WOODLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 404 DIRECTOR'S MEETING MINUTES
January 26, 2015 5:00PM Regular Meeting-WMS/WHS Library
MEMBERS PRESENT
Janice Watts, Jim Bays, Tina Cayton, Matt Donald, Jeremy Stuart, Aaron Shoup-Substitute Student Representative, Michael Green-Board Secretary and Tegan Steen-Recording Secretary
OTHERS PRESENT
See attached lists.
MINUTES
Jeremy Stuart moved to approve the minutes of the January 12, 2015 regular meeting.
Janice Watts yesJim Bays yesTina Cayton yesMatt Donald yesJeremy Stuart yes carried
REPORTS TO THE BOARD
Student ReportAaron Shoup, who substituted for Kurtis Patterson as Student Representative, said that next week is finals week. WHS Administrators are giving tours of the new High School. Those interested can sign up in the High School office.
WHS Construction ReportKelley Wilson reported that progress is good at the new High School site. A lot of work is complete in the north and south classroom wings and more work underway in the gym areas. Kelley said that it looks like they are 10 days ahead of schedule and ¾ of the way complete. He said there is 34% left in the contingency balance. The subcontractor has dropped the claim involving the grandstand snow load. Tina Cayton will get the finished drawings of the “W” to Kelley so that it can be placed on the site. The Board discussed the rebuttal from the architects regarding the Geogrid issues. Jim asked Kelley about the brick issue. Kelley said that the solution for the brick that they came up with should work out fine. Michael said that over time the bricks would fade and even out.
SUPERINTENDENT REPORT
Michael Green said that former coach and WHS counselor, Don Wendt, passed away Saturday. The funeral will be Tuesday, February 3rd at 2pm at the Presbyterian Church.
Michael asked Board members if they’d have any objections to an annual marathon fundraising organization renting buses to transport relay runners this April. The Board discussed this and was fine with this.
CORRESPONDENCE
None.
CITIZENS COMMENTS
ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS
President, Janice Watts, asked citizens to keep their comments to within 5 minutes. Nick Massie read a statement (attached). Ben Fredericks asked for a timetable for the “frank discussion” that Jim Bays mentioned in his statement at the January 12th meeting. He said that he thought that cost of employee investigations was a lot, and he had concerns about this. He asked about the budgeting process and when the discussion would occur. He asked for a Gantt chart for the plan for this. Todd Dinehart asked the Board to remove Mr. Green. Janice said that she wants to keep meetings orderly, which is why they had citizens sign up to talk about agenda and non-agenda items. Audience members made comments about meeting rules.
BOARD REPORTS & REQUESTS
Matt Donald had good news. He said that he attended the transportation meeting regarding the model for routes next year. He said that Shannon Barnett did an excellent job. They came up with a model that Matt called a single run/pseudo hub model. It was good for bell schedules. They will probably only have one more meeting. He was impressed by the way the meeting was run. Tina said that Donna Sheppard did a great job.
Tina said that some employees are afraid to complain about things and that the District should have a way for employees to have their complaints addressed. Jim said he would like to request this to be an item for the next agenda. Janice said that she and Michael have already discussed this.
Jim would like to have a report or a discussion about the KWRL agreement and what the Ridgefield School District status of that is. He also said that he’s not comfortable with the way the Citizens Item on the Board’s agenda is working. He told audience members that the sign-in sheet that separates agenda and non-agenda requests to comment, was a way to make the meeting orderly and effective. He said the Board is not afraid to hear what citizens have to say.
Matt Donald said that he struggles with the idea that nobody shows interest in running for the Board, but they show up when they want to complain about something.
Jim asked if they had to discuss the request to remove the Superintendent in executive session, or in the public session. Michael said that would be covered under executive session. Michael said that he thinks if there is a credible accusation of wrongdoing, they should investigate. He takes no offense.
CITIZENS COMMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS
Ben Fredericks said he appreciated the Board working on effective meeting policies. He hopes the Board doesn’t abandon Roberts’ Rules of Order and said that Ann McFarland could give a training on the rules. He agreed with Matt’s comments about nobody wanting to do the job of the Board, but appreciates the Board working on policies.
Nick Massie said he is upset because he doesn’t understand the Board’s rules. He said he’s read Roberts’ Rules and knows all about them. He said that he’s been coming to meetings, but is unable to run for the School Board, as he works out of town a lot.
Tammy Lynn said she comes to the Board meetings to find out what’s going on in the District. Parents want to be informed and heard. She’s anxious to know about the busing for next year. She said she’s had difficulty getting in and navigating the website.
Cheryl Nesbitt said there’s been a rollercoaster of rules. She said that part of being on the Board is to know the rules. She said that she relies on the Board to know protocol and procedure. She said she’s disappointed because it affects her.
Michelle Saarkinen said she emailed the Board a question and did not get a response. The Board told her they saw the response that was sent by Michael. Michael said he’d resend the response to her.
Holly Royle said only two Board members attended her meeting about what she couldn’t say at the last Board meeting regarding her termination. She thanked the two Board members for coming to her meeting.
Tammy Lynn said she was at that meeting. She said at the last meeting she was not for the teachers who were terminated. But, Holly gave her answers and she believes what Holly had to say. She said she was unhappy that the Board couldn’t tell her details regarding the termination.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
Policy Discussion: Policy 1400, 1410,1420 & 1430Michael and Janice had discussed Board meeting policies. They looked at the policies and said there were a number of redundancies. The fact that there are multiple policies regarding meetings, made them decide to try and roll all of them into one policy to reduce the redundancy and make the policy more accessible. The Board discussed the suggested changes in the draft revision with. The Board discussed ideas for further changes to the draft. Matt said he would like to know the Board meeting policies of other districts and learn more about Roberts’ Rules and Democratic Rules. He said this was a lot of information to digest in one evening and he would like to study it more. The draft revision to this policy will return for another discussion. The Board discussed the draft statement for the website and agreed on edits.
Scheduling of Yale Valley Board MeetingThe Board agreed to have their regular May 11th meeting at Yale School.
CONSENT AGENDA
See attached consent agenda. The Board discussed the consent agenda. Jim said from the next meeting on, he will be asking to remove the architect items from the consent agenda to vote on them separately. He said he will vote “no” to all because of the architect’s response to the GeoGrid issues.
Jim Bays moved to approve the consent agenda.
Jeremy Stuart yesMatt Donald yesTina Cayton yesJim Bays yesJanice Watts yes carried
ACTION ITEMS
Approval of Lease for Temporary Warehouse Spacehe Port of Woodland has warehouse space on a month-to-month basis available for the District to lease at a discounted price.
Matt Donald moved to approve the lease agreement with the Port of Woodland as presented.
Second Reading and Approval to Delete Policy No. 2178-Traffic SafetyThis policy is unnecessary and was recommended for deletion.
Jim Bays moved to approve the deletion of Policy No. 2178-Traffic Safety.
WHS Change Order #18Kelley Wilson summarized Change Order #18. The Board discussed some of the items on this change order.
Tina Cayton moved to approve Change Order #18.
ADJOURNMENT
President, Janice Watts, adjourned the meeting of the Board of Directors at 7:29pm.
ATTEST:
_______________________________ Secretary to the Board
WOODLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT #404 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
____________________________________ President
____________________________________ Director