001Welcome. Call this board of education March 9th meeting to order. Please rise 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. First order of business is to approve the agenda. If I can get a motion. >> I so move. >> Can you move that mic a little bit closer? So >> Oh, with a addendum. You >> mean too. I move uh make the motion that we approve the agenda along with the agenda. >> Second. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All oppose. Same sign. >> Uh, moving on to the scheduled and unscheduled audience. And we've got, uh, Thomas Brown would like to
002speak. Um, you can go ahead and [clears throat] >> All right. Thank you. Uh, Thomas, before you get started, just so you know, we've got a five minute time limit that we >> Oh, set my timer. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. Oops. Okay. Good evening. Uh, my name is Reverend Dr. Thomas Brown. I'm a pastor uh here in Spearfish. Maybe more importantly, I'm the father of eight children here in the in Spearfish. Two of them have graduated Spearfish High School. Uh, six of them are still enrolled here in the school district. Um, I understand that tonight you'll be voting on whether to retain the book 13 Reasons Why uh in the middle school library. And as the petitioner is the one who brought this request for reconsideration, I appreciate that Mr. East said I would
003have the chance tonight to address um address to you personally and and uh express my concerns. Uh this book um 13 Reasons Why details the 13 Reasons Why Hannah Baker chose to kill herself uh to commit suicide. Uh it contains two graphic depictions of sexual assault. One of them she was a witness. Um one of them she was the victim. In the case of her when she was the victim they went into she went into quite a bit of detail. It's vivid. It's graphic. uh so much so that at one point the um narrator stops to say to ask whether or not we should if it's too graphic to continue. But um I really wish I could share this with you tonight, this section in the book uh because I think it would make your
004decision easy for you, but I also know it would not be appropriate um in this context to share um those those words. Um, but it is an open building. Um, an open shelf in a building full of 12-year-olds over at the middle school library. I emailed some excerpts of this book to the principal of the middle school and also to Mr. Eastston to express my concerns, thinking that if they saw how vulgar, how obscene this material is, that common sense would prevail and it' be removed from the collection. However, I was wasn't really able to do that very well because the email server blocked my email. Uh the content protection the content uh email server protected the decided that the email was too vulgar, too obscene I suppose for too inappropriate for adults to read
005during the workday. And so, and rightly so, um it wasn't wrong about that, but middle schoolers can check this out tomorrow morning from the middle school library to read these things. The main character, 13th, reason why she killed herself as a doozy, um, is one that we should probably notice especially. Um, she tried to talk to the school counselor. She went to the school counselor to express her concerns, to uh, relay to him what her problems were. And he was distracted. He was dismissive. He didn't have time for her. Uh, and so when the counselor failed her, Hannah goes home and considers how to kill herself. She considers um hanging. She considers driving her car off the road. She considers um drowning. She considers overdosing with pills. Uh she chooses pills. And Hannah goes home
006and she takes those pills and she dies. That's how the book ends. There's no intervention. There's no rescue. No one comes to help her. To any struggling teenager in this district to read this book, the message is clear. The adults here will fail you, too. So, I'm here to ask you tonight as the school board not to fail our kids. This isn't a message that you want to send that I hope you want to send to our kids in this district. Your schoolboard policy 6420 um says the final responsibility for library and media inclusion rests with this board, with you guys. Not with a committee, not with staff, not with the superintendent or the principal or anybody else, but with you, the people who are elected by the people to do the hard work of
007this board. You should know that the climate in South Dakota is changing on this. The last three consecutive South Dakota legislatures have narrowed your room for error here in this issue. What became law last year when signed by the governor was that how you vote tonight will become a record that any parent in the district any parent who disagrees with your conclusion with your decision can take before a judge can take up for judicial review. That's that's law that's it's in in effect. And last year, as they debated this, they came within two votes, two Senate votes of making this a criminal matter. I'm not here to threaten anybody, but please don't vote to keep this book on the shelves of the middle school library until you at least read it for yourself. Certainly, I
008believe common sense will prevail. Thank you. I do have a longer um paper I'd like to give you if that's okay. Sure. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Oops. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Uh moving on to school reports and fanfare. Uh the first one is the middle school with the eighth grade career fair. Good evening. Um, Miss Lupin is a health and PE teacher at the middle school, also the head softball coach. She's going to jump in here in a little bit and kind of finish off what we're going to talk about. Um, the career fair, uh, we added last year to our middle school. One of our biggest goals of what we're trying to do. You can see leadership skills, academic rigor, career exploration, and high school transition are the
009things that we are focusing on eighth grade. Uh if you've been in an eighth grade before, you know that one, they're finishing up a long few years of middle school tenure. They are itching to get into the high school and get into the career and techad buil building. They're also trying to figure out where they're wanting to go and ask questions and get some answers and things like that. So these are some of the things that we focus on throughout the year. Um that is just part of our eighth grade experience. college and career fair. How we started this year, we were invited by the Rapid City area schools. Uh they put on a show at Monument every year. And what they've done is they've just had a one-year gig. And there's about ohund and
010I think 20ome different businesses, colleges, universities that they've had this past year. They reached out to all these area schools. So they did a two-day um learning process. And so what they did is they vote these uh brought these middle school students in and they brought in different um large groups the entire grade. So every one of those it was their entire eighth grade class that came up. Um and they invited us to to try all kinds of it was all hands-on types of stuff too. So it fit right into what we put into our um middle school later in the year. Here's what they had. They had questions to ask as they went around to these different people. Um it was pretty cool. You saw everything from the police department to they had hair
011stylists there doing hair. They had people uh from the medical profession uh had all kinds of different experiments going on and it was quite a process for the kids. Lots of businesses, colleges, many trades were part of it. So this happened in November. This was sent to us free of charge. We put in a grant through uh the foundation so that we can get busing. Also on this day, um the power went out in uh all of Spearfish, Sturgis, Rapid City. So we were planning to go to the Journey Museum uh at the Berlin Wall down there. That got uh cancelled to say the least because the journey we were in there and the power went out, which was quite eventful for eighth graders that day. So uh it got cut a little bit short,
012but we did get through this entire process. The kids loved it. Um, one of their most enjoyable things was some people got to put things in their hair and they came back with long things. They learned how to do it all and even they put it in teachers in the principal's hair. So, they thought that was kind of an engaging process. But, uh, met all kinds of, uh, professionals. And so, with that, it kind of kicked off into the next part, which I'll turn over to Miss Lupin. >> I also have a picture of Mr. Lion with tinsel in his hair. If anyone would like to see it, [laughter] >> please share. Um so like you said the why of wanted we why we wanted to do this um the CTE center was a real
013inspiration for us. Um so the encore team which I am part of um and all the encore teachers. This was our idea and we wanted to do it for our eighth graders so that they knew what was offered um and what those careers looked like at the CTE center. Um so we >> Sorry. Hey. [laughter] Um, we wanted students to understand those opportunities in the community as well and what they can do um, out in our communities to get a head start on those careers that they may be interested and also figure out that is not something that they wanted to do and maybe not to go towards that direction. Um, so and they also we wanted them to use this day that we put on the encore career day, the career fair, and then
014also they do an SD my life and they take a ton of quizzes and they figure out, okay, maybe this is something I could be passionate about, something I could be interested in. Um, and so we used all of that. These are the different career fields that they were able to sign up for. Um, so we had a wide variety. Some of them super close to that CTE center, some of them not as much, some fine arts stuff. Um, so they had the opportunity to choose what they wanted to learn about and they got to pick two of these. So, like I said, the Encore team, we put all of this together. We used our personal connections. We wrote reached out to community members um to get these career fields full of three to six
015professionals for the students to learn from. Um, so we had a variety for each of those fields you saw. um not just one thing. They got to see all the different ways that maybe they could find interest in a certain thing. Um and again, we could not have done it without the community. We were really supported. We had a ton of volunteers that came and helped these kids learn about what they do on a day-to-day basis. For student engagement, they were in charge. Like I said, they got to pick what they wanted to do. Um they got to have a Q&A with those professionals. They had the floor. they could ask the questions they wanted to ask. Um, they each completed a worksheet beforehand so they were a little prepared. Um, so they wrote down
016three questions that they wanted to ask in each of their state sessions and then they wrote a reflection on those sessions. And there's some pictures too. Um, these are the questions that we gave the professionals ahead of time. Maybe this is what's going to get asked. This is also what we had in case kids were, you know, blankfaced and just staring at the front of the room. Um, so that's what we prepared as well. So this is just some examples of what maybe we talked about for community engagement. Again, we used our own connections. We reached out and these are all the businesses that were able to send people our way um and make it a really great experience. Um, so like I said, we had probably between close to maybe 40 individuals who came
017out and volunteered time going forward. Um, we plan to continue to do this and host it um for our eighth graders. We think it's been beneficial. I've seen a lot of kids say, you know, they go into the trades and they're like, "Oh boy, maybe I don't want to do that or maybe they really want to do it." I was able to host the sports one and I saw a lot of kids realize that 12-hour days are not what they want to do for the rest of their life [laughter] and so they decided that maybe the sports wasn't for them um coaching and stuff like that but some of them were still all about it and that's kind of the purpose of this day is just make them realize what the reality of different careers
018actually looks like. Um so yeah this is just speaker feedback from Kappy. um he said that it was he was honored to participate. Um and then a machinist who came in the trades one as well um said that it was well organized and well managed. So that's just some feedback we got from people who volunteered their time. [snorts] >> Any questions? >> Do you have Alicia's email for the picture of Mr. Lions? >> Yeah, I do. >> Sorry, Mr. [laughter] >> Just wanted to clarify. >> [laughter] >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Uh next we'd like to recognize the building teachers of the year. >> So as I call your name, if you would come up front, we greatly appreciate it. But please announce our building teachers of the
019year and our district teacher of the year. Um, so we're very fortunate to be or blessed to have many, many great educators and both represent the best of the best. So each one of them for building teacher of the year gets $250 and our district teacher of the year gets an extra to pay for the regional teacher of the year paper. [laughter] Okay, with that I would like all to come forward. She is our building teacher of the year from [applause] our building teacher of the year and district teacher of the year from West Elementary, Betsy [applause] Our [applause] building teacher of the year from Creekide Elementary, Ashley, [applause] our building teacher of the year from the middle school, Kristen Brown. [applause] And our high school teacher of the year, DANIELLE. [applause] >> CONGRATULATIONS. [applause]
020OKAY. NEXT, uh we don't have any conflict of interest waiverss. Uh so we'll move toformational items with the superintendent update. >> Yeah. I will start first with uh the Mountain View Alley project. Uh that is the one that we are doing in conjunction with the city. they have some utility to work uh work to do uh below the surface there. And so uh while they are doing that, we're going to uh redo the alley there, repave it. There'll be some curb and gutter along the west side of the alley. We'll have a sidewalk completely uh alongside the building. So when kindergarters line up to uh to uh get on the bus to go home or when they get off, they have a nice level surface. and uh just some work that we will uh some
021other little work we'll do there with drainage as well. Anyway, the uh final estimated cost for that is $47,000. That is minus the engineering cost. So we'll split roughly a 70 to $90,000 engineering cost there with the city. Uh so we'll be roughly around $450,000 if the bids uh hold true to the estimate. The bid opening for this is March 20 uh March 25th. So, we'll start after the last day of school and the uh expected uh financial or uh final completion date or the expected completion date is supposed to be uh August 21st. So, before school starts >> that's 450,000 to the school district or total that's split. >> No, for the school district. Yep. The city will have their share of it as well. >> Uh yeah, their own share. Uh the next
022thing is the track and field. Uh we're looking or the expected starting date for that is May 11th and the expected completion date is September 1st. Um I will be when I have more information and maybe when the project manager is out here, we'll meet with the homeowners along uh North Third Street. That is where they're looking for truck traffic to coming in in and out of the field. So uh just want to be good neighbors, want to be able to talk with those folks to what they can expect and and so on. So, uh, as far as, uh, private donations or contributions, uh, both, uh, financial and inind, uh, to date, we're looking at about 720,000 that we have have, we're roughly 26%. So, I'd mentioned trying to find 20% and again, we're roughly
023at 26%. >> Uh, well, I've had a few things fall in my lap, so that helped. Yeah. uh West Elementary kickoff uh conversation with Three Peak. That is if you approve the uh agreement with them tonight to proceed uh on March 12th on Thursday at 10 a.m. we'll have a uh kickoff with uh with Three Peak and JLG. So, I hate to keep asking Ryan, he's been busy on a lot of different meetings. Uh but Nathan, if you're available being on the facility committee, if there's somebody else that would be willing to serve on that, unless Ryan, you really want to be there, but there's going to be a kickoff meeting with Three Peak and and JLG. Uh as kind of the scope of the study and just to talk about it a little bit.
024>> When is the meeting? >> Uh it's Thursday, March 12th at 10 o'clock at Three Peak or Williams and Associates. >> I'll be out of town. >> I'll let Alicia have it. >> Yeah. And I'm not saying you can't have it, but I know I've been >> I'm not gonna >> consuming a lot of your time. >> Yeah. No, you're good. >> Good. Got it. >> So, Thursday at 10. >> Thursday at 10. Yeah. Yeah. I'll [snorts] send you the invite. >> Okay. Um, new website and app will go live on Friday, March 13th. Uh, Mr. Hardesty and I had a email or a a Zoom meeting with them u last week and we just talked about the uh marketing materials that we can send out to folks to promote our new uh website and
025our new app. So, we'll be sending that out. We'll it'll go live on the 13th and then the following week once we know everything is up and running the way it should, we'll start our marketing campaign to let people know about it. Uh then the last last thing I have is uh negotiations with SEA on March 24th at 5:00 PM and we'll talk uh we'll choose our negotiators tonight and then SCEA we're looking at March uh 31st. So that's all I have. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh moving on to the action items. The first one is to approve schoolboard negotiators for the spring 2026 with SEA and SCEA. So, we've got a a motion as to who wants to do this. >> I'd be willing to serve again unless everyone's standing in line for it.
026So, >> and I'm willing to serve, too. >> I move that our representatives uh for negotiations are Eric and Ellen. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed, same sign. >> Thank you, Eric. Uh next is to approve the school board sea negotiation ground rules which is attached. I would just say that the only language change is that this year is a flat raise and a non- language year and then switch the uh negotiating date. So that's all all that was updated uh from prior ground rules. >> Okay, >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. All those post same sign. Uh next we have the second reading and approval of the 2027 2028 school calendar. Uh the
027first reading was held February 9th. >> I'll make a motion to approve it as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Same sign. Okay. Uh next we move on to approve the technology purchases for 20 2026 and 2027. >> Yeah. >> The recent quote I got for these boards in the 90s boards increase to $140 a piece. Um >> that's unacceptable. [laughter] >> I thought you were going to add like internet or high school phones or something. [laughter] Yeah. >> Yeah. two step why I went up 240 bucks uh for the nine ended up being about $1,200 over the $250,000 [clears throat] budget. >> Okay. >> I cut wherever I could. I really couldn't cut much except for some licensing. [clears throat] So if we want
028to get back on the side >> Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. >> I'll make a motion to approve with amended price. >> Okay. Party. >> I'll second it. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Uh, next is the reconsideration of library media. I think we would do a motion and then do discussion. >> so if you want to whoever wants to make a motion. >> So, I move to make a motion to maintain it with the current restrictions um at the eighth grade level. >> Okay. Uh second any discussion then? >> So if I could just sort of fill in >> Can I add? Yep. >> The current restriction is eighth grade level with explicit parental permission. >> Yeah. So it can
029only [clears throat] So first off I just appreciate you guys um Reverend Brown for being here and just presenting it. Um there was a committee and we took it very seriously. there was a group of us and we all read the book um and had very powerful conversations on it and um and there's definitely some heaviness to the book. Um and so we did not feel that it would be appropriate for sixth or seventh graders and we didn't feel it would be appropriate for just any eighth graders as well. Um but we also um one of the things that the librarians will be doing is putting a sticker on all the books for 988 for suicide prevention. It's a hotline. And so with that, we just felt it was still necessary to actually even keep
030it with that um sticker. And so that is why we came with the to leave it where it's at. Now again, they can't just come and take it off the shelf. it does have to be approved by the print um the parent the um librarian is right in front of the librarian so the students just don't come and pull it off and so we did feel that that was still um adequate for this book so that's why we came that conclusion >> I would also add that uh there is the Miller test that was established by the courts and I'll just read it really quick it says the Miller test established in 1973 Supreme Court case Miller versus California consists of three prongs. It must all be satisfied for the material to be deemed obscene.
031Uh purant interest. The work must appeal to a purant interest in sex, meaning it must be intended to incite lustful thoughts or desires. Second one, patently offensive must work uh the work must depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way as defined by community standards. And number three, lack of serious value. The work taken as a whole must lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. This prong is often interpreted through a national standard rather than local community standards as established in Pope versus Illinois. So this is what I ask the the committee to consider is utilizing the Miller's Miller test and Dr. Brown is correct that uh the board's decision can be appealed to a circuit court and they would apply the same test. Do you have data on how many times
032it's been checked out? >> I can't remember very few. I mean it only just a couple of times. >> And just again so I make sure I understood. So the the book is somewhere where no one can just walk in and grab it. I mean it's >> it is very restricted. >> So and I and I don't know if this matters but it was um after great conversation and discussion on it and and looking at all different perspectives. I mean we didn't rush through this process at all like all of us took it very um very seriously and just really spent a lot of time thinking it through. Um and we did reach the decision unanimously to leave it where it's at. So you you have three decisions even though there's a motion there's the
033three decisions you can retain the book without restrictions you can remove the book and then the third one is uh retain the book with restrictions whether the current restrictions or additional restrictions >> is that current now basically permission slip based or is it a verbal like is it a written >> permission slip okay yeah >> I assumed in writing but I wanted to make Any other comments, conversation? I'll call the vote. Um, all those in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same side. >> I. >> Motion carries. Uh, >> next is to move to approve the agreement with Three Peak Architecture and JLG Architects for West Elementary study. >> Move to approve. >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? >> So, it's just the agreement for the preliminary study. They have
034a $25,000 fee for this study to go through and look at the gym edition uh renovation and what new would look like. Uh so considering all in the renovation all the different systems the building envelope all that what that cost would be and then uh as as well as new. So part of our conversation about scope might be on Thursday might also to include um a building addition that if in the future we wanted to move kindergarten over there. So we'd renovate West with an addition for additional classrooms and a gymnasium. So, we'll talk a little bit more about that on Thursday. >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Motion carries. Uh moving on to approve uh approve the agreement with Monument Health Athletic Training
035Services. Get a motion. >> I'll move to approve. >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? >> Yeah, this is an agreement and and if you've read through the agreement, you know that it's supposed to be confidential. So I I can't really say about the contact contents of it, but I will say that uh they have stepped up to the plate uh to provide additional resources to the district and so I would recommend to approve. It is a fiveyear though just so you're aware. Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion carries. Uh moving on to the consent agenda. Uh, we can take one motion for all items or if you would like to pull something off, you certainly can. Uh, so if I can get a motion, >> make a motion
036to approve it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Uh, moving on to the minutes. Uh, if I can get a motion to approve the minutes. I will do Can I do all of them at once? >> Yes. I'll >> approve all of them at once. >> I so move. Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. Uh, moving on to financial reports and bills. If I can get a motion to approve. >> I so move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Uh, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> Uh, next moving on to executive session. If I can get a motion. I will move that
037we move into executive session for South Dakota codified law 1252 paragraph 4 preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representative and also for South Dakota codified law 1252 uh paragraph 1 discussing the qualifications, competence, performance, character or fitness of any public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee. The term employee does not include any independent contractor. >> Second. >> Give that one to Eric. [snorts] >> All those in favor say I. I. All >> oppose same sign. We are in executive session.