001August 11, 2025 Everdine school board meeting to order. Begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Aaron Schultz here. >> Mr. Bson, >> present. >> Mr. Brian, >> presum Burkard. >> Mr. Mark Murphy >> here. >> All right. And I will ask for a motion for uh tonight's agenda. >> Motion by Sharp. >> Second by Dr. Borton. Any further discussion to be had? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Same sign. >> Persons wishing to address the board. >> Board remarks. I guess I would uh like to make note of Dwayne Alm's award at the
002convention. Very welld deserved, the highest award given by the Associated School Boards of South Dakota for his years of service and and also to our board too. >> And the best part was to see him turn around and see a standing ovation by, you know, 500 of his peers that uh recognized what he did. And I think the best thing he did was just stay quiet and calm and just the way he is. And uh it was uh well worth uh that. Uh also want to commend uh that was also the time where uh Mr. Beck received his award for middle school principal of the year. I know we've honored them. Uh Mr. Olsen received a certificate for 25 years of service. Uh Mr. Sharp was recognized also in the bulletin for 20 years of
003service. Uh I want to commend the board members that made the trip down there and administration. Uh we did have a great showing down there and another good conference and ready to start for the year. Any further board remarks? >> All right. I'd ask for a motion for approval of the minutes from July 14th and July 28th. >> I move approval. >> Sure. >> Come on. Let's take turns here. >> I'll second it. >> Second. Any further discussion related to the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos? Same sign. >> We do have the consent agenda for tonight. Does anyone want anything pulled from tonight's consent agenda? >> If not, I ask for a motion for approval. >> So moved by Murphy. >> Second by Beckus. Any
004further discussion related to any items on the consent agenda? >> None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Well, same thing. >> Report to the superintendent. Dr. Guffin. >> Thank you. The first item on the agenda this evening will be the approval of our district goals. Uh we did have our admin retreat um two weeks ago now and we went through this with the administrative team. I'll also be going through these with all the staff on on Tuesday, tomorrow, I guess. >> Tomorrow when we all are together. Uh just wanted to highlight a few things. Um you'll notice some familiarity here from other years. So under student achievement um Mrs. Call has done an outstanding job leading the work u with our literacy committee and the training of the science and reading
005and that work will continue again this year that will be expanded into grades 6 through 12. Um so that work will continue as well as the implementation of our grades um K through five that did a lot of their training last year. Um, we've also done some training on a reading intervention program referred to as SOORE. Um, they've had some training on that and that will be implemented this school year as well. And Mrs. Call will also start looking uh the state is revising the the math content standards. Those that's in the works as well. So, we'll be looking at uh grades 6 through 12 math this year and I'm guessing they probably would follow the following year. So in the areas of student achievement, we have a lot of work to do in the
006area of literacy and then just getting started with some things in math. Uh under health and wellness, we had a great uh event last year with our wellness committee. They did a great job with our staff wellness event and they are supercharged and ready to be uh to do something even bigger and better this year is what I've been told. So uh they're going to be getting together and planning and doing some things. We'll report back to you and when that is um finalized. It was a great thing to do halfway through the school year. Kind of a pickme up across the district. So that we'll we'll see what they come up with. But um it was a great event last year. Uh under school and community relations next week you or next schoolboard meeting
007you'll have an opportunity to hear from Alyssa Dicki, our communications director. Uh but she has um a very comprehensive plan put together this year for our school and community relations. Uh something every single month kind of some theme based things that she has put together. Uh but really targeting um just some additional communication with families. You'll notice um the news to know was a publication that we did last year. We started last year just highlighted things that happened in the district throughout the month. We are starting to send that to all of our district parents and that first one went out in August. So, we'll hopefully get some good feedback on that, but just looking for some additional ways to let families know the great things that are happening in the school district. And I'll
008let Alyssa talk next week about some of the analytics that she's got um for all our postings and things that we've done. Uh we're going to continue. We've got some new leadership at a tech this year with our um local businesses and the internship program. That is a very, very successful program, but uh Mr. Johnson has some ideas for that just to enhance that a little bit as well. So, we did keep that as a goal area for this particular year. Um, in the area of safety, you'll notice the first item that's on there, the timeline was July 29th, which has already passed, but I wanted to make sure we documented this, but we did a very comprehensive um, emergency preparedness tabletop exercise, and that's with our school administrative team. uh the Aberdine Police Department,
009the Aberdine Sheriff's Office, Brown County Emergency Management, and Aberdine Fire and Rescue were part of that. Uh we did some scenario-based um situations that could occur in schools. Uh but it was just a really great team effort on behalf of our the school district and our community partners. Um and certainly some things have come out of that that will make some enhancements to our overall safety plan, which we're very excited about. Uh the other items that are on there, safe schools, Mrs. call has assigned some safe schools training. We've used this for the last several years. It is a great way for us to get information out to staff, some real quick training opportunities on topics that are very pertinent to things that we do in schools. Uh we have updated our Alice training. Uh
010Officer Olsen uh put together an updated video for us in regards to our Alice protocols that we use. We appreciate his work on that. and uh the mental health first aid. Of course, we have new staff coming on board and that that process will continue as well. Questions I could answer about the district goals. Sounds very comprehensive. [Music] >> It's a lot. >> It is. It is. I would move first I just I would move approval of the 25 school district goals. >> All right, we got a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Second by Olen. Any further discussion related to the approval of 2526 district goals. Thank you for the presentation. They look like uh good goals to have for the upcoming year and uh like you said would be keeping
011people very busy. So with that, I'd ask for uh all those in favor of the approval of the 2526 district goal signify by saying I. >> I post same sign. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is the um summer projects update. Mr. Schnell will be answering the question of what do you do all summer? >> Not much. Right. >> I hide from the rain. >> Right one, Josh. Should I? >> The one with uh >> this one. >> No. >> It's the one that I sent you that has >> Okay. >> Yeah. Nice presentation. >> That one? >> No. >> The one? >> Yeah. This the last one you sent. >> This one? No. >> That's welcome back. Nope. >> Nope. >> It's updated. Same like hit that little Sorry. Technical. >> Nope.
012Not that one. This >> one. Let me do it. >> I swear there's pictures coming. >> Thank you, Josh. >> Okay. >> You know, I think at the beginning of the summer, um, we met and there were I I always keep track of our our projects and there was 141 at that time. We actually ended pretty good. There was only 151 at the end of the year. So, um, that's actually not so bad. Um, we're still in a break neck race to finish them up, but, uh, getting closer and closer every day. You know, you ask what we did this summer. Um, this picture kind of sums it all up. Uh, it presented a couple of challenges for several of our projects that are outside. Of course, um we were able to work around it.
013You know, there's some some things that the grounds uh team does over the the summer. I I think later on I referenced that they they mow about 2500 acres that with the revision of the rain, you probably double that because there was a lot of weeks they were mowing twice. Um, you know, it just it like I said, it was a challenge, but the rain was welcomed. Um, one of the things that uh was kind of a challenge for us was the Central High School second phase of the roof. Um, they the contractor had called me probably about 2 3 weeks ago, said, "We'd like to uh crawl up on the roof and take a look. We're about halfway done." And my response was, "Wow, how did you do that?" Um, you know, because it
014was, if it wasn't threatening to rain, it was raining or it just got done raining. So, it it was a real challenge for these guys. Uh, they made it through without a leak. Um, so that kind of speaks quite a bit to uh their their professionalism and their diligence of not opening up more than they could close up before the next time it rains. >> And who did the work? >> Pardon? >> Who did the work? >> Uh, guaranteed roofing and sheet metal >> out of >> of Sou Falls. Okay. >> Yeah. And this is the first time that we've worked with them. Uh, they did a very nice job. Um they were they were low bidder and uh like I say they did a very nice job. Uh we are currently completed with the
015roof. All they have to do is the metal cap on the parapro parapit. So that went very well. Um the next slide that was another challenge for this uh summer that was the asphalt playground at CC Lee. Um, I think that was a project that we got the most calls on. What are you doing? When will it be done? Why did you do it? How much will it cost? Uh, Chris Osborne and I wanted to start a rumor that we had found rats and we're trying to exterminate them. We probably shouldn't do that. So, we always we always give them the real answer. um this, you know, the picture here on the on the left, you see a beautiful blue sky, but then when you look at the bottom of the picture, you can tell
016that it recently rained. Um there's probablyund 100 to 150,000 square feet there and every time it rained, it was an ankle deep waiting pool that they had to pump out and wait for it to dry. So, um that picture I believe I took Friday morning. I was trying to get the latest and greatest for the slideshow. Um, the good news is they finished it dried out out enough over the weekend. They finished the gravel today and they will be putting the asphalt on tomorrow. That's if it doesn't rain, but I'm hoping that it does not. Um, the next one, another, you know, kind of a challenge was some of our concrete work. This is a picture of the front entrance at uh Simmons Middle School. Uh we removed the bricks that were there. Um Gretchen
017Sharp was very happy because they are bricks that she can now reuse out at Central in those in those uh uh areas where they buy the commemorative bricks. Um, you know, the the uh Brownell activities complex. We had started that process of some new landscaping up front. Um, we've planted trees. I think there's 33 quaking aspen in there. We've got some decorative grasses. We've got that retaining wall which will also kind of work as a bench for people coming in or leaving the the facility. Um, you see our grounds workers there hard at work. um in between rains, I might add. You know, take a look at the clouds. Um it was it was a challenge. Some of the the projects that we did inside, um there was a lot of cabinetry projects this summer.
018Uh we did the fax room at Central and Simmons, you know, so each one of those had, you know, seven kitchens, six kitchens. Um just a bunch of kitchen cabinetry of course, but you have to look on the front side and the back side of that because it was the design, the gathering of the what do you want in this space, that kind of thing. The uh follow through of the building of it and then also countertops. Uh each of those rooms were painted, had new flooring. So, it's not just new cabinetry. It's uh it's the whole the whole ball of wax there. You know, this one here is a picture of the uh Central High School fax room. You see over here on the um the left side is what it was before. There
019was some line of sight issues. The I think I had mentioned to you guys before, we removed that. The the picture on the right is that room after about eight hours of demolition. Um the team just came in, they took everything out and uh they went pretty quick with it. Um here's the finished product uh without the the uh line of sight interruptions of the upper cabinetry. I think they actually ended up with more cabinets than they had before. Um this uh wonderful couple over down on the lower right, Ashley and Tasha, they were over there. They were painting. and they were cleaning, getting everything prepped and ready. Um, you know, this one, Simmons Middle School, that was a little more in depth. Uh, if you recall, that was the space had two separate rooms
020and we wanted to just turn that into a complete just a dedicated fax room. Um, flooring had to be cut out, dug out, new plumbing put in. Um, these two projects, the Central High School fax and the Simmons middle school fax room, I uh looked at the calendar today and I think they were completed from the first demolition of the cabinet till they were done in 48 days. So, you know, I don't know if any of you have done nothing ever finishes in 48 days. So, you know, it it it all pulled back together and uh uh I think we'll be ready for school. Um Simmons Elementary Library. Uh we we uh again it was a concept from from concept to finish. Uh that was a project that we spaced out over two years because
021of the budgetary money. Uh we did some of the things in the first year, then we finish it off this year. Um Carla Clark told me today that there are 34 uh library carts that they've emptied and we can pick those up. So, you know, she's she's she's hard at it over there, that's for sure. Um what you see here, this is the finished product of Simmonsel uh library. Um Carl and I kind of were chatting when we were figuring out what to do with this one, and I think we have one or two left. So, we're getting down to the getting down to the nitty-gritty. We've we've just kind of slowly rotated through and updated these these libraries as uh as they kind of came online. Now, they're being replaced. Um, this one here
022doesn't sound like very long ago, but that that library was brand new in 1989. So, that's that's a few days ago. Um, you know, we always do annual flooring replacements. Each one of those, each one of those little blue or red dot in there again got painted. Uh, all the old old flooring was ripped out. Uh, most of them have new, if it was in a classroom, uh, new blinds are in the classrooms. And so that's it's like a brand new, uh, renovation there. Um, these are a few few pictures that I took, you know, as we're going through. I always I I must have been a crow in a previous life because I like shiny things. Um, you can see the guys there waxing or what they have waxed. Um, you know, you don't
023think of it as okay. Um, the the uh painting in the parking lots that has to be done every year. Uh, playgrounds as well. All the playgrounds have to be swept, potholes patched, you know, there is just a huge amount of things that have to be done every year. Painting, um, you know, just this small picture in the upper right hand corner, stripping the old wax off the floors. It's like, gee, that doesn't sound like fun. It's not, and it takes an enormous amount of time. Um, you know, uh, we're doing a couple of things. I guess maybe we've always done it, but we're going to concentrate a little heavier on it this year. Um, you see the the ancient picture of I think Louis the lightning bug there. I I was going to look
024on the internet to see when he was invented probably longer than anybody wants to admit. Um, we as we went into summer this year, we used the energy management system, the EMS system, and we are able to double check and program so that the lights that are controlled automatically aren't going out beyond what is needed. Um, the air conditioning, we were very, very frugal with that this summer. Um, and again, if you if there was nobody in the building, then the AC was cut way back in there, if not completely shut off. Um, I know that uh Michaela and I, this was kind of brought to our attention with the the budget monitoring cutbacks, if you were. Um, but I think we did a pretty good job of it this summer, just monitoring the AC.
025Uh, we'll continue that practice throughout the school year. Um, making sure that it's not running at 9 10:00 at night when it's not needed. There's a lot of times where those programmings drift and so we'll just constantly go back and look at that. Same thing with natural gas. you know, our our systems are never shut off, but they go into an unoccupied setting. So, then it's kind of like your thermostat at home where it will set it back automatically. So, we're just uh constantly uh going to be monitoring that. I am going to try to bring back the when not in use, turn off the juice. If you've gotten an email from me down in the bottom, that's my little little tag now. I'm going to become Louis the Lightning Bug. So hopefully, wish me
026luck. >> 83. >> 1983. Okay. I knew it was in the 80s. You won't even bring up Woodsy owl. I think he was before that. Uh, irrigation systems. I am happy to report to Michaela Rogers that was 100% success this year. We every year we get our irrigation systems up and going. We did this year because we didn't know what was coming at us. But um the irrigations are up and going, but we never turned them on. We did not use one drop of water this year. That that probably isn't too much, but the the city tells me that the the water tower at Northern holds 600,000 gallons. When our irrigation system at Central is going during the months of June, July, and August, we'll empty that three times. So that's 1.8 million gallons. And
027throughout the summer, 5.4 million gallons. Um, that's central alone. So the city is generous, but they do not give us free water. Um, so we're always very conservative on that. So we saved a couple of bucks. I think I should coast for a month maybe. So, you know, we nailed that. Uh our goal was to try reduce it by 5%. And again, you know, with all of our irrigation systems, we what we did is just simply 5%, if it was 20 minutes, 5% come off of that. We just became more aware. So, you know, that that I guess is kind of what we did this summer and are still doing this summer. Um, school doesn't start until next week. There's still plenty of time. Any any questions on specific projects? >> How much summer help
028did you hire on for these? >> That is a very good question. My other slides show for tomorrow has everybody listed. Um, I would say we probably bring on 15 to 20 additional people. Um, they come from food service, uh, the teaching staff, the EAS. Um, we've kind of we've got some uh uh college uh students that have have worked for us before and come back. So, so we get some repeat customers, but yeah, they're uh grounds crew will get the line share of those. uh maintenance, you know, there's always that help there, but then u I know the food service, they jumped in and, you know, helping the custodial. So, yeah, >> just have a comment. I I appreciate your watering comment that we didn't have to water this summer because we saved a
029few dollars there. Um, I think it's important for people at home to know that the legislature is looking at cutting property taxes by 50%. Which is going to dramatically impact school budgets, including expenses for operations and those types of things. I mean, the fact of the matter is it's going to roll down to the city, too, because we have a a good relationship with our city as far as rent programs, those types of things. But the reality is that if we lose funding like they're talking about doing, we as a board are going to have to look at everything we possibly can to save money, watering, closing gyms down early, those types of things perhaps. Um, I just want people at at home to know it's not not this board. It's it's what the reality
030of South Dakota is these days. and 50% reduction in property taxes may sound good, but it's going to impact schools and what we do uh for business dramatically. And I just think people need to know that. I think there's forums tomorrow or the next day. I I hope people show up if they have a concern because I think it's going to be a a real challenge >> for for us in the future. >> I would agree. And this really is just kind of I always kind of look at it in my mind as practice for what's coming up. Um trying to say >> any other questions or comments as always. Great job over the summer and uh all the floors will be shiny and ready to go, I bet. >> All right. Thank you then.
031>> Okay. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the second reading of policy E A. Again, the next two items kind of go together, but this is an an update to uh allowing students to use their private vehicles for uh educational uses such as dual credit, internships, um and some of our CTE act activities. >> This is a second reading. Uh would I have a motion on the floor for approval? So moved. Moved >> by Olson. >> Second. Second by Beckus. Any further discussion related to policy E A? See none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Same sign. >> Okay. Um the next item is the approval of second reading of E A-E. This is actually a policy deletion. Uh this is a form that we used to have
032students sign. We are now using that form in our online system. >> So moved. Second by Olson. Second by Sharp. Any further discussion related to policy E A G-E? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Both same sign. >> Next one is second reading of policy JGB. This is our restraint and seclusion policy. And we just added definitions for two terms which are used um pretty frequently which is our behavior intervention plan and our functional behavior assessment. So just adding those two definitions to the policy. >> Motion by Sharp. >> Second by Dr. Dr. Bortnham. Any further discussion related to policy JGB? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. And next one is second reading of policy JLDAA. This is our footprint or a confidentiality of
033information policy and we're simply adding a statement that if um that explains the process um which is pro providing a written request to the building principal if um a parent is requesting additional information >> by second. Any further discussion related to JLDA? See none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I >> same thing. >> I see no further uh business before this group. I would ask for a motion for adjournment. >> Uh Sharp and Murphy. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I