August 7, 2015 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description: 
Please see attached the notes/agenda provided to us by Winkelman at the pre-bid walk though meeting with contractors interested in package # 1 (below grade aka site work).  

We're going to try and get some of the work done this fall.  It was made clear to the contractors some of the work will be pushed back until next spring or summer if we get better pricing.

Description: 
Today I visited with our law firm about a few unrelated items.  One of those was the new position we discussed on Monday evening.  I had questions about creating the position at-will, allowing the employee to keep his seniority and bumping rights in REM, and advertising.

The responses I received are the following:
1.  The 50% AD can be at-will because a license isn't required.  The 50% Community Director cannot be at-will because it's a continuing contract - requires a license.  I brought up what I believe school districts with less than 10,000 citizens do not need a licensed community education director.  He said this would then make it an at-will position too.  I asked him to please double check what I believe to be accurate about the 10,000 citizens.
2.  To protect the Employee's (Brent L.) seniority in REM for one year the district and REM can agree to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).  We did this for Joel Swenson when he became principal and they have several drafts they've used in similar cases for other schools.
3.  We are not required to advertise the new position.  The reason why we'd advertise is to protect the district from discrimination.  Yes, Brent is a white male under the age of 40 but in this scenario the attorney felt very comfortable we are not intentionally discriminating against any woman or minority person.  It's a matter of the person already hired for the AD part and because of the urgency or timing to hire someone immediately.

I'd like to sit down with a committee of the board to negotiate a contract for Brent.  The non-union committee is what we generally use for these types of individual contracts that are not part of a union or specifically assigned to a committee (e.g., superintendent).  

Talking out loud now.  I will wait until the August board meeting and have the board assign three individuals.  I like to keep things rolling along, but maybe a board member wants to be, or not to be, on the negotiations for some reason.               

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I don't have much more to add outside of my text message earlier today.  I wanted to make sure you were aware of the MCR article in this weekend's newspaper.

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I will be out of the district on vacation next Wednesday through Friday.  Our family is going to the Brown County Fair in Aberdeen, SD.  Rhonda's mom is excited, as always, for us to go to the nightly entertainment with her.  

I will keep up on my emails, calls, and text messages.  Please don't hesitate contacting me.  There is a lot happening with back-to-school and construction.  

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Please see attached the weekly bills for your approval.