001no I didn't right oh okay so we're ready to go I TW I still don't see it serious well good thing that it guys here oh just popped up thank you okay oops maybe welcome to the Spearfish school board meeting uh for March 10th 2025 please join me in saying the Pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the unit un States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may I have a motion for the agenda and the agendum so moved second all in favor say I I it has passed if I'm right there's no scheduled audience so we're on to school reports and Fanfare uh the new CTE program with the high school staff of McKenzie Lee and Chantel poop
002I have the privilege of introducing our new programs at the CTE um Center which we're going to go through a little PowerPoint here in a second I brought some students with us to kind of do most of the talking at least and explain some of the things that we are doing um we're going to lead this off with Mr East in our new Building Trades program all right for those who don't know I am also uh uh the instructor of record anyway for the Building Trades program I have two blocks of that uh every other white or every other day on white days and I have eight students in one section and nine and the other and rather than me sit up here and talk about where we are at and what we are learning
003and where we're at today um I thought I'd bring a couple of students so the first one is Heath Brownell and ankor Thompson I'll let them kind of talk through what we have up on that slide and the following slide all right so um on the house we got going today or kind of the last week we've been doing sighting and kind of getting the windows put in and getting the rest of it all furnished on the outside trying to get it all put together um what we have left is Sheetrock get sheetrock in and kind of start moving some appliances in and kind of finish insulating which they just insulated this Saturday so um house is going along good I would think I think everything's should be funny sturdy had a good teacher to
004help teach us through it so yeah I believe this has been a very good class for a bunch of kids it helps a lot in teaching and it's a good use will we will use throughout the rest of our life it's been a really fun experience Mr East has done an amazing job teaching it and I really like the class because it's a all Hands-On project and we don't have to just sit in a classroom all day well not all day for a block but I think it's been an amazing trade it'll be it's an amazing trade awesome experience and just something to like really get knowhow on because like it's not we just framing houses it's teaching us how to put in a outlet or put an insulation put in a tub just simple
005Plumbing so it's been an amazing really good class um the trades we've been exposed to have been um framing um siding Roofing uh plumbing and electrical so far uh we've learned how to do all of those and kind of get through and get a learn um how everything works and it kind of shows shows the bones and we've built everything from the ground up so we've seen the entire progress of the house I think it's coming along fairly well and the inspections we've got done uh we've had the mechanical inspection the framing inspection uh the electrical and the plumbing inspection done so I think that should be almost all for our inspections on the house and they we've all we've passed every single one so far so hope to keep it going okay you all
006right uh I'm Chantel pkup I'm the automotive instructor um some things that we've learned this year we have our intro to Auto class and I teach six courses of that um I've taught them how to purchase a vehicle just do basic maintenance like oil changes um checking fluids uh changing wipers cabin filters all that kind of stuff um we're currently in our tires and wheels unit and they've learned how to change a spare tire change their tires onto their wheels um tire repairs alignments learning just all different sorts of things um plans for next year is to do brake steering and suspension as well as the intro class and then I'm also going to add on a repairs class where most of like my Advanced students will be where they're just applying the stuff they
007already know in and learning kind of like the um more sorry blank in uh more of like the business techniques of it how to work in a shop work with different people the repair orders and stuff like that with it um next slide and then just some additional opportunities that our Automotive course has offered to students is our Auto Club that's a huge hit um we have I think about 13 students involved in that and we constantly have other students just coming and going as they want um we also have skills USA which has been a program for our school for a while um we're actually adding on Automotive competitions into that and this year I have four students competing in automotive technology service and maintenance and light repair so we'll see how they do
008this year um and then the students that I brought with me are anchor he's more advanced doing stuff at his on his own at home and then Ry a nontraditional student who doesn't have as much experience beforehand um so I'll let them talk a little bit um about like the other trade it has been a very good experience Miss poke has done a very well good job teaching it and it's obiously kind of came in handy a few times because like she lets um if like as advanced kids she will let us pull in our own Vehicles sometimes like I blew a vacuum pump in my pickup and somehow got to the shop and was able to replace it there and she has W been able to walk me through all the steps and then
009we have I think it was a very good idea to do Advanced kids so we can have our we can work at our own level then go to then have like the basic where she can spend more time with them and teach them more well than having us just kind of standing there so that is my input on the class I think it is a very good class [Laughter] yeah so as Miss poke up said I am a basic student I am non-traditional um I believe the class has been a very good experience Miss poab has done a great job instructing us I've as anchor said have had a few experiences where friends have brought in their cars just last week I changed the brake rotors in a car it's been a great experience it
010made me want to go into the field even going into it knowing not a lot this class has been just a very great experience and I'm very glad and lucky to have it all right so I'll change it up to Health Sciences um so I'm Mrs Lee I teach Health Sciences and the certified nursing assistant class um I brought U my student Ava here today with me um but just a little bit of outline with the Health Sciences I kind of outlined it on the slide there but we looked over um we started out the year with the history of medicine we did different cultures of Medicine um aging and family Dynamics empathy and sensitivity in Health Care Community needs for health um I had them do a shadowing experience where I sent them out
011into the community to the um Healthcare place of their choice and they got to do um a shadowing day and then report back to the class on um their experience which was really awesome I think a lot of them figured out what they liked and what they didn't like um we we've been doing some clinical practice we just um actually touched on vital signs so they did that last week they were in the lab um and then I've had a few guest speakers throughout the year um I've heard had some um or a CRNA which is a certified nurse anesthetist and then um nursing professors wtt professors and then USD medical students have come and that's just for my health sciences so I'll have you go to the next slide and then my CNA class
012Ava has also been in um so first semester was basically just a bunch of book work um getting the knowledge down and then second semester we've um been doing clinicals and so they're in the nursing home right now um preparing for their um certification and then I also have had the opportunity to um hand out scholarship money through um Kirk remind me what Foundation yeah Spearfish Community Foundation so um I'll let Ava talk a little bit about her experience though all right thank you I'm sure most most people here kind of know me but um as far as the health science classes go it was a really fun class to take because um I feel like most people when they think of healthcare think like nurse or doctor but it was really cool to see
013the exposure I got from that class um it felt really introductory at first but then you kind of learned some stuff that you just never really considered in the healthcare fields and so that was a really interesting class to take um learning things like medical terminology that I hadn't heard before or just like the people that have to get involved with Healthcare and the vast um amount of people that are involved in hospital and not just hospitals but other um areas and seeing a lot of really cool people come in um just last week we had the privilege of seeing some of the EMTs here in Spearfish come in and we got to look around in their ambulance and kind of their job and what that looks like um and as far as the CNA
014class goes we've gotten to like she said the first whole semester was just us um learning the basics um just on the computer and then quizzing over it learning it um it was pretty extensive there was like a workbook and then labs and then quizzes and the tests at the very end there and then this semester has been a lot of um like in-person stuff we're doing like clinicals and then seeing all these um different speakers come in and talk about their experience in the healthcare field um I think it's been a really great experience learning how to be a CNA and like knowing that I'll have that um my whole life and I can always um fall back on the CNA um license and that having that as a job and it's a really
015good backbone for any other health care um career and so it's been a really cool experience than you that's that's pretty much it just uh wanted to make sure the school board knows we're just thankful for the opportunities that you kind of all helped us have for these kids this building is doing exactly what it should be and it's preparing kids for the workforce and for for the for universities and giving them some great opportunities that we just didn't have before so thanks for uh giving us this opportunity so thank you guys nice job thank you thank [Applause] you just want to know there a little cross curricular training going on as well just the other day in building trade I was informing some of my students in there that are also in Auto if
016they stay out of the foot Fe that their fuel efficiency [Laughter] increases next we're ready to recognize our building teachers of the Year all right as I call your name I would ask that you come up here and we got a card for you and I believe you looked at your bank statement you would have got a today you would got your s from the school district you should have Reed Che from found of the the district with that I'd ask to come up element [Applause] and from West Elementary and our district Teacher of the [Applause] Year from Creek Elementary Bri [Applause] and Middle [Applause] School from the [Applause] school thank you to all of you for being here and being just so outstanding it was just truly amazing when I read through some of
017the all all that you had for your application or whatever it's called so it was just I'm going you guys were just all so good and that does not always happen so congratulations thanks you guys thank you so grateful for you as a reward you have to stay here for the rest of the meeting as a reward except for you might want to stay and support your person that says recognized District teacher of the year or did you just provide that I did okay okay thanks thank you next up is to consider conflict of interest waivers and I don't believe we have any of those either no so um we're going right to you Mr Easton with your informational items right mine's fairly short and sweet and I apologize I a time if I'm going
018to miss some activities here but just a little update on some uh the high school debate team brought home state runner up so very close to being nine deep girls wrestling won the inaugural girls region tournament and earned sixth place honors at State boys wrestling placed 23rd out of 32 teams and the girls and boys basketball teams both earned uh their weight or punch their ticket to the state tournament uh next thing is cogni accreditation we went through our review last Monday in Tuesday we had some folks on site and then we had our lead reviewer was uh with us via Zoom I thank you to the board members that were part of the interviews uh I sent out the the glows and the grows to you and so while we have a lot of
019things we can be uh happy about and uh celebrate uh we also have some areas that we know we can improve upon and so uh that's the nice thing about the external review team is that they come in and they're an extra set of eyes looking at what we're doing and how we're doing it and uh and and giving us some idea giving us some Kudos uh some things to celebrate but also giving us some things that we can possibly improve upon so uh we certainly take that to heart and uh so we will be looking at that in near future as to to the direction of the district uh moving forward and the last thing I have is just a reminder for my board negotiators uh November I'm sorry November March 25th at 5
020o'clock we have uh negotiations with the sea here in the b in the boardroom and then on April 1st Tuesday April 1st we will have it with scea in here at 3:45 that's all I have thank you okay moving on to action items at this time it is a is to appoint a representative and an alternate for the local Board of Equalization uh scheduled meetings are March 17th for 2025 at 5: pm at the council chambers at spish City Hall do I have a motion for this then I'll Nom just need nominate I'll nomin second okay we have an alternate too I had nominate Ellen as the alternate thank you yeah so okay we've had a motion any discussion on this no more okay this time all in favor say I I I I'll oppose
021same sign motion has passed moving on to be approve the technology purchases for 2025 26 um do you have any do I have a motion on that move to approve second do we have any discussion on that any questions okay nothing's changed correct Mr AR no okay okay then all in favor say I I I all oppos same sign okay motion has passed C the keing resource Sports hlex softball fields uh with a sof Ballou so do I have a motion on that I'll make a second any dis discussion on that again and I'll let Mr wman speak to whatever I don't touch on but I think the idea is that with the Dual Fields out there that at least for practice they can have varsity and JV going at the same time so for
022the sake of I guess timeliness if you will allowing both teams to compete possibly at the same time uh PR practice and I'm sorry practicing and competing at the same time possibly so it just expands our opportunities I'll let Mr wadean speak further to that yeah coach has reiterated the numbers continue to grow so she sees that as as a big benefit to be able to practice on two Fields two separate teams as it grows as we're learning each time last year our first we just this as a way to expand expand soft and okay and it's new and shiny okay all in favor say I I I I'll oppose same sign okay the motion has passed and thank you Mr wadean okay D approve the agreement with Bros engineering for the Middle School track
023project do I have a motion for that move to approv second okay any discussion yeah I guess I'd like to talk a little bit about it you saw both of the uh you saw the proposal but then you saw both both of the cost estimates uh certainly the less expensive is just doing the overlay um concern about that at least when I was talking to Jason was that the trucks as they drive around the track to dump their Asphalt in the in the asphalt there and things like that we're going to further damage the track he's really also worried about reflective cracking wherever there's a crack right now it may not be in year one but in year two or three even with a fabric it's eventually going to show through so he's he's he
024like the others from Monument and so on are worried about just doing a simple overlay because it's not going to be it'll be simple but it it's not going to last terribly long so that was that's his concern so he prepared the other cost estimate of tearing out the track removing two feet of subsoil bringing in engineered fill doing the track over the top of it and and you saw that that was closer to 900,000 so I don't know I we've talked about this before it's to me doing the overlay is kind of like buying a cheap tool at some point you're going to invest and you're going to regret that you even invested a little bit amount in a project or in a product that is substandard and is going to fail at some
025point and so to do it right um it's just do we do design design bid build per se where we uh bring Jason in and we send it out for bids and uh we get whoever that's going to come in and be maybe a general contractor and oversee it uh everywhere from the uh demolition of tearing out the old stuff to bringing in the engineer fill putting down the uh the track surface and uh or the asphalt I should say not the track surface um do we do it that way or do we go with a One-Stop shop like a mammoth or renter track or somebody like that that has all the engineering in in house they have their all their own folks they oversee the project from start to finish so at this point
026that's kind of where we need to decide do we want to do a design bit build or do we want to maybe explore the idea of bringing in a mammoth a rener a swisser track and much like we did with the CTE Center do a kind of the construction manager at risk interview them see what kind of cost proposals that they're going to give maybe they're going to be a little bit better I don't know but maybe kind of have them compete for one another or is it just better to go with the design bid build so is it expected that the when Bros is done with their part here that the cost estimates could be greatly different between the two yeah he's thinking because if you look at Bros it uh in his cost
027estimate Jason's cost estimate he talks about bringing in fill and crowning the field and putting sad down now there's a concern about that when do we get to use it I mean you look at you know out at uh Skyridge at the sports complex you know they didn't of course they did Hydro seed but um there's going to take a time before that side can actually take before we go out there and play football on it or whatever so you know usually that's going to come at the end of the project because you have machines on the inside of your field so if we do do it in August when do we get to use the field so there's concerns about putting uh s down too and there uh there isn't the sprinkler system now
028or is there there is one now uh just not the most effective uh when something does go wrong with it it's four or five feet down and it's hard to work on uh just the valve boxes are way down you have to get a mini excavator out there to dig them up and and and those and the two bids that we are estimate so bids two estimates didn't include anything for sprinklers did not include sprinkl no no um they really don't get into specking usually a landscape company well will spec that so and so Jason doesn't they said they don't get into that so in essence if by by approving this are we saying we're gone with we're for sure doing this um by approving it does doesn't mean you you could still go with
029just a simple 2in overlay if that's the way you decide or you can go with but you're doing one of them what you're doing one of them that is kind of and if you're not quite there yet you could just table table the consideration for tonight and or the action for tonight I just want to make sure everyone's where I mean you're approving this that means that you're kind of saying you're doing one of those and so are you there yet that's I guess that would be my question was the original we had budgeted like a million at one point before right I don't know if we necessarily budgeted but we had a cost estimate initially from IC when they came in and and did a review of all our facilities they give us a
030cost estimate of a million we haven't gotten through the budgeting phase yet yeah if if you're and and I'm fine if you're if you're wanting to table to tonight for further information I just need to know what is it or is it just again the facility committee members getting together and and talking through it again to have a bring a recommendation back I I just I need a little Direction on yeah I mean I guess I would be in favor of tabling it to the next meeting um having a little bit more conversation before we start we're going to spend 600 to a million 600,000 to a million dollars so I'll amend my motion to table this for further discussion with the idea that the facilities committee would meet before that as well and give
031a recommendation is that way yeah I think if there needs to be further conversation the facilities committee needs to get together disc discuss it can you get it um I know we've worked with Mammoth a little bit um with this information here we will even get a bid at this point or get an idea until we determine if we want to go CM art or design bit build um to get maybe because I know before we were kind of all in right like big picture if we redid everything here's our costs approximately with Mammoth is there a way to tweak that to um maybe more of these specs from the engineering design or is that more of a wait until cilities comes back I I can call Derek buck and get his thoughts on that
032uh you know I'm not sure it's going to matter whether we're Excavating two foot or two and a half foot as Mammoth was going to do I don't think in the grand scheme of thing that's going to cost much um I think with Mammoth or rener or whoever we're paying for that uh oversight that construction manager if you will that oversees everything and we get a turnkey product at the end to where if we just do a design bid build you know there might be you know putting in a fence around or long jump pits that's something that Jason maybe didn't have in here uh we just talked about the track so do have inputting in the long jump pits and the high jump Pit and the possibly a p Vault and all that type
033of stuff so again it could be potentially be more part of the reason we were doing this was hopefully be able to utilize it more for practice than go up to Black Hill State and right those are all events that we'd be practicing and so the the thing that and again everybody's going to have a different vantage point or different uh perspective on it but you know in conversations with uh like Mr suers a middle school ad and when you know we we do one Middle School track but if we had something in this facility that was good enough for competition we if nobody else we could at least host two or three triangulars where we bring sturis and Bell or Lee Deadwood and Bell or whomever where we could have a bit more uh
034competition level because we're not going to do it we're probably lucky to get the one at BH for the middle school so I think definitely doing something more for the kids because it's a huge I mean even my kids they love the track um to be in track and field and I think it's a very popular um oper or sport at the middle school so I think investing it's really good I personally like the idea of I don't want to just do an overlay like I think we need to so I think getting more details on which is the best route but not just putting a bandaid on it yeah I mean I think we've got it's evident we've got a safety concern there so for me it's a priority to move forward with something
035um but if we need the opportunity to look into um some additional options that make more sense financially I'm totally on board with that but I think I think as a group we have to decide I mean if it's something we're going to do we need to do it and I think we need to do it this year um or get it on the calendar to be done just because you look at the surface now and I'm more concern I'm not so much concerned about the aesthetic part of it I'm concerned about the safety aspect of it and if we have a student or students get hurt um we're liable for a lot more than just what we're probably stuck on for replacing the track and making it safer so I would just challenge that
036we try and as a board come to a decision by um next month just so that we can continue to move forward rather than continue to kick the idea down the road and see what those options are sure and just so you know I mean we've kind of passed the point of trying to get it on the calendar for this summer it will whatever we do will be for the calendar for next summer so we had talked about trying to get it if we're going to take it out for bid try to do it by the November board meeting so it's well in advance and uh people get whoever gets the bid gets it on their calendar and starting sooner than later because it always seems like with school projects people think they can wait
037till the last minute to finish it up but we need to get them to starting sooner than later to get out there so could could Jason include um or maybe this is beyond his scope but incl what the cost would be to add those additional features long jum yep I can I can ask him on that because if you're going to hold you know Track event or a meet or something you kind of need to have everything that's needed to hold track me all right I will get with you guys and probably Mr lion and and Mr suers um Mr Wade and maybe and Mr Williams just uh we'll sit down and we'll talk about this again and um I'll get this information from Jason and I'll call Mammoth and talk to Derek a little
038bit as well we need to complete that motion though don't we I amended to table do we need to Second vote on that okay all in favor say I I all oppose same sign is tabled okay we will move on to the consent agenda at this time and the agendum consent consent agenda if there's anything there that you wish to take off from it you may so at this time may I have a motion second okay is there any discussion if not all in favor say I I I I'll oppose same sign okay it has passed moved on to discussion the first reading of the 2026 27 uh school calendar all right uh sent everybody a copy I've sent staff a copy and uh through my advisory ask for feedback uh one of the things
039that I asked them to consider well let me back up first of all this is kind of The Best of Both Worlds now that Memorial Day is the latest it can be uh so we can start late in August and we can also hopefully finish prior to Memorial Day uh that and we get a uh full two weeks at Christmas and uh the other scheduled holidays in there so it squeezes everything in uh the question that I had asked because I had heard from uh various folks whether it be parents or or staff at one point about the possibility of combining spring break and Easter break uh just so there could be a longer uh break in there now keep in mind moving to the two spring break break days to uh the Wednesday Thursday
040you still have Monday Tuesday of going to school unless we're robbing two days from someplace else so it was really kind of split it wasn't really conclusive it was split either way uh since then but during my advisory they uh it was mentioned about maybe moving spring break to the end of April just because between uh really March 30th and May 28th there's no breaks uh however u in my suggestion there as a little for uh my I lacked the foresight to maybe talking to Atlanta ahead of time and our testing window our testing window goes into the next week uh for State assessments and so having a a spring break right in the middle of that is not ideal you mean so uh it's just that's a long time period between U uh end
041of March and end of May it's a tough time any teacherss yep weather's getting nice everybody's getting a little antsy been a long year whatever might be a long winter yeah have we historically tried to match spring break or or get it closer to like border regions or does that just happen by like just by chance most spring break is normally aligned to a state tournament okay well that was yeah the other side so year like this year isn't working out too well because we have two state tournaments and two different weeks but works out for one of them phone's been ringing today I'm sure any other I the idea looking at April if there is any possibility we would possibly have to look at it like May 6th and 7th um I have told
042my advisory members and I guess even all staff that uh this is just first reading there might be some changes that are proposed to the board in April and even then you guys may at a second reading you may decide to you know put it off another uh another month if you will again think it's not next year it's the following year so we have a little bit of time but yep any other questions or comments about it okay okay we will move on then to B the first reading for revisions updates in criminal background checks policy 4312 all right so the DCI they make sure that we follow protocols U anybody who handles background checks so when they get here have to take a training so that's been completed uh we have to have
043certain policies that are criminal background check we also have to have logs in place when we request a background from another school district when we received it when we requested it when we hand one out to another District things like that and so uh there was really three findings if you will during their audit one was I needed to complete my training uh for the year and that has since been done um we needed to have these logs in place that has been done and the last thing is adding just really a few lines to our our background check we have a pretty good comprehensive background check but uh the two red lines are applicants potential employees are provided 30 days to challenge uh Andor compile their cry their criminal history report I can't remember
044what the I stands for record and then the other one is the PR retained uh for the uh duration of employment and a minimum of 5 years after employment ends so it's just amend putting those two things in our policy so hopefully with that approval next uh in April next board meeting we'll be in full compliance with the DCI okay that sounds good okay we will move on two minutes do I have a motion there motion second any questions on it discussion if not all in favor say I I I I'll oppose same sign the AMS have passed let's move on to financial reports and bills do I have a motion there move to approve as presented second okay any questions on it if not all in favor say I I I'll oppose same sign
045okay at this time then we will move to the executive session I move we go to Executive session under South Dakota codified law 1-2-2 paragraph 4 preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee Representatives second all okay all in favor say hi okay thank you all for coming