about that. So, yeah, I did attend one of the sessions and it sound like they went through a similar track of um they found uh some issues. They invited KSB to come in and speak to the district as a whole and the students as well and then did three sessions with the elementary, middle school
040and um and high school. And so they did uh a number of different um uh they left it not at a board policy but more of a practice that the administration can administer and change on the fly um based on the needs of the district. And so they did start with like the yonder and then went to a clear case um and so they did some of those different things. So I can definitely send the notes of what they had um as well. But overall they were >> that was Platt. Is that what I heard you say? >> Platt Daddies. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Yep. And overall went very well. And um some of the fun uh feedback from the students. There was one senior that said in his study hall rather than scrolling his
041phone, he read two books that year and he was just amazed that he he's never read two books in a year because he's had his phone type of thing. So, just some cool things that you don't know uh what these what these devices um have on you and what other things you could be doing. And so, um I think some of the kids uh feedback, they're actually happy that they had it taken away because so then they could focus on other things. So, it was really cool. We have to remember we're only a generation or a generation and a half removed from a day and a time in which um our parents would drop us off at school and unless there was a family emergency, there was no reason to contact us until they saw
042us at the end of the day. and uh they would leave their messages for us at school uh with the school secretary and we would receive those messages as students in that way. But I can remember too when I when I had my own daughter in in middle school. That was when my wife and I both uh a teacher and administrator raising a middle school child who said, "You know what? We're dealing with the pressure she's facing at school with regard to having a phone because all of her peers have a phone and we're dealing with, you know, the activities she's involved in and how do we stay in communication and, you know, it's it's going to take some rewiring, some rethinking, and some retraining how we go about uh doing things and partnering with
043our parents on that. if if we're going to expect to restrict these items in the schools and have it have the positive impact because it isn't enough that we just take the phone away. Like I said, just the dopamine that comes with the charge and the notifications and the things like that. Uh when you when you uh when you read the book or you read the the literature that's out there that talks about all of this, it you hear these stories of of teens phones just blowing up all night long with vibrations or or notifications. And there it's so much easier for students to connect in this day and age with students not just within their own school but in neighboring districts and and around the the United States and around the world that those
044messages are coming fast and furious from just about anywhere. It'd be impossible as a parent to truly know who all is in contact with your child in this day and age. And I find that a little terrifying. >> I'll I'll agree with you there as a as a parent of both a middle schooler and a rising fifth grader here. Um I do appreciate the emphasis on teaching people how to use that device, having it available, having it as something that outside of history and math and and English, part of our job is to help our kids know how to use these devices. um same as it was, you know, 15 years ago with laptops and internet and and all that stuff. Um I've I'm not, you know, coming down on any particular side of this
045at the moment, but again, noted that four out of the five of us, I can't see around the corner there to to Dam and Kevin, but four out of the five of us have our our cell phones out right now. Mark is being very responsible. Um but, you know, using them as the tools that that you know, we hope the kids grow to see them as. Um I think it's important. I haven't read this book. I have read other Jonathan hate books in the past. Um I think he's got some good points. I know there has been push back on this book specifically in the book world of um are there other points he doesn't consider. Um but u I do appreciate the education aspect of let's learn how to use these devices. Um, the
046other thing I would just throw out there, um, with so many other things, the the kind of, um, if if we're going to like a pockets, have the everybody putting your phone behind the door. I think that can be great. Um, do you run into issues of or do you how do you watch out for issues of Timmy's got the latest model and now everybody sees Timmy's got the latest model and Tommy's got a flip phone from 20, you know, 2007. It's just it's another opportunity for you kind of judgment along those lines. Not that that isn't happening other ways, but just a thing to keep in mind. >> Yeah, I'm sure you >> guys I think in the same extent that we would always look at each other's tennis shoes and see who had
047the latest model of those, the phone's going to be the same way. So, yeah, we're kids kids are going to have to manage that. >> I can only say that I applaud you. Uh, I've been looking at this issue for some time and you're right on track. You know, >> have taken only a year for you to get on board, but >> applaud you. >> I wouldn't say I'm on board yet. I >> You're You're No, you're thinking the right direction, right? You came to us. >> That's right. >> Well, we look forward to basically further conversations. I don't think there's any motion obviously that needs to be tonight, but we can keep it kind of on the uh back to that unfinished business area of our agendas. That was for you too. >> Thanks.
048>> Thank you. Good luck with inservices this week. All right. Just small agenda. So, next we are moving on to um our reports starting here with Dr. Elvie. >> Yes. Uh just uh quite a few things here. As usual this time of the year, we want to thank uh Sanford Vermillion. they're treating us and St. Agnes staff to breakfast this week at at our first day of end service. Um, and I also want to thank LSI for the the great meal opportunities that they provided our students for the summer food service program this year. It was a a a good success and they'll be wrapping up >> today. Wednesday. >> Wednesday. Wednesday, sorry. Yep. So, uh, another successful summer there. Um just just an FYI, I uh was recently appointed to a education commission of
049the states by the South Dakota Department of Education. Uh so I was asked I'm part of five commissioners from the state of South Dakota that will meet with a national think tank on educational trends and policies. Um we'll meet a few times a year. Um and I'll keep you posted as that gives. We haven't had any meetings yet. Uh but uh so it'll I'll be working with uh uh superintendent from Brandon Valley, um uh Tiffany Sanderson from Lake Area Tech, a gentleman from the bureau or from the um um board of regents, and then Governor Rhoden is also on that committee. So, uh more to come on that, but that that'll be some exciting news there uh down the road. Uh inservice schedule this week. Of course, uh, Wednesday, we've got our our staff all
050coming together at the high school for some things in the morning on anything from 504s and school security and some rahrh and breakfast to the afternoons where they'll get into the nuts and bolts of things into their buildings. Uh, the same way with Thursday, there's largely curriculum, coaches meetings, and individual sessions at their buildings. Uh, Mr. Fry's group will be going into more depth to their school improvement process, which you heard about at the schoolboard retreat. And then of course, Wednesday, August 19th, we have our all day inserviceorientation. Staff get to work in their rooms uh and we invite parents to come into uh to the buildings to see uh their classes or actually at the high school they have specific grade level orientations and sixth grade orientation at the middle school. And that's from
05110:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. And those notifications have been sent out to families already. Um, naturally, we've got our first day of school coming up um on August 20th, and it shows you there some of our preschool dates and our early childhood and JK dates uh that's going on. Uh we've already discussed our cell phone discussion there. Um just for the the community uh of listeners that are out there, uh we've had five candidates that have entered um into the application process for the uh appointed seat of our school board. Uh this evening, our school board uh will go into executive session and talk about the process of determining um if there will be uh interviews or how those that appointment will be made um with a a special scoreboard meeting coming in the near
052future to actually um appoint that seat. Uh exciting news out of the boys and girls club and Rachel might be talking about this under her report but uh they are working um they have been working very hard on the traditional club um that's the club where you can come for a min nominal fee or free um based on a grant that they received they will be able to offer some free um basically after school programming for third through 12th graders beginning right away this fall which is very very exciting. our traditional um K through2 academy style pay program will have to stay in place at this time. Um but before school time, tutoring time and other programs will continue as normal. So that's a big big plus for our boys and girls club to get
053to that stage and it's a big win for our community to have that um dedicated afterchool programming available for kids to go to. So, uh, couple of nice highlights here. Our, uh, Carrie Jensen, our co tennis coach, was named tennis coach of the year for the state of South Dakota. Outstanding job. She was awarded that honor this summer. And former, uh, tan manager, uh, Jay Hennis, coach, was inducted into the coaches hall of fame this summer as well. So, congrats to him. Um, and then, uh, the board will probably report a little bit. They held our schoolboard retreat uh last week on August 5th um where we got the opportunity to look at our strategic goals, talked a little bit about um discussions specifically with our administrative team about the successes that they've seen in
054uh recent years with initiatives they've tried and also challenges that they're facing within each of their buildings. And then of course we had a detailed review of um the facilities and curriculum that's been happening um this last spring and into the summer now uh into the fall. So that's all I have. We've uh got just a few days left and we're excited to get kids back and and get started all over again. >> Excellent. Thank you, Dr. Ellie. Any reports from the board? Well, the associated school board of directors met uh last Wednesday. Um nothing exciting happened. Um but followed by two days of convention with the administrators and uh faculty and basically the entire educational community. and we had just a tremendous number of invitations for or applications for the breakout sessions. So, we
055skipped the second speaker and added more sessions. Um, the one that was my favorite was done by Dr. David D. Young, unfortunately, of Dakota State University. He used to be a yoke. Um anyway, uh he's done a great job putting together a program to help pair professionals work on their bachelor's degrees and get certification. And I would encourage any pair professional that's interested to contact Dr. Dion. >> I'll agree. um in that the convention was uh full of very good um topics and presenters and I especially pre um appreciated the keynote speaker who was uh Dr. Josh Cowen >> um from uh he's a researcher and a professor >> at Michigan State and he talked about >> um school voucher programs and the effects of those in states across the country um and what results
056have looked like for those um places that have adopted these programs. um what results have been with academic achievement um and uh how they have or haven't produced the results that were expected or promised. And so I appreciated hearing from him and um continue to look forward um in our efforts to uh continue to fight for public education because we will continue to need to fight for public education. >> If you're at all interested in that issue, the book The Privateeers by Josh Cohen is fantastic. Um, in regards to Boys and Girls Club, as Dr. Elvie mentioned, um, pretty exciting once those 21st century dollars that we kind of were talking about last month were kind of on hold kind of reactivated us for at least this year. Um, so I don't think this is
057going to be something that the grant fund is going to be able to cover for the um, 26 27th school year, but we will be able to have that traditional site that 3 through 5 that'll be free after school. Um, also they'll be expanding into a teen club and that's at 6 through 12th grade. So, something that the community has really been seeking for um will be a great experience. They get to go back to, you know, Austin Elementary, so good for them. Um and then that academy club before and after school and thanks for the partnership with the school district on busing to be able to get um those kiddos there. But reach out to Sam Nelson if you're needing anything with school starting next week. Um I'm not for sure exactly the date
058that the club opens next week. Um if they've gotten all their training done, but reach out to the club and we'll utilize those grants as much as we can this year. Anything else? Oops. Excuse me. I'll I'll also add that the booster club will have their booster bash on August 22nd at 6 PM. Also, um that group meets on Wednesdays, the first Wednesday of every month at the high school. And um I have appreciated uh seeing this group. They get together every month and support so many things for our district. They do capital projects. They provide scholarships. They uh meet with coaches and field requests that they have. Um, so last uh time they met, Lenny Bilberg came and talked about um the Feet Forward Project and that's a project that they regularly support. So
059thanks to all of the people who give of their time and their talents for that group. Um, and if people are interested, please join them. Um, it's been great and I greatly appreciate their their time and what they do for our district. Excellent. Thank you. And good luck and enjoy all the teachers next week. We were somebody was saying how amazing is that they've been able to get into the classrooms all summer long and not having to wait just a few days before school starts. So um looking forward to a great school year. Um we are now moving on then to our financial reports. Um um item A are funds. Mr. Kosher. >> Yeah. Uh one of the things that we report uh at this time of year um is the summer food service program
060participation um this year. Once again we're uh pretty similar numbers uh over the course of the entire summer to where we have been in the past. We're serving just under 170 meals per day and on pace for by the conclusion of the program another 10,000 meals that will be served to the uh kiddos of our district uh over the course of the summer. So definitely a worthwhile program that uh we continue to and then we'll have some discussions next year as to where the that program will be housed, but uh one that we want to certainly continue to see uh funded. Um along those lines, we did receive um last month when we passed our budget, we had some lingering uh federal funding questions out there. We passed our budget with in anticipation of those
061funds being awarded to us. Uh thankfully, we did see allocations for our title 2 and our title 4 programs uh for this this coming school year. And we hope that those are uh continued into the future because they are they continue to be vital to the operations of our district. Any questions on summer food program or funds as provided? Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve the funds. >> So move. >> First by Mark, >> Second by Mike. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Both same sign. Motion passes. Any future agenda items? >> Nope. All right. Um, our next uh meeting here will be September 8th at 700 p.m. We are in need of executive session per South Dakota Codified Law 1-25-21. I would take a motion to enter executive session.
062>> So moved. First, >> first by Mike, second by Mark. We are now in executive session at 7:51. Thank you everyone.