001Welcome. I'd like to call this Monday, September 8th, 2025 school board meeting to order. Please rise. Say that pledge of allegiance with us. >> I aliance 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'll make a motion to approve it. >> I'll second it >> with with the agenda. I'm sorry. With the addendum >> minus the executive session minus >> minus the executive session. >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Post same sign. >> Uh scheduled and unscheduled audience. I don't have anything out here. >> Okay. Moving on to
002school reports and fanfare. Starting out with new staff introductions. >> Mrs. Anderson, do you want to start? >> Sure. So, at Mountain View, we have um four new staff that I'm going to introduce tonight. Um Janelle Rodus is our administrative assistant in office. Michaela Madison, early childhood special education. Hannah Layman, uh, kindergarten. And then I have Wendy, also kindergarten. >> Awesome. Welcome. Thank you. >> At West Elementary, we have one staff member of New South W. Over at Creekide in the office, we have Ruth Moore. Don't think she was able to make it tonight. And then in third grade, we have Madison Godlin and Jordan Esme, another third grade teacher. And then in fourth grade, we have Beth Brafield. And special ed teacher, we have Deli. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Middle school, we
003got Aubrey Ripka over there. Eighth grade science. Benson, middle school art, Laurel Winchester here in special ed in the way back usually the most sixth grade social studies learning center driver Johnson social studies uh and not really new kind of new Mr. funk is kind of new to our building but nothing could not make it. >> Thank you. >> All right, the high school we got a few ones. We got Jlly. She's teaching French and creative writing. We got Williams and she's doing physical science and physics. Not able to make it tonight. Sarah Pus is our new admin assistant and J is filming with us. All right, Mrs. Hyman, is there anybody not mentioned? >> Okay. All right. >> Well, welcome everyone. We're glad to have you. >> You're welcome to stay for the remainder
004of the meeting. Doesn't always happen. Even first. >> Have to tell them. There we go. >> Students, you have to stay. >> All right. >> Uh, moving on to standard response protocols, school resource officers. >> All right, we have Mr. Funk, Officer Funk, that is going to present to us today. No, but if you could, there's a microphone there. If you could utilize that so then the people online can >> Sam, you're have to hit the hold that button down so you get the green light. >> Are we good? Test. >> Yep. >> Okay. Well, hello for everyone who doesn't know me. I just got introduced. My name is Sam Funk. I'm a police officer here in Spearfish. I've been a school resource officer going into my third year now. And this is the system
005that we have just incorporated with our Alice protocols that we've been using up till now. Um they actually fit together really seamlessly. We'll talk about that a little bit, but I'm just going to give a 10 or so minute overview of what we're kind of focusing on right now. So it is called the Standard Response Protocol SRP. It is by the I Love You guys Foundation. Um, it was actually put together by some survivors of the Plat Canyon uh shooting. Uh, I believe it was 2006. So, the people that put this together, um, being safe in schools is very much a passion of theirs. So, with that, I'm going to show a quick video and then we are going to talk a little bit more. Why is this stuff important? There are things the adults
006don't like to talk about. If things happen at school, I need to have a plan and I need to know that the adults have. So, I'm going to talk about the standard response protocol. It's all about these simple stay in your class. The second action is secure. Get inside doors. The third action is lock down with blocks lights out of sight. The fourth action is evacuate. The location will be announced. The fifth action is shelter. The hazard and safety strategy will be announced. So let's get started and learn about the halls. Clear the halls. >> Something is happening in the halls. The school needs to get sorted out. So, we'll stay in our classroom even if the bell rings. >> Try to do classwork, but remind your teacher to lock and close the classroom door.
007>> Will I be more tardy for my next class? >> Not during a hold. >> And if I'm in the cafeteria or the gym, >> depending on what's happening, you might be asked to stay in your area if you aren't in a class. >> Unlike a lockdown, a hole can be released with a PA announcement. students. All the player is >> I'm James. I'm a school resource officer. >> Kids, get inside. Hustle. Doors. >> Why are we doing this? >> We're doing this because something is happening in the neighborhood near the school and we have to get you guys inside. Could be crimes out there. Could be riots. Could be a dangerous animal. Could be zombies. >> James, zombies aren't real. >> You don't know that. >> Here's what happens. Get everyone inside. But inside,
008you just keep everything normal. Even class changes stay on schedule except between buildings. >> Initially, nobody can come in or go out of the building. >> Depending on what's happening, your teacher may ask you to text your parents and tell them not to freak out. School is happening just like normal. And if they show up, they probably won't be let in anyway. >> That's right. Nothing to see here. >> Chill. Secure is just staying inside. Sometimes it's a pain like when school gets out or during lunch but usually you won't notice much. >> What about lockown? >> This is serious. Pay attention because something bad is happening in the school. >> Oh things adults don't want to talk about. >> First I'm going to talk about stuff that we do know data and research about
009attacks at school. Then I'm going to talk about what to do depending on where you are. First of all these are over within 5 minutes. 90% are over in 10 minutes. And >> first, let's look at one thing that they have learned. An attacker has hardly ever gotten to a lock door. Hardly ever. >> Where did you see that? >> Get on the web and look at this commission report. The FBI has some too. >> So, the teacher will walk and close the door, >> right? Then what happens? >> I got this. First, we're going to get out of sight of the corridor window. >> What else are you going to do? >> Then, we're going to get low on the floor. I'm going to make sure I can't see out of the corridor window.
010Then, I'm going to take a deep breath. This is an important 5 or 10 minutes. I'm even going to silence my phone or turn it on do not disturb. >> Turn off your data and Wi-Fi, too. This helps the first responders keep their internet access. >> But, can I text my parents? >> Yes, but not at first. Your teacher will probably have you wait about 5 minutes until it's A few of you at a time can text your parents. >> Here's what to text. I'm okay. We're in a lockown. I'll update you every 5 minutes. I'm going to add this. I love you guys. >> Text your parents. Don't text your friends. Don't post on social media. Duh. Here's one thing. A lockown can be scary and it's probably going to last a long time.
011I need you to support each other. Listen to your teacher. What else do you keep in mind? >> Don't open the door for anything. What if they say it's the police like this? Police open the door. >> I don't know if it's really the police or someone trying to fool. So, I'm not going to open the door for anybody or even say, >> right? Law enforcement or an administrator will unlock and open the door. >> Same thing with an announcement on the PA. You're going to stay here until administrator or police comes and opens the door. >> What about the fire alarm? >> When we're in a lockown, we're going to treat a fire alarm a little different. Unless it's really on fire in the room, we're going to initially stay. Although, I might look
012at other ways to get outside. >> If you're in the hallway, cafeteria, or gym, try to get behind a locked door or try to get out of the building. Remember, 5 minutes, so go quick. Think about other locking doors like staff bathrooms and some offices. >> The student bathrooms are probably a last resort. No locking doors, but at least you can get out of sight. This is a good time to talk about. Sometimes you just need to leave the building. Depending on what's happening, you might be asked to leave our stand or you may be asked to bring it. If your phone's in your pocket, you do this. >> If you hear lock down and aren't in a locked classroom, remember self evacuation is another option. >> That means getting out of the building and
013going to a safe place. >> Once you're there, call your parents. Tell them you're okay. The school might also give you an emergency number to contact. >> What happens when police release a lock down? >> Police or administrator will open the door and begin the classroom evacuation. Now, don't be surprised if they are a little loud or they keep shouting, "Show me your hands." >> Got it. They're going to be loud and keep my hands empty and visible. Can I bring my stuff? >> Probably not. Just what's in your pockets. >> They'll probably bring us to the secure assembly area or a gym before moving us to where our parents can pick us up. >> At the assembly area, don't be surprised if an officer searches you. They just want to make sure there's nothing
014dangerous out there. >> Got it. They're going to be black. They're going to surgeons. >> If you think about it, you're probably going to be stressed. So, it's going to feel a little more intense than it really is. They are probably going to be a little stressed. They probably don't know you, but we all have the same goal in mind to keep you safe. >> So, what you're saying is cut everyone a little break. You can actually help reduce their stress and their parents stress. >> Okay, there's one more action. >> Let's talk about shelter. >> Different schools might do different things, but here are some examples of what might be announced. Tornado storm shelter. Earthquakes drop cover and hold as sealed doors with us. Tsunamis get the higher ground. This is important. I was
015in fourth grade at Sandy Elementary School on December 14th, 2012. I got out. My little brother was at San Diego, too. He got out, but it was a close. My older brother and sister were at the middle school. It was a tough day for them, too. So, I just need to have a plan, have some options. And you need to know the adults have a plan, too. I was the school resource officer at Rapo High School in 2013 when the attack happened. >> I'm going to ask you to do one more thing. When you go home today, talk to your parents. Tell them about what you learned today. >> Okay. So, we showed that video to all of our classrooms. Uh they've all seen that to uh describe basically what these new steps are. We've
016had uh to date we've had um a hold drill, we've had uh secure status drills, we've had lockdown drill um to make sure that they are familiar um and it's nothing's going to be taking them by surprise if we ever end up having to do one of these. One of the nice things that we really liked about this system is that it does have the hold that they add to that, which that could be for anything that they just need to get always clear about. So, it's not necessarily an emergency condition and students are aware of that. They've been told that several times now it has more to do with for whatever reason. Uh, we need to get the hallways clear. Um, so we like adding that to the mix. Um, I'm just going to
017go through this real quickly because a lot of it was just covered in that video. Uh, standard response protocol is based on the response to any given situation, not on individual scenarios. Um, this has more to do with law enforcement. We established an incident command system. Um it develops a really easy vocab vocabulary and um easy to follow directions. Um and it's broken down into five key terms. Uh it's the hold. Oh, before we get started, we're not moving on from Alex Alice, which I already said we're merging the two. Um we did have up till this year we had a soft lockdown and a hard lockdown. We no longer have that. Soft lockdown is now secure. And hard lockdown is just lockdown. So hopefully we're eliminating some confusion in that. So initially we have
018hold which I was just talking about. That could be for anything. Some somebody got sick to their stomach in the hallway. Um something happened. We need to get janitors in there. Maybe a kid had a seizure. We need to get EMTs to the classroom. We just need the hallways clear. Holding your area means exactly that. If you're out on break, you stay on break. You might get a long lunch recess. Uh if you're on the field, you stay on the field. If you're in your classroom, you're getting ready to move, don't move. You just stay in that classroom or wherever you're at in the moment that it's called. Secure. Now, secure is what used to be soft lockdown. Uh but it's when there's a threat or hazard outside the building. So, there's something happening outside
019the building. We used to call this the soft lockdown. It is now secure. So, basically, all outside doors get locked. Um, we recommend teachers to lock their inside doors just for safety purposes at this point. There is no threat inside the building. It just kind of helps them to be ready in the event that for some reason things are going to even get more uh more dangerous, more out of hand, whatever, and we need to move to lockdown, their doors is already locked. Uh, the thing about secure is you can still if the bell rings, they need to change classes, they can change classes. teachers just need to make sure they're going straight to the next class and getting the hallways cleared as soon as possible so they're in their new location. Okay. So, the
020only issues that we may run into is if someone needs to leave or it's time for the the school day to be over and there's still a secure in place. Now, there's a reason that secure was called, so chances are we won't be able to release right away. Um, if somebody needs to leave for, you know, doctor's appointment, music lessons, whatever it is, they may not be able to go. If they do need to go, it's got to be a pretty good reason that they're going to grant an exception for that. Chances are, they're probably going to miss whatever it was they were supposed to go to, but that's just part of it. We actually had a we would call it a secure status now. We had a soft lockdown several years ago when there
021was a mountain lion spotted near one of the schools and so they went into soft lockdown. They went into secure status. So, yeah, we're not going to let students out of the building, even if they have an appointment they need to get to. Okay. Lockdown. Now, when a lockdown is called, it's when we believe there's a threat or hazard inside the building. Um, could be a dangerous situation, could be a possibly dangerous person. Um, we've told staff that if they see somebody they they believe to be armed, even if they're outside the building, possibly walking toward a door, we're not going to mess around hitting secure first. We're just going straight into lockdown um until that situation has been taken care of and that person is no longer a threat. The lockdown message will air
022over the intercom. Uh, it did mention it in the video, but um, hold is the only status that can be released via the PA system for either secure or for lockdown. Uh, either law enforcement or administration will be going room to room, announce themselves, and open the door. Um, I don't know if you've ever heard Austin talk about his encounter last year, but he actually just about got his uh had a close encounter with a bat uh because he opened a door without without telling the teacher that he was coming in the room, which the teacher did the right thing. That's what they're supposed to do. Suddenly, the doors opening that they thought was secure. He didn't announce himself. He almost caught a bat. That's that's okay. He was actually very happy with that response.
023Thankfully, he didn't catch the bat, but it was pretty close. Uh, lockdown message. Grab students from hallways. Lock the doors. Now, the uh the actual announcement is locks lights out of sight. I think that's the next Oh, it wasn't the next slide. Um, locks lights out of sight. So, basically, we're focusing on um primary thing, get the door locked. Uh, secondary doesn't mean it's less important. It's just the next step is turn turn the lights off and then get out of sight. If there's a window in the door, a window next to the door, whatever it is, don't be visible. So, um, we we're trying to teach students not to group up, to try to spread out where they can, but the most important thing is to get out of sight. So, they're locking the
024door. Um, a lot of our teachers, we have been teaching barricade up to this point. They're welcome to keep barricading if they if that, you know, if that if they feel that's going to help the situation, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is get that door locked. Uh, shelter. um taking appropriate shelter for different natural disasters, tornadoes outside hazmat, flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, which if we had a tsunami uh in South Dakota, I think we we have bigger problems happening. Um zombie attacks, aliens or parent teacher conferences and then evacuate. Now, when we uh put lockdown in place, that's when we go into our Alice protocols. So, we have our alert, we have our lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. And after we put that lockdown in place, we kind of put
025it on those teachers to do what they feel like the most uh the best way for for them to survive in that situation. If they know that the threat is on the other side of the building, evacuate. Don't waste time locking down. If you know where the threat is, if you don't know where the threat is, lock down and then try to judge from there. Do we need to maybe they have an external window they can just leave the classroom without ever opening the door. Um, so those are the conversations that we've been having internally. Um, does anybody have any questions for me? This is kind of our SRP in a nutshell. >> Okay. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Yes. So, just to add a little bit
026to this, part of our again our strategic plan is that each of the buildings uh practice uh all five of those at least once this year. Now, pretty easy when we have fire drills, there's an evacuation, it's pretty easy. Uh but the middle school and high school just did a uh a secure and a lockown drill today. So, they're well on their way of uh getting that uh fulfilling that. So, yeah. Good. Um there's no uh moving on uh no conflicts of interest waiverss. Uh moving on toformational items with superintendent update. >> Yep. I'm going to start with great news. Uh just letting everyone know that Mr. Williams has been chosen as the 2526 region secondary principal of the year. So congratulations Mr. Williams. Told me today you wanted a cake. I gota figure out
027where to where I'm going to get that. [Laughter] >> All right, moving on. Um, I don't know if you saw in the news or uh like the the was it the South Dakota Search Light or Dakota Search Light or whatever that Black Hills Energy is maybe developing a plan for wildfire mitigation during certain um conditions in the hills. So, if it's dry out, there's not much humidity and the wind's blowing, they're talking about shutting power down to homes or the grid to a certain degree. Uh and most people probably think that uh wildfires happen during the summer and we certainly see a lot of that but our driest times are usually in September, October and April uh March, April time frame and we get winds. So that concerns me a little bit about what's going
028to happen to us if they decide to shoot uh uh shut the power down during the school year. So, um, and just I guess for further information, Black Hills Energy, the Teras Lane, which is between the CTE Center and the high school, that's kind of the line. Anything south of that, the high school and all our buildings south are on Black Hills Energy. The CTE Center and Creekide are on but electric. So I talked with Matt Sleek today and he indicated that but electric has no such plan or uh to shut down power in in such a situation but they're more on the planes I guess if you will where Black Hills Energy is up in the hills. So essentially their plan right now is not to have a plan but they'll implement a plan
029if they need to. So they don't have a plan. They're not saying when this happens this is what we're going to do. I guess that doesn't satisfy me if we're going to be shutting power down possibly in September or October. So, I called Paul Thompson today from emergency management and asked him to coordinate a meeting between Bills Energy, uh, but electric uh the school district uh the hospital and the city. And I would assume that maybe Lee Deadwood and their school district city uh would be a part of that as well and maybe even Belouch. So, I don't know when that's going to be yet, but it sounds like everybody's open to having that meeting. Just got to know what's going to happen. Can they shut down portions of the grid and not others? Keep
030us powered in the city of Spearfish, but maybe outline areas be able to shut the power down. Don't know that. So, we got to have those meetings. Um, I just sent everybody an email around quarter after 4 uh30 about uh uh Black Hill State having their Spearfish community visit session and there's a reception for the board from 5 to 6 o'clock on September 22nd um at the Joy Center. So, the board is not necessarily part of the listening session. You're just you're invited to the reception. So again, that's from 5 to 6 at the Joy Center on September 22nd. Uh last thing, I know we went to the Stutter Conference and uh we heard some great things there. It was a great conference, but we are going to partner with Comp Compass Partners in Learning,
031formerly TAI. We're going to partner with them for our school improvement efforts as long along with our uh professional learning communities, our pair professional training, uh and a couple other things. It just makes sense. They're local. uh they can have more days on campus with us and since we're partnering with them and other items that we're going to utilize them to to walk alongside us and help us in our school improvement efforts. >> That's all I got. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Uh moving on action items. Uh first action item is to approve special board meeting school board training for Wednesday, September 24th at 5:30. >> Move to approve. Seconded. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose. Same sign. >> Action item B is approve school resource
032officer memorandum of understanding with city of Spearfish. And there's an attachment. I need a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I I guess nothing more. But I, you know, this was well vetted when uh three years ago when Chief Roert and I sat down and and went through it. uh our school attorney went through it and and made any changes or additions. The city attorney did the same thing. Uh I think it was well vetted. Uh Chief Smith now and I both feel that it's still uh encompasses everything that we're looking for. So I'm not recommending any changes to it. >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I oppose same sign. uh move on to the consent agenda. With the consent agenda agenda, one we can do one
033motion for all or you could pull one out if you would like to get a motion. >> I so move that we can both the consent agenda and the agenda. >> Okay. >> Second question. >> Yep. I just want to point out there's a difference again. the Spearfish uh baseball association for uh approved as a non-school club sport. Again, they're not meeting practicing, if you will, on school grounds. They're just using the school district name and logo, colors, and they abide by our training rules. The club-based activities are activities that students come forward and say, "Hey, we'd like to start a club or whatever." Try to find a an adviser that is on staff. And the majority of our clubs have an adviser that's on staff. Some don't. Good example is John Nelson with robotics
034uh that some don't but they utilize our school grounds, our premises for their for their meetings or practices or whatever it may be. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose same side. >> Moving on to minutes. Um consider the regular meeting minutes of August 11th, 2025. Make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those oppos same time sign. Uh moving on to financial reports and bills. I get a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion? Say >> all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose. same sign. There is no executive session. So, if I can get a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to >> second. Sorry, Ellen. No one gets that
035one. >> All those in favor? >> I All those opposed same sign. >> We are jured.