September 5, 2014 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description: 
We had only three completed applications and one qualified candidate for the nurse position.  Ashley Brits lives in Pierz with her husband and toddler age child.  Phil, Joel and I interviewed Ashley on August 21 and believe she will be great for our vacant nurse position!  

We have had difficulty, however, getting the pay/benefits numbers to come close enough to what she financially needs for her family.  Her husband is self-employed. Ashley works at the VA and has stellar health insurance.  Her family has a $25 copay and no deductible.  

In order to hire an excellent nurse and person for our 911 K-12 students plus preschoolers, we need to offer 80/20 insurance to her.  Her insurance costs and plan will not be as good as the VA but close enough that she can accept our school nurse position.  Also, know her hourly pay in Royalton will be approximately $2 less an hour.  She is making some financial sacrifices to be a school nurse, something she's be wanting to do since her nurse training at the Little Falls School District.

Offering the nurse 80/20 health insurance will cost the school district an additional $4,437/year.  The board can offer her better insurance because she doesn't belong to any collective bargaining group.  We do pay 80/20 for Tony and their comp worth points are similar.  Ashley being a female would also support this decision in regards to equitable pay.

The challenge we face is one qualified candidate, and I think she's going to be exceptional, and nurses receiving better pay/health benefits in the private sector.

I'm going to offer Ashley the same 80/20 health insurance we did Tony.  The board will have to approve this like all other hires so call me with any questions/concerns.  If I don't hear back from any board members by 5:00 PM Tuesday, September 9th I'm going to tell her it's safe to put in her 30 days notice at the VA.  The board approval will come at the September 15th board meeting.

Our students and families are REALLY going to like her!  She is smart w/ with a high level of professionalism and personality.  She's a great catch!         

Description: 
We'll need to schedule a special board meeting in September for the board to discuss and approve the facility planning committee's recommendation for construction (see attachments).  We can discuss dates at the board meeting on September 15.

Please know in the coming weeks we need to submit our facilities plan proposal to MDE.  Also, the election question needs to be approved at the October board meeting.

As soon as the board approves the facilities plan the six referendum committees can begin their work.  They cannot tell the public what the plan is . . . if there isn't a board approved plan. 

Description: 
In case you get asked by a parent in our community please know Joel's response to a board member regarding the rough start to CLC college courses.
 
A board member sent Joel and me the following email yesterday:

I have been hearing rumors of our students being misinformed about the start date of their college classes, and not having text books for those classes since they were not ordered.  I saw an email from Monica that told one of our students classes started on 9-3-14 and they did not have to order their own texts.  Can you please check on this and let me know what is being done for our students now.

Joel's response was:

Last spring when our students registered for these college classes, there were dates and times listed for the classes.  Around the first week of August, a student notified the school that a date had possibly been changed.  Monica emailed CLC looking for a response but did not receive one.  We found out that the class times and start dates indeed had changed the same time the students found out.  There was supposed to be an agreement between MSED and CLC that these classes would not start until the first week of September.  That did not happen.  I am unsure about the books.  Usually our media center para has been in charge of textbooks ordering but we did not have that person in place until very late this summer.  In fact our new person did not start until Sept. 2. I am thinking that is what happened with the books.  Turnover in key positions has created a steep learning curve and difficult beginning to the school year...Thankfully, those knots are a lot closer to being untied.  We are just as unhappy with this situation as the students, because it makes it look like we are at fault for something we did not have knowledge or control of. It also sounded like the college teachers were begrudgingly allowing students to make up the work and time they missed, even though it should not have come to that.  Let me know if you have other questions regarding this.

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Please find attached the weekly bills for your approval.