001You're proud. church. Yeah. Imagine I hate you. Okay, good evening. It is 6 o' school district one board of trustees to order. We have everyone here tonight. Glad to see first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. All right. Looking at the agenda, first item that is the approval of the minutes from December 9th. We have a motion to approve. >> So move second. >> Okay. Any discussion on that? >> Okay. All those in favor say I. Motion carries. Second. Any additional agenda items to consider. Okay. We get an adoption of the agenda. >> I don't know. Taylor, do you need I just want a few minutes? >> Okay. Do you want to do that during the board time or at the end? >> Great. >> Okay. We'll just add that at
002the end. Um, >> chair, I move to the adoption of the agenda as amended. >> A second. >> Oh, second. All those in favor? >> I carries. All right, Mr. Harris. Recognition. >> Madam Chair, um, as you guys probably know, today marks the start of the second semester already. um wonderful first semester. I want to just thank all the staff and all the students that have such a a productive and successful first semester. Can't wait to see what goes on second semester. Um I wanted to highlight specifically a couple things here elementary something new called Good Morning Club. And I don't know if you've heard about this or not yet, but they identified through the counseling team. Uh several second members asked last school year. So kids that we were concerned about not getting to
003school on time too much class. Um, so the school generated a very official looking letter of invitation, mailed those out to these second, third graders and said, "Hey, we would really like you to be part of this good morning club and outlined some very specific duties and responsibilities for these young people." Gave them a a reflective vest and said, "You need to be here at this time to help our kindergarters understand what happens when you get to school and how that's supposed to look." And um, the kids have taken it very very seriously. It's been amazing to see the response. And I looked at some data because we're tracking the before and after. So the kids who are the mentors, it's kind of a mentorship program. The kids who are the mentors, the second and
004third graders are coming to school way more often, probably way less. A couple of siblings were both in the program. They missed the 94 94 absence periods the first or last school year. So far this year only 31. Um one student went from 33 to 2, 41 to 17, 40 to 8, 41 to 2, 39 to 12, and one 41 to just one. after being part of this program. So, what a cool innovative way for to get kids to school and help kindergarteners get used to being a public school student. Um, before we do the topic, I was going to ask brother if they had anything else to say about it if that's all right. >> Um, no, I don't think I do. I the counselors have been great. It was their brainchild and they
005put in all the hard work into it. So, it's been really cool to see. Um, and the second and third graders, they not only are there, but it's a whole difference in just their junior year when they're at school. It's been really fun to watch that transformation in some of these kiddos, too. So, yeah. Thank you. >> You guys know we can't teach kids if they're not in school. So, if they're there more often, they have a better chance of learning what they need to know being successful in the system. So, great work. Um, my second item here, uh, is just kind of unknown probably. I don't know how many of you remember that we have an esports team. >> How many of you knew that we're ranked statewide for event? >> We are number
006four in Fortnite, number three in chess, number three in Mario Kart, and number two in Super Smash Bros. Ult. [laughter] I went to go practice and play chess with one of our students and I got I lasted maybe three minutes. first game, second game maybe five. So, um, congratulations then give coach Nichols and these students for such a positive start to the season. It's only week three. Thank you on a state event coming up and that'll be at the Eastern Iowa College. So, stay tuned for that. And, uh, that's all I have for tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Um, at this time, I will see if there's any public comment from online or in person. >> Sarah, do you is it for an item on the agenda or not? Awesome. Will you come up
007and just state your name for the record? And >> Sure. >> And I know I don't have to go over the shield for you. >> Um so Sarah Riley, um parent here in Lander. Um been kind of out of the blue. Nice to see you guys all again. Um, I'm here uh in the capacity of Advocates for Lender Students because I forgot to email everybody that on Thursday evening is um part three of our um training events with the Parent Information Center of Wyoming. Um we're going over special education eval evaluations and eligibility. Um and it is purely a Zoom event um for January and February. We scheduled it that way. In August it actually snows this year. Um, so, um, I just wanted to bring you all this flyer. Um, like I said, I
008forgot to email everybody. Wanted to make sure folks know that it's happening. Everybody's welcome in the community. Um, and I will do better about letting you all know about February's event. So, can I bring it to you? Yes. And what time does it start? 7 o'clock on Thursday and it's on Zoom. Um, and if you do have a copy to put up there, too. Uh, I can leave it up. So, yeah. And if anybody have questions um as building administrators, they don't know how to reach me and I can send the link out. So, thanks. >> Anyone else comments? >> All right. Programs reports and presentations. First item, board member reports. to share. Um chairman, the posting board is interview will be interviewing for a new executive director uh this spring. Uh I think that
009uh we'll have the the dates closes for applications on 9th and then we'll review the candidates applications all that other good stuff on the 10th and 20th and then we'll have interviews on the 23rd of February. Hopefully have somebody new in that office. >> Great. Thanks Mike. Anyone else Mark? >> [laughter] >> Yeah, Madam Chair, I've had a chance to sit in on the family engagement team meeting in December led by Matt Jacobson and um Christine Nelson presented um about AI work within the district and it was fascinating and um slightly overwhelming um but a really interesting chance to hear about how AI tools are being used in the district. So, thank you. Um, the state board of education is meeting this Thursday and we haven't met. We haven't had a meeting since November. So,
010I don't think share with you guys, but following that meeting, I hope some more. And I believe we also have those recalibration meetings which I'm sure Michael will be sharing with us committee meetings coming up. So, lots to pay attention to there. Um, then we'll take it to Mr. prepares for super reports. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few items real quickly here. Very busy week in the district. Of course, start with a new semester. That means all the grading has to be done for the semester. So, our our staff were hard at work yesterday having a teacher work day to get all that wrapped up. Parent teacher conferences are coming soon for every school. Uh we have a big weekend here in the district with Bruce Gres invitational on Saturday. So, 13 different
011boys swim teams coming to town. Um, that'll be great competition. And we also have the Lander Invite Wrestling Tournament on Friday and Saturday with 23 teams coming including one team from Idaho. I don't had an Idaho team in the past, so that's kind of cool. Um, it's going to be busy. If you're going to Subway, prepare to wait in line. I just want to say good luck to all the student athletes and coaches. Thank you to all the parents and volunteers that make these these events happen. Um board members, you may recall the presentation we had from India Roman and James Sorrels. Um they're tribal to the governor's office that came in November to talk about um teen dating violence and murder missing indigenous people. The governor is going to come to Lander Valley High
012School on February 3rd. Just wanted to let we're finalizing details. He's going to speak with students that morning and sign a proclamation to mark February as teen dating violence awareness month. Um, so we're looking forward to that. It'll be a fairly brief presentation. We'll get details out as soon as those are burned up and it will be that morning, February 3rd. Um, lastly, uh, the legislative session is kicking off on February 9th. We're already busy keeping track of the last few committee meetings and draft bills are already flying around. Uh, the select committee on school finance recalibration meets later this week as as Mr. Rub mentioned. Travis will be at that meeting in person. Um, so we're waiting to see what the committee's recommendations are and and further debate on that school funding draft bill
013that was released on Friday. If you haven't seen it yet, it is a huge bill. I think there were 95 pages in that draft bill. Yeah, just looking forward to further debate and seeing how this session turns out in terms of refining that draft. So, and several other bills, but more on that, I'm sure as we get into the session and get through some decisions and things. >> [snorts] >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Okay, so now looks like we're on item four, which would be executive session. If I can get a motion to executive session for matters of school. >> All those in favor? I think we're just We do. >> We do. Okay. We need a motion to return from executive session. So move. Second. All in favor? I motion carries. Okay. Next action
014items. 5A. We have personal action. >> Can I get a motion from someone to move personal action? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Motion carries. Agreed. >> Second. Scott. All those in favor? >> I I motion carries. Next setting approve new high school courses. Let's get a motion to bring this up and then we'll have Mr. Harris. A motion a second. Mr. >> Madam chair, members of the board. So this is exciting. Uh this is coming to you all through the curriculum coordinating council and before that through LPHS. Uh this proposal for a couple of new AP classes at the high school AP cyber security and AP statistics. Um one of the initial concerns you may have is who's going to teach this and who's got more personnel want to dispel that the
015way this is going to work with AP cyber security is it will alternate every other year with the computer science same instructor. So as a junior you might take computer science and then as a senior you might take cyber security if that's your interest or vice versa. So that won't affect the staffing at all nor would it affect the schedule for that teacher strangle statistics is another alternative talking with Mr. New York. We expect that that might pull some students away from math 3, but if that reduces sections of math, it'll still be a [laughter] teacher who's qualified to teach it. We won't need additional staff to carry off that change. Just gives for our students and another preparation for college. Um, if there are specifics about the content of the courses or the materials
016or anything like that, I would defer to our curriculum director and principal New York to talk about those details. Or do you have any questions or DJ? Do you want to come up and share anything? I'm gonna um I go on the co tail of Mr. Newendor, but these courses are very, very exciting. I meet Thursday with Hannah Durano and Christy Nelson to look at a resource for the AP cyber security and it's so new. So that's fantastic to embark upon. So I want to thank Commissioner North and his staff for being so creative about this and I'll keep you informed on that resource we get more information. >> Awesome. Yeah, we look forward to maybe having a presentation in the future. Sounds great. Okay, this is on the table to approve. So, we'll go
017ahead and take a vote on that. So, >> we might want to from a discussion perspective, we might consider just a thought coupling a a uh one of our counselors with the AP statistics course because I think you have to question someone's sanity. passport might be. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. All those in favor at any time. >> Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. All right. Discussion items. So, we have several policies up for first reading and I'll defer to Mr. Harris. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um there are several here. Um just first of all in the transition from or docs to diligent to now simply as our our board document management system. Uh we discovered that several of our active policies or docs didn't have the date on which they were adopted. It was just
018blank. That was causing problems for the conversion from board docs to assembly. Um so talking with our our chair um we decided we just start knocking out some of the policies that don't have dates on them. we put a placeholder in place, but they're all acting policies to get an updated date on several of those. That's why there's a bunch of them on this agenda. Um, and it's good always to review these. A couple of them are overlapping. So, we're going to propose to delete one of them. That's one of that's the first off. I'll just kind of go um alphabetical EAC has to do with student conduct on buses and so does JFCC and JFCC are being the regulation to specifics but just about EAC just deleting that one it's duplicative and it makes
019sense to have it in J since we're dealing with student conduct on buses J series is about students and the policy book um on KFCC the main policy some some minor um edits, proof reading edits, and then BFCCR ran this by our transportation director and he showed it to his drivers. We updated some of the technology. We no longer have problems with logo boxes and walk map. It's more about portable speakers with external speakers. So updating that language and then just cleaning up some language around um the types of devices that might be a class 2 offense to include vapes and ecigarettes. Those are not more popular than other forms of nicotine. Then clarifying on the consequences we're talking about suspension not necessarily I guess any question. >> Mr. I guess I would wonder I
020question um I understand like with JFCC we have the policy and then we have the regulation. Um, but I'm wondering is it possible would it be easier to just combine those two and have the policy stated and then the regulation below or um at the very least just making sure we site maybe the the two because when we go to review these my concern is maybe we might miss the one they're not you know cited as being attached but I just also thought maybe for the ease of just finding documentation if we can find those or do we usually have them separated Um, Madam Chair, it's a great question. I think looking through the policy book over the years, it seems like it's different boards and different superintendents have seen this differently. Sometimes they want
021to have a combined standalone policy and then in other instances, it seems like the board's preference was to have a policy and a regulation. Um, I'm not sure which you all prefer. To me, it doesn't really matter. Um, I generally search by keywords rather than code anyway. So if I search bus, it's going to pull up everything I have to do with the bus. So I guess it's up to you all. >> Any thoughts from the membership board? I guess like I said my thought is if we keep them separated maybe there's somewhere stating you know I'm thinking for instance someone just pulls up the policy JFCC and they don't see the regulation and the parent is like well it doesn't state anywhere in this policy x y and z but the you know the
022transportation director is saying this is the consequence and not that that can't be resolved but I'm just wondering you know that might be make things a little bit easier together at least cited one of them and it is paired with the other consequences are listed under those two and then I can do the the next one that we'll talk about with the student conduct. >> Sure, madam chair. So that's JFC and JFC are just student conduct in general. These these mostly just reference student handbooks which the board approves on anal basis also. [snorts] So these these very simple to do that a little bit. petition >> chair. Mr. Harris, a quick question not related to combining them, but um JFCR number six, do we need to designate if a student is on a prescription drug
023in there? Is that something that needs to be noted in terms of direct use for possession? Madam Chair, Miss Ganza, I don't believe so. I think this comes pretty much straight out of state statute. That's always a factor. If the student has a prescription for whatever the the substance is, then that would not be a violation of any sort of conduct. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, uh JFCA has to do a student dress and this is similar to JFC points back to the student handbook editing on that one. It's just standalone. So, you can see probably different errors, different words. Um and the final one is an offer title JF married or pregnant. It's one or the other currently. So I would suggest changing that to married and or pregnant separating them out into two
024different policies even awkward but that would be one change I would suggest the title of this JF policy. And then the language keep in mind this is an active policy right now but the second bullet second point there has to do with physician approval for a pregnant student to participate in school. And I think it's more the reverse. If the physician says student can't participate at school, then then we usually allow that arrangement. Um, so maybe the wording there might need to be looked at as well. >> Mr. Harris, is there a reason students need to report whether or not they are married to a principal? It seems really unlikely, but >> I have never seen this come across in my years of education. Mr. New experience with married students. >> Does does a mass
025patient come with marriage? That might they may be in charge of themselves at that point have a parent that is interested before access. >> Yeah, madam chair, Mr. Jensen. So that's the age of guardian. they have guardianship of that. We do have some other policies that deal with guardianship students who are their own guardian. I don't know that necessarily relates to marriage but it might be a question. >> Do do we does WSBA have language for this? This might be one that we could look at for just standardizations as to what they're doing. >> Madam Chair, Mr. this. So policy J is the the one that NWS had gone through initially policy review. I don't recall any specific feedback on that when I looked at this in December. Um but I will double check and
026make sure that that was not marked as one that was necessary for revision, but I'll check the language on that. Yeah, I think uh you were saying number two might I think I I think what you're saying, Mike, is that that the default shouldn't be somebody who's pregnant can remain in school with approval. The default should be they're going to remain at school unless they bring a doctor's appointment that says they shouldn't have. So that should I think should make that change the comments. [clears throat] >> I agree with that Scott and tomorrow. I guess just in case principal saw two going off together. I don't know. I mean I don't really but and I think what you're trying to say is if it's a minor that's married are they no longer under their parents
027guardianship then >> yeah that's interesting I'd like to know when it was originally adopted Jessica Dusty down when it was for [snorts] it So, Madam Chair Scott is right. So, you are um a minor in Wyoming who's legally married is considered emancipated regardless of age. So, that's why they want to report that marriage to the principal, I guess. All right. >> All right. Mr. Sweeney, financial bias report. M chair, members of board, um in front of you is our FY 2025 audit report. Um I'll keep this short and sweet. If you turn to page 81, um we once again received unmodified opinion on um our financial statements and our federal awards uh which is the best opinion that you can receive. Um, and we still qualify as a lowrisk audit. So, um, unless you have
028specific questions, that's pretty much unless you want to go through each page. Thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Yep. Madam chair, this is an item that was requested by a couple board members to be on this agenda and see the bullets on the agenda. Those are some of the questions that were posed. Um it's it's something that Travis J collecting some information for us. So thank you for that. Um if you look at the substitute pay calculations the spreadsheet there a couple things of note there I just want to point out is overall observations it looks like certified costs are trending downward since you can look there in the total I'm just looking at the total column in that in that school year we spent $221 $29059 on substitute costs
029while um 25 by 25 would have been 2425 182,633,000 silver decent reduction in that this year through December we only used 55,474 so far on the classified side of things cost went up but they're marketly lower this year so hopefully the trend continues we'll see less this year than we've used in the Um, it could be that there are fewer subs available for classified jobs. It could be that changes that the sports made to some leave policies may have helped like pay that might play a part. But both of those numbers like way less. >> Anyone have any comments or feedback? >> Oh, yeah. [clears throat] A few. I guess this was something that I wanted to talk about today um mostly because it's I think it's a concern um kind of across the district
030I think from at least from my observations and talking to folks um is is not the cost of subs necessarily but the unavailability of subs when we have a vacancy a teacher's gone and there isn't a sub available that we're pulling other teachers from their planning periods or pulling admin away from from their regular their jobs to cover cover classes. And my concern is that that's happening way way too often and they'll have an ongoing problem with not not having substitutes and and maybe we could have discussions about one if that's if that's your observation Mr. Harris and if it is then then maybe we could talk a little bit about how how the district might approach it. >> Madam Chair, Mr. Mr. Jensen. Yes, I do think it is a problem. We get a
031report every week from Frontline that Jenny sends out that shows the projected absences for the week ahead, including how many of the vacancies require subs. And so for last, we have 53 subs in the district, but we needed 61. So we filled 87% of our available sub jobs. The first came back after a break. A week prior to that, we had 28 28 subs in the district, but we needed 36. So that was a 78% total rate. It's really hard to average and predict. Um this week, this Friday, we so far we only need 13 subs. I hate to say that out loud. What's going to happen? We [clears throat] have 10. So a lot of it has to do with the type of sub that's required. We do see some some hesitance to take
032certain jobs. Some are less desirable than others. Um some of it has to do with when the employee puts in the absence. If it's the morning of that's generally it's the morning of for a tough to fill jobs is probably going to have a hard chance of getting filled. So there's a lot of different variables there. The absence report that's a PDF document in the agenda. You can kind of see a breakdown of absences for different reasons and how many of those absences needed a substitute and then what percentage of those absences have all the total reasons. So I think there was some question about how many staff are gone because they're sick, how many are gone because of activities. professional development. What are all the different reasons for being gone? So that's what that
033that chart also shows. But it is a very complicated issue. I don't think any of our administrators would say they're satisfied with where we're at. There's just some coverage. It is a a daily struggle, I think, to try to make sure everything is covered, especially when you've got a date that for whatever reason it's illness or activities. It just happens to be a absence day. >> Mr. Harris, do we have any information or if you share with us what our current daily rate is and then you know in comparison to other districts how close we are to be. >> Madam Chair, um that's always a tough thing to chase. Uh I believe our current rate Jenny or Travis is 15 for certified 140 for not certified. And then if you have the same job for
034a longterm period like a good 10 days in the same position then it goes up to the the minimum on the certified salary schedule that happens sometimes people out for different reasons for long times compared to other districts. I know some other districts in the county take quite a bit longer some neighboring us that pay I think 185 a day some are now around the state pushing up 100. um that's obviously more attractive. That could also be a factor for us since we're not not able to pay as much as some of the other districts that have different forms of revenue than we do. Um, so it would be great to offer more, but again there's a lot of different budgetary impacts that that could affect. Um, so one one uh one concern that relates
035to substitutes that that I've had for a while is staff absences related to student activities happening during sports other activities. That's a that's not a major contributor here. Looking at this spreadsheet, I see 105 days for athletics and 26 I'm assume those are days of us 26 for student activities. I believe that days although that's a fair amount and although I mean of course we want as many students as possible participating activities and we need teachers that are willing and capable of being coaches to do that. Um but there seems to have been a real trend um I don't know for how many years but certainly since my kids have been in school to do activities uh during the week particularly activities that um at least from my historical perspective were traditionally done on weekends
036and and I'm wondering if it's worth having a discussion or just putting the idea out there that maybe we need to start to try to push that trend back the other direction but the kids should be in school during the week and they should have ties on the weekends if that's It's not always, but there are plenty of activities happening during the week that very well could be done and that would both alleviate some of the substitute issues as coaches would be in their classrooms kids would be in class. It's a real challenge for some students in the high school, some of my kids, hard to miss them at school to participate in athletics and hard to stay. And I can imagine that that problem gets compounded because the teachers also out of the classroom
037teach though I'm sure substitutes do a fine job. They're a poor substitute for the teacher that's trained for that decision. Another another thought that I had was about the the pay. I know we we can't necessarily match what neighboring districts do all the time, but um we have to revisit how much we're paying subs. I don't know how often we've done that. Couple of times since I've been on maybe it'd be worthwhile considering pegging sub pay to base teacher salary. as we increase back which might help sort of keep us competitive. >> I support that. >> Those are some of the thoughts that I've had on this on this issue. >> Yeah, great for your point, Scott. I mean, we we've talked about this issue of, you know, student athletics and coaches being out. And
038I think it's great that we have so many teachers that are coaches who get over, but when they're missing as well, the kids that are in the classroom, it's kind of a wasted day instruction because they're probably not getting new material presented. And it's it's just it goes so deep because it's WSB it's not state high school association and really you know it's hard because it trickles down so many different areas but I agree possible with that as question for probably for Mr. Harris because I can't remember and I've seen it or I've gone through it but I can't remember. Do we have any kind of policy that exists for buying your your leave? Like if you build up a certain amount, do we have a use or lose it policy? How does that work?
039>> Uh madam chair, Mr. K, we do have that on the classified side. >> Okay. >> For certain employees, but it's not something on the certified side except for when you're done sick leave you in the district for 10 consecutive years or more some of your sick leave up to 60 days back. The only reason I ask is I'm looking at certified lead number and I mean that's the biggest driver here if we look at at the absences and I'm wondering if you know every time we we have one of those not every time it looks like 69.94% of the time we're we're hiring a substitute when it happens and you know maybe buying some of that lead at the same rate that we pay substitutes might be a way to, you know, reduce the
040amount of certified leave that's taken. Now, that's it's a bit of a dangerous thing. You want you don't want people burned out. You know, you do want to take leave so they're not going stir crazy a little bit. But on the other hand, if we have people taking leave just because they don't want to, you know, build it up to the point where they might lose it or whatever, might be something that we can consider. >> Madam Chair, Mr. I think I misspoke. I don't think we have a buyback program per se. So if you're a certain type of classifi and that's kind of where I'm going with that. It's just you know if you were to buy it back so that they don't feel like they're forced to take the leave and they can
041get remunated for the for the time might be something might be a room for the district and employees. Something to maybe think about. Anything else? I appreciate this. >> Yeah. Yeah, those are those are some of the ideas. I just wanted to put the put the thoughts out there, make something happen. >> Anyone else with comments or feedback? Thank you for giving me some time to to speak today. So, sounds like rumors have been been circulating. I was going to wear a a black sweater today, but everyone told me I shouldn't do it because it would look like I was mourning, I think, which I'm not really, but um so I'm gonna I I sit here tonight. I'm have a lot of conflicted feelings inside kind of sad and a bit angry and so I
042have a statement that I need to need to make and this is hard for me and so I've written it down which don't always do but so forgive me for that. I've been a member of this board for six and a half years and I find this service to be very meaningful and worthwhile and I'm grateful to our community that trusted me to be here during my tenure. Um this this district has seen a lot of success, a lot of great things have happened and that's due in large part to the dedication of our MOS administrator sitting over here, Mr. Harris, uh the teachers that we have, the staff that we have. Um I hope that that credit is a small part that success. I've also spent the last 20 years uh working in federal
043law enforcement, which is something that I rarely talk about from this. It's uh in general my agency doesn't permit employees to um take outside employment and that includes volunteer positions, but there are some except exceptions made. Um folks are allowed to coach their kids sports teams. Um unpaid volunteer work um like I do here has generally been permitted. And so every year that I've served on this board, I've had to seek permission um and seek an exception uh from uh from my bosses to to continue to serve. And every year that permission's come back, including this year, and that's never that's never been an issue. But, um, recently I was notified that, uh, leadership in in DC has adopted a new a new policy and they have, uh, they're prohibiting there's no exception made for
044elected positions. So, it doesn't matter that it's volunteer, unpaid, or nonpartisan, but no more exceptions for elected positions. And that puts me uh in the crosshairs and there's no there's no explanation for that that I'm aware of. Uh but nevertheless, the policy's pretty clear. So it leaves me in a position where I have to either resign from my job or I have to resign from the court. And that's really no choice at all. So I have to I have to provide for my family first. And so at the conclusion of today's meeting, I'll be resigning my position for the Montana School District Board of Trustees. Saying that uh I was originally appointed um to sit on this board in 2019. Jared was um only the only remaining member of the board was on at that
045time filling a vacancy. Um I've uh I was elected then twice in 2020 and again the last election of 24 as uh as as Mara as you mentioned a couple months ago um that election I received uh almost the highest number of votes that anybody's received in the school board election. I think as far as results you publish really well that's just behind her and uh I think that result in the election is a reflection I hope of the leadership that I've helped provide on this board. um the value that I have provided here. Um I uh I bring that up just to um just to say that uh as I uh complete my my service on this board, I want to offer an endorsement. Um I I hope that the board as they're contemplating
046how and who to replace me with that they will consider Matthew Keller who's joined us here today who's sitting sitting there to the side. Um, you may not know him, uh, but I know him very well. He is a longtime member of our community. He has extensive professional experience in the construction industry. Uh, works in project management now. He's a problem solver, consensus builder. He's a husband and father. Uh, I know him to be an honorable man and a hard worker. And his unique perspective will be valuable to this board. And uh I hope that he I hope that he supports that chance when the time comes. I just want to close by uh saying how much um how much respect I have for all the members of the board here, Mr. Harris. I know
047sometimes uh actually fairly rarely but occasionally um there's disagreements among as board members and I can be outspoken in those circumstances but uh but even then I've never doubted the shared goal that all of us have which is we all care about students about the kids in this district and we sacrifice our time to try to help as best we can make sure those kids are successful and I know that about each of you. So I've been I've been honored to serve alongside you. So, uh, you know, our district, um, faces challenges for sure in the near future. Um, there's various budgetary concerns with what the legislaturator is doing with planning enrollments. But, um, all of those things aside, I have a lot of confidence in the leadership that we have that we have here
048sitting in this room, sitting up here. And, uh, that that gives me a lot of So, uh, that's what I'm saying. Well, Scott, um, I will say that not I wasn't happy to clap for what you had to say, but I just want you to know how much I've appreciated my five years, two election cit, um, you've been a great mentor to me and just I I think so many times when you were running and doing things, there's the tendency to point out and see what bad things that are going on in a really great compass for our board to remember all the wonderful things that the district has been doing and how we put students first um every student every day. So, I appreciate, you know, I know we've had to make some tough
049decisions on this board, but you have continuously been present and thoughtful and considerate of, you know, everyone's opinions, and we just really appreciate you greatly going to miss you. I especially know I am. Um, and so, yes, thank you guys for Scott. I appreciate I'm sure he would appreciate it, too. But, um, we'll be missing Thank you so much for your service. All right, with that being said, um I guess this just brings us to what kind of a change of what's going to happen um next. And since we are have something people here and um the media outlets, this would be a good time to explain um our school board's policies. They kind of mirror state statute 213108. um our policy BB E B E B E B E B E B E B
050E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E B E BDC and BP are related. It's regarding board member resignations and board member vacancies. Um and what this states is that um the school board will appoint someone within 30 days um of the date that this person resides Mr. Jensen's resignation tonight. We have 30 days to fill that seat. Um according to state statute, it's pretty vague on how we can do that. can't just go in and appoint someone, but as a board, we feel like the best way to do that would be to open us up and consider applications and applicants. And so, um, hopefully tomorrow, um, or in the next couple days, we'll get, um, a press
051release out asking for anybody that's interested in filling this vacancy to send a letter of interest and a resume to the board. And that needs to be received to us by Friday, January 30th. I know that's short notice um but we need time to be able to consider these though we initially had February 3rd as a scheduled board meeting to have a work session and so during that time um the board will meet we'll go into executive session we'll pick five candidates from there and then um we will release those names a couple days past that by that date so around the fourth or fifth of February um and then we're hoping on in January or I'm sorry, excuse February 17th. Um, we would like to have those candidates then come and present and speak
052in front of the board and share their interest and why they want to be on the board and what they feel like they can bring to the board and then we'll go into executive session, make a vote at night. So, um, it's coming up very fast, a lot to consider. We appreciate Mr. interest in this and I hope you will fill out an application and do that and any other public that is considering this. Um we would appreciate you know it's a a very thankless job a lot of times but it is also very rewarding and knowing that we're here serving our community with our students. It's it's a big lift and we're going to discuss it's hard to find someone to build his shoes, but we're going to do our best to do that
053by February 17th. So, um with that, we'll go into the upcoming events. Yeah, I have a couple of clarifications um real quickly. Thank you for that. Um, should interested candidates send their applications to all board members or to Jenny Johnson? >> I think Mr. Superend in that meeting. It'll be on the notice, but it'll probably just go to Jenny and then Jenny will delegate those all out to us, but that way they'll be streamlined virtually so we can see those. So, that'll be on the notices to send it to. suggest receiving >> just turn it on >> and then >> my second clarifying question. I think this was just a on my part maybe a misinterpretation of a comma but um on our during our February 17th meeting we may use executive session to discuss
054candidates but the vote will be on the public record. Correct. >> Correct. Yeah. I'm not going to click. >> Yeah. Thank you for clarifying that. Yes, we don't want anyone to think. >> And so with that, the next item is upcoming events reminders. That's a good time. >> You don't mind real quick. >> No, just kidding. >> I am uh I'm suddenly at a loss for words and mad I'm at a loss for words. Uh I will say that the big loss is going to be for the students or officer uh for whom I think uh Mr. Jensen has been a stall champion um as well as the parents of those kids who I think Mr. and have always really fought for thinking the transparency and the rights of of parents to to be a
055part of that education I think has been a standout for for what we have done. So, I just wanted to say uh I appreciate everything that you brought to the table and all of the the commitment that you've had before very much. I guess I should have asked that a couple times before chair, Mr. Jensen, I hope to continue to see you here at meetings and in our inbox. Um, I hope you continue to be the biggest supporter and of the biggest supporter of our schools and the biggest both supporter and critical coordinator of our board. Um, I look forward to continue to receive your insight and your ideas. Um, I think that's your greatest strength is your ability to identify problems but to also identify solutions and I've really appreciated learning that from you
056here. Thank you. So, January 23rd, we looks like we have legislative preview lunch in. So, that's this Friday um at the Ler Community Center. Mike, do you and Travis have a table or not? We didn't buy a table this year. Any other board members who are registered would like to come, the district will cover that cost. I think it's $30 per day. Um and then February 3rd, our work session. So correction on that, we will not meet in Jeffree City, um people that came for another date, Jeffree City. And so that meeting will go over applicants and hopefully work on some other February 9th, legislation sessions begin. and then February 17th regular board meeting and just to reiterate candidate application to be received by January 30th. >> That we need a motion to move. All
057those in favor that project.