001Okay. Are you ready now? Okay. Am I ready? I'd like to welcome you all to the um Monday, April 14th, 2025 school uh Sperry school board meeting. Please join me in saying the pledge. 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. Next, I'd like to have a motion made to approve the agenda. I'll make a motion to approve it. Second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. It has been approved. At this time, we're going to be looking at scheduled audience. And before we begin on that, um I should say that uh would you please start by saying your name and your address? And uh we would appreciate if you
002would keep your comments to 3 minutes so that we can keep the meeting moving in a timely fashion. And we ask that you remember that uh we will not be making comments or acting on the issues brought up tonight unless they are part of the agenda. So at this time, Dan Hartman, we're calling on you. Push the button until it's green. There we go. Try again. Good. Okay. Oh, wow. Slow down. Um, so I'm Dan Hartman. Uh, kids in the school district. I live just outside of town, but I'm here representing Wolves Plumbing and Heating tonight. Uh, we have received uh, well, I'll start here. Construction Industry Center is a group we utilize for advertising bids and stuff like that. That's where we get a lot of our information from. And every year they do
003some master craftsmanship awards uh for projects. It it goes through a nomination process and people are chose to receive these awards. Well, fortunately enough this year at the end of March, we received uh an award for the CTE center. So along with that comes a plaque that can go up in the facility and I just wanted to take the time to present that to you guys tonight. Thank you. That is fantastic. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Congratulations to plumbing and heating too. Yes. Okay. Next next up is Pam Hines and Laura. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce your last name. Laura Fuka. Fukes. Thank you. Good evening. I provided a packet for you, so I'm not going to read it all. Um, and you can use it for your reference. But my
004name is Pam Hines. I live at 1809 Buckboard Circle in Spearfish. And I'm going to speak about um IEPs, eligibility, all that fun stuff. So, my name is Pam. I moved to Spearfish in the fall of 22. um after retiring from over 30 years in public education in California. Basically, I moved here because my mom got a Alzheimer's diagnosis. So, I am uh providing her care and um I included a list of my credentials at the end of the packet as well. I currently work for Northern Hills Training Center. I have a number of friends who have had difficulty navigating the public education system here in Spearfish. And when I step back and look holistically, the common thread seems to be accessing services for students and specifically those students with autism or neurodeiverse sometimes they
005call them or other health impaired disabilities. I included that flowchart for you from the state on eligibility. So I have sat in multiple meetings where the data is discussed and this data that is collected seems to trump a parent concern or input or the child's social emotional skills andor behavior. It is like there is a predetermined plan that the district team comes to the meeting with which of course is illegal and that is why parent input is dismissed. I know when looking at a child, he or she must not only have one or more of the listed disabilities, there must also be the need for specifically designed instruction as a result of that disability. And I've given you a list on there of examples of specifically designed instruction. I'm not going to read them to
006you, but I want to point out the behavioral supports, the social emotional skills, and the functional skills. Parents in the school district have been called routinely to voluntarily pick up students from school who are exhibiting deficits in these areas and the lack of staff has been cited as the reason the students need to go home. Other students may find themselves in what they call maybe the reset room or similar name for an extended period of time. This could also be seen as exclusion or an in-house suspension without the paperwork. And the child clearly has the need for some specifically designed instruction. So this fall I tried to speak with the superintendent because I had found myself present in two meetings ironically on the same exact day one in the morning and one in the afternoon
007where contradictory information was shared with the parents. In the first meeting the parent was told, "We need to get to know your child better before we want to evaluate him for special education. Okay. And um you have the rest of the packet in case I ran over. So you can are welcome to read it, but I did provide for you um some ideas and my phone number if anybody would like to chat. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Laura Fuksa and my address is 1825 Aster Road in Spearfish. Um, so my husband and I moved here about 10 years ago and we both work in the health profession, but we have two kids. Um, one is seven and that's our daughter. She's in first grade and our son is eight and he's in
008second grade. Um so just to start off with um I met Pam through a neurode divergent support group that um was formed at the place where my son is doing occupational therapy which is whole child wellness here in town. So um collectively we've come together and just discussed some common concerns that us as parents of special needs kids seem to be facing. Um, so my son has not been formally diagnosed but definitely meets the criteria for ADHD or sensory processing disorder. And I just want to start by saying that we have had amazing teachers, um, school staff, the principles, everybody has been wonderful, caring, loving, and compassionate. I can't say enough good things about the educators in our school system. Um but what we've come to notice in getting him evaluated and hopefully fitted for
009um special services so to speak in the school are a few common areas of concern. The first one is just lack of awareness um of the resources and processes within the school um that are provided to our children to help them to achieve their best in the classroom such as IEPs, 504s, OT, speech, etc. Um, I looked on the website. I haven't seen anything in the school offices. So, um, it's just kind of like a a guessing game when it comes to parents being educated about what's going to happen if our kids need extra help in school. Um, and I listed the description of the idea law there. Um, and that's from a book that we received from a meeting last week. So, the second one is lack of communication from teachers when there are
010problems with their kids. Um, oftentimes we're getting to conferences and then finding out they're having trouble paying attention or they're slipping behind in their grade level. Um, and not just like not pushing to have testing done if there are areas of concern. Um, and then the third thing is the testing process for special ed. um not seeming to look at the whole child. So academics was really focused on um when we talked about the whole process and um in my opinion and again collectively as parents we feel that the psychosocial and behavioral component is not being evaluated under the OI or other health impairments. Laura that's three minutes now. Thank you for your time and I do have those sheets there too with the proposed solutions that we came up with. But thank you. Okay.
011Thank you. Before you before you step away, if I might and if there's other parents in the in the room too, uh and and Laura, you and I talked and with Carly and and understand your concerns about maybe not understanding and just being handed the the parental rights and maybe not fully understanding that, I highly encourage you to reach out to Mrs. she will sit down and explain things if it's after an IEP meeting on whether your child is diagnosed or maybe fails to qualify to talk about why and and go over those so you better understand and maybe see what next steps are whether it may be a 504 or or whatever. Mrs. Hman and I have talked she is more than willing to meet with you oneon-one to further explain things. Okay, thank
012you. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. This time we'll uh it's Amy Doo and Carrie Gillis. Hello, I'm Carrie Gillis and this is Amy Drago. Uh we are occupational therapists with Monument Health. Essentially, our jobs ensure that people of all ages, including children, participate independently in meaningful tasks throughout the day, including eating. Let me ask you a question. What would your day look like if you didn't have your coffee or breakfast, or if you weren't given enough time to eat it or drink it? I know that I would be I wouldn't be as focused, attentive, energetic, or want to interact much with others. We are here to speak on behalf of the children in Spearfish Elementary Schools regarding their lunchtimes as it has been brought to our attention by several clients and their families about concerns
013with not being able to finish their meals in school as well as not being able to engage in greeting a friend. Now, how would you feel or react if you had to eat lunch or a meal without engaging in conversations with your co-workers, family, or friends? We know that eating and feeding are encompassing activities which include socialization, decompression, and emotional regulation. Eating and feeding is included in daily routines, culture, and rituals with food choices and should be done in a welcoming and accepting environment. So, according to the CDC, in 2025, schools should provide at least 20 minutes of seated eating time. So total lunchtime includes transitions to and from the classroom to the lunchroom, waiting in line, washing our hands, using the restroom, paying for a lunch, and then sitting down. Whereas that seated time
014starts when the last student sits down to eat their lunch. We know as children when we get time to sit down to eat that's going to improve our academic performance, our focus, emotional regulation, physical participation and social connection with others. In addition, we know that con the consumption of more foods, healthy foods leads to more nutritional intake which leads for less plate waste but also helps participate in academic testing. So, some of our suggestions or recommendations would be to have recess before lunch, comfortable eating environments, and being able to socialize, having parent volunteers or other funding. Some schools even add lunch to their curriculum. So, adding at least 30 minutes of that seated time would be much beneficial and appreciated. We also have handouts for you if you would like to read through those and
015contact us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Did you We'll have the handouts. Yes. Thank you to all of you who have spoken and we're we're glad to have your input. Uh at this time, uh we will you you can talk with anybody any any of our board members at any other time. Okay, next we're going to move on to um our school report and fanfare. None. Said there's none. So, I don't think there's any in uh conflicts of interests. So,formational items then is where we're at. Number seven. Yep. I'm going to embarrass him here a little bit. Mr. Wademan has been brought to my attention that he has passed the national exam to earn the title distinction of becoming a certified athletic administrator. Um I always like to let the school district know when
016this happens. This is comes from Paul Nepanol who is kind of in charge of this for the state so that we can recognize our AD at our next board meeting to help celebrate this. In order to achieve the CAA, an AD must uh combine several courses taught at the state and or national level, his or her experience as an AD, and then achieve a passing score on the national exam. All of which Daltton has accomplished. So, congratulations, Daltton. Yes. Yes. Congratulations. Next thing is just uh we are beginning our strategic planning. Uh we're going to start with uh the administrative uh team on a few brief things. Then our district improvement team will be meeting on uh May 1st and then we're going to have an admin retreat and then sometime after the May board
017meeting. I would like to have a board administrator retreat. We're looking at May 19th. I will send this out in an email so you guys can look at your calendars. let me know whether that will or will not work for you. So May 19th would be a board administrative retreat. Uh reminders this week district safety meeting on Wednesday at 9. So I think that's Nathan, right? And then middle school track meeting on Wednesday at 3:45 in the middle school conference room. Ryan and Nathan on that. You said 3:45. 3:45 middle school conference room. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay, we are next up is the action items and A is a resolution to approve the health insurance and workers compensation for the 20 2425 school year. May I have a motion for that? Second.
018Is there any discussion? Again, just health insurance went up 3% so fairly minimal and workers comp went up roughly $2,900. Okay. Any other thoughts? Okay. If not, this time all in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. It is approved. going to be second reading and approval of the 2026 27 calendar. The first reading was held on March 10th, 2025. May I have a motion on that? Move to approve. Second. Any discussion? I would just say it has not changed from the first reading last month. Uh again, there was discussion of combining a uh spring break and Easter break and there wasn't enough interest. I guess in my mind people were pretty indifferent about that. And then there was the discussion about moving it to the last uh week uh Thursday f again spring
019break moving it to the last uh Thursday Friday of April. However, that still falls within our testing window. So that will not work. So we'd have to move it another week down the road. Uh the comments I I received from staff uh concerning that was it's close enough to the end of the school year so let's not bother moving it. So there wasn't enough uh people in favor of moving it that it made a difference. So I would recommend uh to approve as shown. Okay. All in favor of saying I I oppose same sign. It is passed. going to see consider the second reading approval of changes to criminal background checks policy 4312. Move to approve. Second. Okay. This one is a bit different than uh just a few extra strikethroughs on it that had
020to do uh with volunteers. Uh DCI said they will no longer fingerprint or provide background checks for volunteers. So that was struck from the policy. This is strictly for u staff whether certified or non-certified uh to be fingerprinted and sent to DCI and FBI. Any volunteers? We have been doing this already uh but we will continue to do it uh through our electronic background check. Any other discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I. All oppose the same sign. It is passed. On to D. Consider bids for the high school domestic hot water heater, water softener, and rooftop handlers to uh it's a replacement project. Move to approve. Second. Discussion. Yeah, we opened bids last week. Uh Seco Construction was the low bid overall. uh had a base bid, an alternate one, and an
021alternate two that came to $750,900. Um the base bid again is just the domestic water heater uh project in the base. Well, it's in the basement of the high school. Uh so we'll be taking out the boiler uh and uh reservoir tank down there and just repiping things and uh putting in water heaters down there. Uh, alternate number two is for two rooftop air units. And um, and then alternate uh, two is for an upgraded uh, water heater for the ba in the for the base bid. So the warranty on the water heaters that were spec. The ones in the alternate are 15 years. And when Josh checked with the lodge, uh, they replaced one at 13 years. So, if we get 13 to 15 years out of these rather than five, especially being in
022that basement, um we're I think it's well worth the 25,000 for that. So, our recommendation is to move forward with all the all of these, the base bid and the two alternates. Again, a total of 750,900. Um it's not going to get any less expensive. Josh, you have anything you'd like to add? Did I do a motion on it? So, it is. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. All in favor say I. I. All oppose? Same sign. Okay. It is passed. We're now at the consent agenda and I remind you that you may take anything off from it if you wish. So at this time we are to hold consent agenda. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. All oppose same sign. It is passed. Okay,
023we are now to the discussion. A bound software and activity ticket pricing. Thank you, Dalton. Okay, bound cashless. Mike, first thing I want to throw out there is please don't get caught up in the cashless portion of this. Um, I'll get to it in a second, but we don't have to go straight cashless across the board. So, a little bit of history about bound. Um, three years ago, the state took on bound and bought it for every school to put their varsity schedules in and their varsity rosters in. So, for the last three years, we're in the end of those three years right now. Um, South Dakota High School Activities Association has paid for this for every school that's a member. Um, now with them being done pay done done paying, they are still going
024to require us to put our schedules and our rosters on bound, but we got to make a decision on what package we want from bound. Um, Bound Pro cashless would give us this would give us this program for free. Um, there's a list of things right there that it gives us. Um, when we say cashless, that would mean they're striving for us to be 80% cashless, 20% cash. Now, with that, is there bound people that are watching every move we make? And if we're not, if we jump to 21, are they going to come shut us down or charge us more? No, they're not going to do that. At the end of the year, you they'll look at it. If we are off of that or over that 8020, they would sit down with us
025say, "Hey, how can we get this ratio back closer to 8020 or below?" Um through that, a couple things that I that I want to point out would be um our ticket and and passes, which on the flip side um would potentially up our activities passes and our tickets to get in. Um, I put those prices on the other side of this. Um, event scheduling. This could we could use this for every building in the district if we wanted to go that route to schedule out things from practices to youth practices to anything else that our buildings are used for. Um, in the concession stands, we can use this and use one of their readers to get a more accurate way of keeping track of our inventory and what we sell. Um, camps, camps is
026another one that people can go on and we can use this platform for our camps and and the exchange of money if if camps in the let's say summer camps. Um, this is where parents or or anybody could go on and we wouldn't have to give coaches cash to to handle. We would take that out of their hand and they could pay all online. Um, all of this is what we would like as a package at the high school level for all of our activities. If we did not go with the bound pro cashless, this would cost us a little higher than $3,800 annually. Um, if we did go with the bro bound pro cashless, we could use this potentially if if the middle school wanted to get on board, they could use this for
027their scheduling. um and rosters and then we could use all that as well. One other thing that I forgot to talk about was our registration process. We've used bound this year to go to all electronic with physicals and paperwork and handbooks and signatures. We've done that all electronically. It's been a learning process for all of us, but it's helped us a lot and speed that process up. Um, pros that I see with going bound, pro cashless, as a society, we're moving towards cashless. Um, I I think that we would see that people would be a lot more on board with this than what we think right off the bat. Um, a big thing is it keeps more accurate numbers for attendance and an activity. Right now, we are tallying and when that line gets long,
028those tallies don't you sometimes don't always keep up. We're just trying to get people in the door. This would be a way that we they would have a reader for us. If any of you were at our Sodak games, boys and girls basketball, that reader is there and and it keeps tally um for every transaction, whether it's a cash or credit card right there. And then I go back on the computer and I have the reconcile sheet sitting right there on my computer. Um we could also use those, like I said, in the concession stands. Um, I think this would put our auditors at ease with an efficient and more accurate process and reconcile list for for our attendance at games. So, on the flip side, if we would go to Spearfish activity prices, if
029we would go to this with the cash list, they do add their fees in there. Um, our current prices are in that middle column and then what we would have to move them to for future activity prices. Um, and passes are in that column on the right. If we decided to go to cashless and we didn't want to up our prices on that bottom chart, I kind of just put together those are only ticket passes. Those don't have any or ticket um sales. Those don't have any passes in them. So, I added 90 cents to each one of those tickets sold in the fall and each one of those tickets sold in the winter. And that's what we would have to pay if we didn't up our ticket prices to cover that 90 cents for
030per ticket. So, to clarify, if we went to cashless and um we wouldn't have to pay the $3,850. Correct. And if we upped our activity ticket prices as what you're recommending here, there would be zero expense to the district. Correct. That that's based on the 8020 split. If we're not at the 8020 split, then you said they they try to get us there. What does that mean? Yeah, I think they would find different promotional ways to get us there. Uh, right off the bat when I sat down with them at the AD conference, they talked about QR codes and how we can promote this on social media so people can get their tickets early on or their activities passes early on through our social media platforms. Um, fall sport fall activities, um, parent meeting and
031things like that. We'd be able to promote it that way. Do you So, I'm assuming you sign a contract with Yes. A yearly contract with it's annual. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Have they seen seen a increase or decrease in attendance in anything with if there's a price increase or going cashless has it affected any numbers on that? Not that I know of. I would and I I don't think it whether it was cash or cash less I don't think impacted but you certainly saw the numbers at the Sodak games. Uh we had a great deal and people were able to funnel through there pretty quick just because we had the cashless system. They could buy tickets ahead of time, have the QR code to scan and be able to move through. I almost want to increase
032some attendance maybe because like kids don't have cash on hand, they can still come with their debit card or whatever. There was an increase on the the concessions line on here. Uh it says there's 2.75% and 25 cents a transaction. Is that above like somebody buys a pack of M&M's that gets added on and that goes to bound? Yes. Okay. Yes. So, Dalton, what's your recommended on that? I don't know what a candy bar is right now. Two bucks. Yeah. Would we raise it to 225 to cover that at least the 25 cents? Yes. Yes. I would suggest that we do that. Um, so they take that out of the $2 like that or do they have a way to add it on for like card transactions is like what like what we do at
033Skyidge or Keying Resources, whatever you call like everything's added on, right? So if they pay cash, it's two bucks, but if they pay with a card, they're paying So it's 240 dual pricing. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Or if they don't do they have that ability ability because I was going to ask on the camps, do we have to inflate camp 6% to cover the fee or is that an option like when we do anything with um leading edge fundraising, you know, the like the donor pays the processing fee. Is that an option or is it are we having to account for that on our own to cover the fees? I am not for sure. I believe we're going to we have to account for it on our it might be worth asking. I think a
034lot of them can add it. Yes. But with this ticket wise, I understand you don't want it because that's going to push everyone to cash. So, they're probably not going to want to do that. Well, in some of these the the trans I mean sure I'm sure they have this all figured out, but um there's two ways. There's search charging and dual pricing and you can't searchcharge a debit card. So So I'd like to know maybe a little bit more about that part of it. Okay. And some of these you're talking on the Yeah. Just Well, just like on the concessions, if someone looks up at the debit card, you can't sir charge a debit card. Okay. So you you you'd have to charge them a cash price. So yeah. I think just clarification on
035that would help for me too. I think Brian and I are on the same page there with Okay, if we can and you know if that's if I come up and pay with a card, I pay a little bit more, but if the guy behind me pays with cash, they're paying two bucks. You know, if if we understand that a little bit, that'll help, too. I I certainly think you're on the right track. It makes sense. Like just a few questions. Yeah. And bound's a great tool. I mean, I I use it all the time to try to keep track of stuff. So yeah, it's definitely a learning curve for everybody and three years ago people didn't say it was a great tool, but they have done a great job of continuing to evolve and
036and work for us. So at the May board meeting, I'd like us to have as an action item to possibly increase um activity ticket prices. Normally do that at our July annual meeting, but uh need to know sooner than later how we're going to set this up. And if we're not going to do it, then there's some work on Dalton's end that we need to figure for next year. And again, we haven't raised activity ticket prices or single game ticket prices since I've been here. So, next year will be my 10th year and we haven't raised them since I've been here. just comparing around the state TE's and the Sou Falls um those single game tickets are what they raised theirs to and they jumped on to bound cashless last year. Yeah, I think that's
037the only question I have. So appreciate it or the questions I guess with those good questions. Okay, thank you. Okay, next up is B first reading for changes updates of handbooks for the 202526 school year and oh Nick wants there will be no service fees for any of the handbooks so that's good there is If you go over five minutes, then I think we're all going to be fine. Put it on. Well played. You know, I saw myself refing in the state tournament. I don't like this view of the scammer either. I knew when you were there for sure. I know that. Well, good evening everybody. Um, you've got an outline of the handbook changes. Um, you'll notice no significant uh facets of change. We we've done a lift over the last several years. There
038will be some changes to the uh layout and the accessibility. The office staff is working on creating a hyperlink table of con contents with a search. We've heard from our parents that like to access the handbook via the cell phone, especially the signature page. So, changing those formats from a fillable PDF to a more uh more searchable Google doc uh will be our goal um for those parents. If you look at some of the clarifications, frankly, there's a few of them in there that I don't know how we missed in in the past. Um, you'll notice there was a few areas of emphasis that we did discuss that were brought forth either by parent committee or staff committee. We did not make a change to an outside food policy. There will be clerical changes like
039we make annually. Uh, changes to staffing after July 1st. um up uh our updated master schedule um which does reflect um for your information a a 25minute lunch block um for the students at that age um our activity and lunch prices any of those other changes from the annual meeting. Um some other areas you'll note um the progress base or the report cards or progress reports. Uh we did take out some language in there. Um just a uh strike through you'll note. I don't know that it's pertinent or relevant anymore. That instrument's been in place in the district since I've been here. Uh making reference that many other schools in South Dakota use these. Didn't really seem uh pertinent or relevant. You'll also notice under our district's crisis procedures, which makes reference to the emergency
040operation plan, we did take out any reference to proprietary systems or communication, it's not called school reach anymore. It's called school messenger, and school messenger may not be the medium in which our teachers would communicate directly with families if we were to evacuate to an to an off-campus site. So, we have uh we've done a strike through on on any specific needs and instead propose replace that with district communication tools and resources, which could and would include at this point uh school messenger. You'll also drop down and see underneath food service. I I don't know why that was ever in there. I don't know. But as we read through it again this year, we decided there really was no purpose to the language of if a child's going to eat breakfast or lunch at home
041to notify the classroom teacher. We have breakfast open every day for our students from 7:45 to 8:10. Parents don't need to tell us if their child eats breakfast at home or lunch. Um, I'm sure there was a purpose that that was there, but we can't figure out why it needs to stay there. So, we've taken that out. We did make some changes to the illness policy and following our postcoid review. You'll notice that in our uh policy references, which is at the end of this, in our illness policy, we did make reference uh we've got administrative rule 5305A. that 5305A was brought by the nurse which includes Department of Health guidelines including fever and fever reducing medication and timelines. None of those were really laid out clearly in the handbook. And so what we did
042was pull some excerpts from that. Specifically, you'll see in red recommendations that students with a fever over 100 degrees would be sent home and we would recommend they stay home without the aid of fever reducing medications for 24 hours. This this does align with uh administrative rule 5305 uh which we'll also link and at the bottom I'll make reference to that. The other thing I would draw attention to um we didn't believe that uh the lice clause for the school district belonged under illness. Lice is a separate issue. I don't think it ever probably did belong there. But 5305A also makes reference to how the school district would deal with that. You'll notice a a recommended change of language in there that with parental consent, the school nurse may provide treatment if necessary. Um, without
043getting into it, there are times in which families with persistent uh health issues and um the inability to eradicate those things that the school nurse plays a more active role. So, we wanted to make sure that that was in there, but that would be uh uh with consent. You'll also notice a strike through then down below on the character counts component. Our K12 counselors are still having conversations about this, but with the adoption of the Kuh 12 Spartan pride model. Um, we have taught character counts for a long time. Character counts is a bit dated. We believe we can teach the basic tenants of character counts under the opaces of our K12 PBIS and Spartan pride model and align all of those instructional facets to better align with everything you'll read across the district about
044what it means to be a Spartan and Spartan pride. So, we would strike that. Then at the bottom you'll see under the uh highly um or the the referenced policies, we would recommend that we add a link for parent convenience not to have to go to the policy manual uh for some high need uh clauses that we refer to animals in school excessive absences immunization and then we would also add a link to 5305A the administrative rule that refers not only to uh head lice and fe uh fevers and illness but also the entire uh do list of illnesses and school protocol. That would summarize the uh proposed changes to the handbook for this year. Questions for me? Really? No, no sir charge there. Okay. Thank you. [Music] As you can see, Creekide list is
045relatively short, shorter than Mr. Gollips. Uh, most of these these two changes in here are basically kind of what Mr. Summoners and I discussed. Um, he was more comfortable with not allowing pets and so on coming in for show and tell, which aligns with what West already does. And so I basically took the west policy and transferred it in. So you can see the P information and then the electronic devices. Um as society changes we see more and more moving down into the elementary buildings. And so I moved toward what the middle school is proposing and we moved in that direction. So and then there was a also the the facil faculty or faculty one also had that same change. So okay any questions? Thank you. Thank you. All right. For the middle school, um
046just some clerical things. Obviously, the first air strike out that is not even the law anymore and we missed that for a couple years. So, we're taking that out. Uh for jazz band, just adding in the wording that they have to be in band. It's kind of hinted at some other places in there, but we want to be specific about it. Obviously, the biggest change is what our electronic devices are into our cell phones. The idea is just to have them turned off and off of them and not in their pockets, things like that. So, not feeling vibrate all day long. Uh changing the wording from our ALEC room. I I'm going to guess most people in this room don't even know what ALEC stands for. Most of our staff did not. Uh, and it's
047referred to as Spartan Learning Lab in our handbook several times. So, we're going to make that easy and just change it all over to Spartan Learning Lab. Uh, add in the no oversized slippers or footwear. That is a topic in the middle school that comes up a lot as far as pajamas and what can be worn in the school. And then adding in the information on the hope squad that our counselors presented to you guys on earlier this year just to make sure that's available. Uh, also need to update some links in there to make sure those are accurate. Obviously, things that aren't on here are updating staff uh names when those are all confirmed. So, that's pretty much it for updates for the middle school. Any questions? I think Walmart has a good oversized
048footwear policy. You might want to check on Thank you. Thank you. I was going to say unfortunately I wear oversized shoes every day, my big feet. So, um not allowed in the middle school. I'll take it. Okay. So, looking at the high school handbook, we do have a couple bigger changes. Just wanted to point out. Uh, one thing we've looked at my first two years at, uh, quite a bit is the grading scale. And so, you can see we are looking at, well, we're going to change our grading scale. Um, and you can kind of see it is a variation of a of a 10point scale. And probably you notice right off the bat that right now our grading scale says that a 96 is the A4.0. This is not a massive drop. it's only
049to a 95 and the reason being um as I was talking to staff and took the student council um both groups felt that there is a difference between a student who gets a 90 and a 95 or 96 or 97. So they wanted to keep a differentiation within that but it does simplify the scale. We com we looked at and Mr. Mr. Miller was a huge help on this. Looked at lots of different kids current GPA and compared to what the GPA would be on this new scale. Every single student all the way up and down it moved higher GPA moving to this grading scale. Um so I think this will be an improvement. It'll help help a lot of our kids out. Um give them uh a better shot at some scholarships and things
050like that that maybe they are missing out on. Um the next thing I have is graduation requirements. We're just adding in our high school diploma chart within that part of our handbook. It just li lays out how to get the advanced endorsement all the way up to advanced honors endorsement and everything you need to take to do that. Just some clarification there. Underneath that, we added 6. And basically what this is saying is a in order to get a high school Spearfish High School diploma, a senior needs to attend Spearfish High School for the entirety of their senior year. Um we're adding that in. That is something new. So basically, if a student wants to homeschool or go to Black Hills Christian or another some other entity part-time and then part-time with us, if they
051want our diploma their senior year, they have to be at the high school for the entirety of their senior year. Under cell phones, we just added that cell phones are not allowed in the hallway during instructional time. That is something we've been doing for the two years I've been here, but I wanted to make sure it's in the handbook. It's cut down on problems in the hallway quite a bit. um teachers require students to leave them in the classroom if they are going to the bathroom or the counselor. We also added under student parking and driving, students are not allowed to park in the CTE parking lot. Uh wanted to make sure that's in our handbook. And then under attendance absences to attend the state competitions. Uh last year, Mr. Mr. Wayman and I worked
052really hard to uh allow students um to be exempted if they were going to attend our state competitions, which turned out to be an awesome thing if you guys were at the state competitions this year for basketball. It's great to see such a great community there of both our students and community members, but we just wanted to make sure we clarify that to SDHSAA sanctioned state events. Um, and then the next part under um, all all 9 through 12 students must stay for maroon for Spartan time. We're just adding in ACT because we're switching to the ACT next year instead of the South Dakota State Assessment. That's all I've got questions for me. Okay. Thanks. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, at this time we will go on to the minutes. Consider the regular
053amendments meeting minutes of March 10th, 2025. And I think we can do B at the same time to consider the special meeting minutes of March 31, 2025. Move to approve. Second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Okay. Moving on to the financial reports and bills here. Again, the A, B, C, and D all at the same time. Uh, move to approve as presented. Second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Okay. This time we'll go into um 13, executive session. I move we go into executive session underneath of South Dakota codified law 1-25-2 paragraph 4 preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representative. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. This time we will go into executive session for those
054students who