The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

WC School Board September 21

West Central's September 21st board meeting was called to order by President Lonnie Brent at 7:00 p.m. in the Elementary Gymnasium with board members Paul Anderson and Brad Arnold, absent; and all others present including Jodi Arnold, Lonnie Brent, Renee Goff, Amy John, and Roberta Robbins.

Also present were Superintendent Grimm, Sharri Richard, Dale Buss, Jeff Nichols, Jon Bradburn, Jami Farniok, Melinda Frakes, and approximately 200 students, parents and community members.

President Brent led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and then "Good News" items were addressed as follows:

• President Brent recognized the efforts of WCHS freshman Clyde Siegfried for the actions that he took on August 21st to save the life of fellow WCHS student Ryan Simpson who was involved in a swimming accident.
•  The board recognized approximately 230 grade 3- 11 students for their performance in the Spring 2011 standardized tests. The students recognized had either exceeded the State and/or District standards or had earned a perfect score on these tests.

Following a brief recess, the meeting reconvened at 8:06 p.m. in the elementary cafeteria with all board members present including Paul Anderson and Brad Arnold.

•  Renee Goff congratulated the WCHS football team on a homecoming victory.
•  Principal Jon Bradburn recognized Gretchen Higgins for being unanimously voted the MVP of the Carl Sandburg College volleyball tournament.

The agenda with the addition of discussion item XII(D). WCES artwork was approved

Under recognition of audience for request for presentation, district resident Chad Gall offered the board a few comments concerning the search for a WCHS boys' varsity basketball coach.

All voted to approve the consent agenda including:

• Minutes of the August 17, 2011 regular board meeting;
• The 2011-2012 application for recognition of schools;
• Appoint Superintendent Ralph Grimm to serve as the board's designee on the district's safety committee;
• The proposed revisions of Policy 1:10 School District Organization - School District Legal Status, Policy 2:10 Board of Education - School District Governance, Policy 3:10 General School Administration - Goals and Objectives, Policy 3:70 General School Administration - Succession of Authority, Policy 2:125 Board of Education - Board Member Expenses and Policy 5:125 General Personnel - Personal Technology and Social Media;
• Usage and Conduct as presented on first reading;
• declare the football scoreboard on the south campus as surplus property and give permission to the administration to dispose of the scoreboard as they see fit;
• The continued lease of a 2009 Chevy Cobalt from Bruce Foote Chevrolet of Monmouth in the amount of $150 per month;
• The architects report on the inspection of the temporary buildings;
• To continue elementary after school tutoring with an hourly pay rate of $20 for the tutor with the total not to exceed $2160 for the fiscal year;
• Pay building level teachers who serve as SIP team members a stipend of $1000;
• The lease with Midwest Bus Sales for a 2009 - 18 passenger mini bus with a lift for one year in the amount of $10,500).

All voted to approve the payment of all bills including those presented at the board table as presented.

All voted to approve the activity account summaries for August 2011 for WCE, WCMS and WCHS as presented.

All voted to approve the August 2011 treasurer's report as presented.

Under financial activity, the board approved the payment of all bills including some additional bills that were presented at the table.

The board approved the activity accounts for each building and the treasurer's report as presented.

Supt. Grimm made a few remarks about the district's financial report informing the board that as of September 21, 2011 the State of Illinois owed the district $147,201 in money that ISBE has vouchered to the Comptroller's Office but the district has not yet received.

Some of the significant points that were highlighted during this portion of the agenda were:

• The budget being submitted is a deficit budget in the amount of $633,607
• Total budgeted expenditures for the FY12 budget are $195,282 LESS than the FY11 budgeted expenditures which is approximately 1.9%
• Budgeted revenue is $9,338,804 and budgeted expenditures are $10,002,411
• General State Aid is down $372,000 for FY12 compared to FY11
• This budget assumes that we will receive 3 transportation payments from the State even though the district is owed 6 transportation payments. Two are from FY11 and 4 from FY12;

It is anticipated that this budget will need to be amended in May of 2012 as has been the case with the two previous fiscal years fiscal budgets.

Motion by B. Arnold, seconded by Anderson to approve the FY12 district budget as presented. All approved.

Motion by Anderson, seconded by B. Arnold to approve the resolution with Warren Co in the amount of $4500 pending approval of attorney as presented. All voted yes.

This agenda item reflected the board's desire to have current Henderson, Mercer Warren Regional Superintendent Jodi Scott assist the administrative team on three distinct projects during her non-working hours.

Those projects will be assisting in the completion of a support staff job description and evaluation process project, the creation, distribution and summary of a needs analysis for district certified staff regarding the common core project and the creation and distribution of information for district stakeholders regarding the new common core standards project, the new certified teacher evaluation project and the new principal evaluation project.

The agreement calls for Mrs. Scott to work on behalf of the district the amount of time equal to 15 - 8 hour days.

The consulting fee that will be remitted to Warren County will be $4500.

The board tabled an action item regarding the FCC educational broadband service license. As part of the discussion, the board heard from Supt. Grimm and district technology coordinator Mrs. Frakes about another option that the district should consider. This option essentially would allow the district to build out a network that would connect the north campus, south campus and Media campus wirelessly.

This network then would allow the district to expand their bandwidth for internet connectivity. The board was presented a proposal to build out this network, which is part of the requirement of the Federal Communication Commission for the district to continue to own the FCC EBS license.

A tentative budget of approximately $25,000 was presented to the board to complete this project.

The board was informed that potentially once this network is built out, it could provide a substantial amount of money to the district in the future.

The board, by consensus, directed Supt. Grimm and Mrs. Frakes to continue exploring the build out this network at district expense.

Supt. Grimm indicated to the board that he would bring back a report to them on this project at the October meeting.

In other business the board:

•  reviewed reports from the building Principals and the Assistant Principals.
•  reviewed a curriculum report as presented by Supt. Grimm, a district technology report from Mrs. Frakes, a special education report from Mrs. Farniok and a district athletic report as presented by Mr. Kerfoot.
•  reviewed the admini-strator's salary and compensation report showing the salary and benefit information for each of the district's administrators for the FY12.

Supt. Grimm said this is an annual September agenda item and is presented to the board to meet a requirement to first present it to the board in a public meeting and second, have this information posted on the district's website by October 1st of each year.

•  reviewed the 6th day enrollment report as presented. As of September 24, 2011 there were 918 students in grades K-12.
•  discussed a request from the administrative team to include two additional school improvement day early dismissals which will be at 11:30 and are in keeping with the six SIP early dismissals that are currently found on the 2011-12 school year.

Supt. Grimm informed the board that he would meet with the administrative team early next week to select the most appropriate date to have the first of these two additional early dismissals.

The primary purpose of this request is to provide district staff time to complete the alignment of district curriculum to the new common core standards.

This is one of the bulleted items that is included in the common core path to excellence document that the board has been reviewing over the past several months.

The board was informed that they will formally approve these two dates at which time the administrative team presents an amended FY12 school calendar.

The board briefly discussed the concept of early dismissal due to weather. It was suggested that perhaps more information could be given to district stakeholders about how decisions are made relative to letting school out early due to extreme heat or winter related weather.

Supt. Grimm reiterated that the primary factor taken into account when making decisions about whether to dismiss school early due to weather related issues is student safety and whether or not students will be properly and adequately supervised if they are dismissed early.

There is a blurb about the topic on the district's website under the District tab.

The board reviewed two photos from West Central Elementary art teacher, Gary Ricketts depicting some additional artwork that he would like to add to the wall in the elementary gym and the elementary cafeteria. The board indicated their approval of these projects by consensus and asked Supt Grimm to have these two items on the October board meeting agenda as consent agenda items.

CLOSED SESSION

The board went into closed session to discuss matters pertaining to personnel (the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body) at 9:45 p.m.

They returned to open session at 10:47 p.m.

A motion was made by Brad Arnold and seconded by Paul Anderson to employ Brad Jackson as the WCHS head boys' varsity basketball coach as presented.

Roll call:

Lonnie Brent, nay;

Renee Goff, aye;

Amy John, aye;

Roberta Robbins, abstain;

Paul Anderson, aye;

Brad Arnold; aye;

Jodi Arnold, nay.

Motion carried.

The board voted unanimously to approve the following motions:

• approved the request for a six week maternity leave for Julie Ricketts as presented.
•  approved the retirement notices for Ann Matthews, Dixie Messner and Jeanne Barber (end of the 2011-12 school year), Vicky Keever and Joanne Hilligoss (end of the 2012-12 school year), and Cherry Simmons and Peg Ingles (end of the 2012-13 school year).
•  accepted the resignation of Tammy Slater as WCMS art sponsor as presented.
•  accepted the resignation of Barb Meyer as WCHS math club sponsor as presented.
•  employed Kris Judd as a WCMS 7th grade girls' basketball coach as presented.
•  to employed Luci Lox as WCMS assistant speech coach as presented.
•  employed Tammy Rankin as WCMS art club sponsor as presented.
•  employed Megan Smith and Rachel Pepich as WCHS math team sponsors as presented.
•  employed Matt Hennings as WCMS 6th grade girls basketball coach as presented.
•  employed Amy Wolf, Lynn Ragar, Lisa Johnson, Kathy Lafary, Amanda Hennenfent, and Julie Ricketts as elementary tutors at the rate of $20 per hour as presented.

The board was informed that the next regular October meeting will be on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 in the elementary cafeteria and will begin at 7 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:59 p.m.

These minutes are approved as written this 19th day of October, 2011.