September 11, 2017 at 5:30 PM - Committee As A Whole

Tim Pospisil was excused. 

CHS Principal Steve Woodside said the  theme for this school year, All Hands on Deck. Family and Consumer Science teacher Carrie Urban was selected by her peers as FCS Teacher of the Year for teachers in Year 1-5. Enrollment this year is 1,241, which is a 6.52 percent increase over last year. There are 100 new/transfer students and 47 have transferred out.

New bell schedule - Woodside said there has been a lot of gratitude with the change in schedule. He said if the change was not made, the high school would not be able to accommodate all students. The staff did a lot with PLC this summer. They decided that all classes need to talk about the Big 6 Expectations, and how they apply to their classroom. It was also determined that there must be consistency with 9th grade teachers. 

Workplace experience is a new course that Heidi Elliott will be teaching this year. The idea is to provide students with more opportunities and take what is learned in the classroom and apply it to the real world. The goal is to take every job experience and have it led to the next step in their career path. CPS Foundation Executive Director Kim Kwapnioski and Elliott have been doing the CASH, Cookies, Anchoring students, Helping business retention. She said they go into businesses and ask what they are looking for from students and what are their needs. 

ACT profile report - The ACT test is scored as being at benchmark for those who score 22 or above; being on track for 18-21; and developing scoring up to 17. Woodside said in addition to the scores, the test will re-enforce other things students will need to do to be successful. Some of these things include: being engaged in rigorous course work during senior year; taking part in a wide range of career exploration activities; building on existing strengths and addressing challenge areas; and working with adults to plan for college, career and life. In 2017, there were 261 students tested with 58 percent white; 36 percent Hispanic and 5 percent who preferred not to respond. Woodside said the Hispanic numbers are rising. There is a big difference between students who took core classes and those who took noncore classes. 

Doug Molczyk and Seipel will stay on the negotiation committee. The following is where the board members will serve: Candy Becher and Mike Goos on Curriculum Instruction; Facilities and Finances: Molczyk and Tim Pospisil; Social and Emotional: Goos and Becher; Americanism: Doug Willoughby and Pospisil; Policy: Willoughby and Becher. 

Morgan Kapels will fill Cristal Menke’s seat. The board of education must approve their board. Next year Bud Fleischer, Stan Emerson and Brian Christensen will be up for renewal. 

Every year the district must set the maximum grade level enrollments. If a person submits an option application before March 1, the school cannot deny the option unless they are in special education or ELL because those programs are full. Dr. Loeffelholz said there have been more students who option out than option in. When a person completes an option, it is verified where the student lives. He said the district has denied options if the enrollment is over the maximum for that grade. The maximum for grades 5-12 is 290 students and 275 for grades K-4.

Dr. Loeffelholz said the district could increase the maximum size, but there would need to be 22 students in one class to pay for the teacher. Dr. Loeffelholz said there are over 300 seniors and juniors this year so the classes are already at capacity. Dr. Loeffelholz said the formula is tricky because if a sibling is already in district, the student must be accepted even if the class is full. If a student has lived here and attended school for two years, they can stay as well. He said if the maximum enrollment is not meet, there is nothing a district can do to deny an option unless he or she is in a specific program that is full. He said there are a lot of districts that don't have this policy, so they can’t deny anyone. Several board members asked if people try to get around the rules. Executive Director of Student Services/Special education Jason Harris said a parent can ask to have their child removed from special education. If these parents option their child into another school, they can legally say they are not in special education. Once the child is accepted, the parent can ask to have their child evaluated. When parents fill out an option enrollment form, they can specify what school they want their child to attend. However, they might not get their first choice. Dr. Loeffelholz said in district transfers, Harris and the principals go through each application to see if their is room for the student. The enrollment maximum for grades K-3 is 19 students and grades 4-5 is 23 students. It is up to the building principal if the student is accepted. Harris said class size come to play in most in district transfers. He said they want to make sure there is room for students who live in that attendance area. Dr. Loeffelholz said this can also be used to balance enrollment in the buildings.

The name of this policy will be changed to Internal and External Complaint Procedures For Staff. Dr. Loeffelholz said the policy will spell out what levels people have to go through when there is a complaint. Becher asked if a complaint is filed what is the timeline for telling them it is being looked into. Dr. Loeffelholz said someone must respond to the person within 5 to 7 business days. He said this timeline can be added to all parts of the policy. If a complaint is made against an administrator, it goes straight to the superintendent. One board member questioned what it means to have it verified. Dr. Loeffelholz said if he receives a complaint in the mail, he will contact the person to make sure they were the ones who signed it. 

Executive Director of Business Operations and Human Relations Dave Melick said the district closed the bond construction account at Cornerstone Bank. He said there is no state aid for August and no special education component. 

Dr. Loeffelholz said there were several new para-educators hires.

Dr. Loeffelholz said the report has not yet been received by the Foundation. 

Melick said this policy was revised to reflect the new teacher evaluation model and remove language not in the negotiated agreement.

Melick said the budget has been more challenging such as a loss of $650,000 in state aid and not getting a minimal increase in valuation as well as a decrease in federal funding. He said there were nine new positions added with 7 being teachers and two custodians. There are also now 12 teachers getting early retirement benefits and some of the extra duty rates were enhanced. The district will be requesting $18,290,00 in local property taxes. County sources are a little less than last year. The total general fund revenue is $36,089.188. Melick said this is a strange year because the district has more students and minimal valuation growth. The tax levy is down slight with .004 percent reduction. A taxpayer who owns a $100,000 home will pay $1,248 a month to support students. Becher said a lot of schools are asking for override votes, so this is good news that Columbus will not. Melick said the district will be going from 3.8 cents to over 6 cents in special building fund. This extra money will allow the district to do some needed projects. He said this fund is capped and must be part of the $1.05. The bond fund is exempt from the $1.05.

The high school has declared Office 2007 and Office 2010 Suite as surplus property. CMS will have a list of surplus items in the future.

The Department of Education has approved the district’s teacher evaluation model. It is on file at the Department of Education. Emergency medical level bank provides income protection when a person runs out of sick leave. Once a certified person contributes day, they will not need to contribute again until they use a day. Melick said he has been please with the response for new employees. He said there has been 32 new staff join. A person is allowed to use 15 days per semester. Melick said once a person reaches that many days, long-term disability starts. 

Executive Director of Technology and Building Operations Leonard Kwapnioski said once this policy is in place, there will be procedures to go with it.

The safety committee has increased by three people, Jason Harris, Jessy Hill and Robyn Wilcox. Kwapnioski said the addition will bring people from the crisis committee to the safety committee because the two are very closely related in what they do. The first Safety Committee meeting will be Oct.6. There will be a person who will meet with the safety committee first and then head out to the rest of the buildings to talk to all staff.

Seipel Repair submitted a bid for $45 per hour for general vehicle maintenance work for the district. 

Kwapnioski said maintenance picked up their new mower trailer last week. He said it is put together very well, and they are happy with the new piece of equipment.

Each year the high school requests funds to help with the Close-Up trip. This year the group will be going to Washington DC from March 10-16. Dr. Loeffelholz said the goal is to get 20 students to go. Dr. Loeffelholz said the Foundation also gives $2,000 to close-up each year. He said he enjoys when the students come back and share a little about their trip. Dr. Loeffelholz said this is a great opportunity for the students.

Amy Romshek was not present. Dr. Loeffelholz said there has been a lot of training since school started. He said he has heard from several former CPS teachers about how lucky our staff are to work in a district that provides professional development, because many places don’t do that.

Harris said this document prevents a district from keeping a student out of school just because he or she is homeless. He said homeless is when a family is not in their place of residence or they are living with a relative or friend. Harris said when a student enrolls, the registrar only marks homeless if they truly are homeless. If a family were to be living with a relative to save money, this would not be considered homeless. If a family is homeless, this is reported to the state and the social worker follow-ups. If a family becomes homeless and moves to another town to live with a relative, they can still request to attend CPS, and the district must provide transportation. Harris said there is no mileage cutoff. He said most of the time the family will want their children to attend the school that is closer. 

Harris said this policy provides specific reasons on how service animals and therapy dogs can be used. 

Harris said this policy requires a district to research and see if a company is reputable before any federal dollars can be spent. This must be done if the contract is over $25,000.

Harris said things are going well with the online speech therapy. He said the nonpublic schools have been pleased. Harris said he is also making grant claims from last year, and is working on some grants for this year. There is some additional cost to the online speech therapy such as making sure there is enough computer equipment and having a staff member that will oversee session. The nonpublic schools are using the para educators already assigned to the school. Harris said he thinks it would be challenging to replace all of the speech and language pathologists with this online service because the evaluations are costly. 

Dr. Loeffelholz said he will email the board as to who will be attending what regional meeting. On September 13, those who want to attend the state conference must register. Thursday is the big conference day. He said if anyone wants to attend, please notify Cheri VanDyke. 

The meeting ended at 7:50 p.m.