RECORD
OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MORRISON
COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT #6
November
20, 2007
The
regular meeting of the Board of Education of Morrison Community Unit District
#6,
On
roll call, the following were present: Greg Houldson, Jim Prombo, Jim Ridley,
Kevin Schlueter, Steve Swanstrom, Ted Tilton and Sally Gray. Also present were
Superintendent Jody Ware, High School Principal Janet Ward, Junior High
Principal Darryl Hogue, Harvey Zuidema, Rebecca Covell, April Edwards, Recording
Secretary Wendy Krajnovich, and two media representatives.
President
Sally Gray called for any changes or corrections to the minutes of the last
regular Board meeting held on October 23, 2007.
Hearing none, she asked for a motion to approve the previous
minutes.
Motion:
Schlueter; Second: Houldson; to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of
October 23, 2007. Ayes: seven; Nays:
none. Motion carried.
COMMUNICATIONS/PUBLIC
COMMENTS
Superintendent
Report
Dr.
Jody Ware informed the Board that at the recent Meet the Players event, the
Athletic Booster group presented the school with a check for $20,000.00. They also presented a check for $3,000.00
towards the new wrestling mat. The
balance of the cost will be paid from the school district budget. The old mat will be moved to the junior high
school. She reported that last week she
had received a call from nationally known education guru and published author,
Mike Schmoker, who asked for examples of our Power Standards, Instructional
Objectives and Assessments. She told
that she and Darryl Hogue had gone on the road with retired superintendent Jim
Rosberg and consultant Joe Crawford, making presentations at Mundelein and
Building
Administration
Junior
High Principal Darryl Hogue reported that they had just hosted their Detention-Free
night. One hundred five of the two
hundred four students who were invited attended. This was created as an
incentive to work towards good grades, and activities included open gym, a Guitar
Hero video game, and Dance, Dance Revolution.
Teachers are writing their second quarter assessments and reviewing
first quarter assessments. He reported
he had recently attended a workshop sponsored by Illinois Interactive Report
Card and learned new ways to look at assessment data. The recent parent conferences went well. The staff found out that parents really like
a group meeting so they will be exploring that for next year. Four teachers recently went to the IAHPERD (Illinois
Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance) conference
funded by the nutrition grant. He also
reported that he had recently presented at a Lions Club meeting to ask for
members to become student mentors.
High
School Principal Janet Ward reported that on the early release day, November 14th.,
teachers worked on first and second quarter assessments. On November 6th, freshmen took the
EXPLORE test, and sophomores took the PLAN test. The high school is also using WIN software
this year provided through
Elementary
Principal Amy Heusinkveld was not in attendance, so her report was read by Dr.
Ware. Family Reading Night was recently
held at Northside. The evening was
planned by Title I Reading teachers, classroom teachers, and the preschool
program. Teachers are working on first
and second quarter assessments. Grade
level recognition assemblies will
RECORD
OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MORRISON
COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT #6
November
20, 2007
be
held on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving.
Key Club high school student tutors are being assigned to elementary
students
to assist them with homework. Third and
fourth grade teachers have scheduled two dates prior to the end of December to
work on writing instruction with Gretchen Courtney consultants. Kindergarten, first and second grade teachers
will schedule dates in January and February.
Elementary Coordinator, Anji Garza, has been putting school updates on
the website. Southside volunteer hours
are increasing. New student pickup
procedures have been initiated at Northside to ensure student safety.
Public
Forum
There
were no public comments.
INFORMATIONAL
REPORTS
Financial
Report as of October 31, 2007
The
Financial Report was reviewed.
Treasurer’s
Report as of October 31, 2007
The
Treasurer’s Report was reviewed.
Financial
Comparisons: FY06, FY07, FY08
The
Financial Comparisons report was reviewed.
Board
Convention Report
Board
Members who attended the recent Illinois School Board Convention and Dr. Ware
reviewed the sessions they had attended. Recording Secretary Wendy Krajnovich
reported on the sessions she attended that were provided for board recording
secretaries.
Parent/Teacher
Conference Count
Board
members were provided with conference counts.
Parents were also provided with surveys at the conferences, and their
responses and comments were also included.
Overall, parents were very positive about their conference(s).
Extra-Curricular
Fall Participation
Board
members were provided with extracurricular participation numbers for last year
and this year. Enrollment seems to be consistent from year to
year.
06-07
Suspension/Expulsion Report
Suspension/Expulsion
reports were provided from 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 for comparison. Skipped detentions and fifth detentions are
the most frequent misconducts. Approximately
only 10% of the student population are the ones cited for repeated misconduct.
ISAT/PSAE
Regional Comparison
Dr.
Ware provided information about the 8th grade ISAT scores and the 11th
grade PSAE results. She provided the
results that were published by the Sauk Valley News using fourteen school
districts in this area for the eighth grade scores and eleven districts with
high schools for the eleventh grade scores.
She also prepared a chart of scores using five benchmark school districts
that are similar to Morrison in size, EAV, unit district, percentage of low
income, and enrollment. In each
instance, Morrison ranked in the top half of the comparisons.
Bright
Star Award
Morrison
has been recognized again by Bright Star as a district in the upper third of
Classroom
Walkthrough
District
administrators have set a goal of spending two hours per week doing classroom
walkthroughs. District administrators
have been trained in a classroom walkthrough model. They allow administrators a means of
observing use of power
RECORD
OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MORRISON
COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT #6
November
20, 2007
standards,
learning objectives, curriculum, level of instruction and student
engagement. They also contribute to
building management by wandering around.
Recognition
of MEA Officers
The
Board was informed of the current officers of the Morrison Education
Association, the teacher collective bargaining group. At a recent election, Jerry Navarra was
elected president, and Gregg Dolan, vice president. During the past year, Mary Simmons was
elected as secretary, and Mark Ernst remains in the position of treasurer.
2007
Tax Levy
A
public hearing on the 2007 tax levy will be held at the December 18th
Board of Education meeting. At the
current time, the county assessor cannot give an anticipated EAV due to farm assessment. Also a number of new exemptions have been
approved by the state legislature which will have an impact on EAV.
Funding
– BIMP
The
Budget Implementation Act (BIMP) passed the House and Senate last week but
remains on Governor Blagojevich’s desk.
Currently it allows general state aid to be raised by $400 per pupil,
increases special education instructional personnel reimbursement by $1,000,
and $700 per support staff employee. At
this time, the Governor could sign it as written, veto it, or he could issue an
amendatory veto.
Facilities
Update – Swimming Pool
Dr.
Ware informed the Board as to the current state of the swimming pool. Facilities Director Dean Wallace was also in
attendance to provide information and answer questions. The pool currently requires continual repair
and maintenance to keep it running. Pool
improvements are part of the 10-year health/life safety list of projects. Dr. Ware provided each Board member with a
copy of an engineer’s report on the pool that was done two years ago. Options would be to shut down the pool or
rebuild the entire facility. It would
also have to be decided whether to go with the “big dig” concept which would
raise the level of the pool by six inches to allow the use of diving
blocks. Board members would like updated
information from the architect. Dr. Ware
said if they decide to go ahead with the project, that it would go out for bid
in January, be accepted in February with work to begin in the late spring.
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion:
Tilton; Second: Ridley; to approve the items on the consent agenda consisting
of District Bills as of November 30, 2007; Financial Report as of October 31,
2007; Treasurer’s Report as of October 31, 2007; Personnel Recommendations (Roger
Smith’s name was removed as a volunteer coach per his request) and an Addendum;
Quarterly Activity Account Reports, and disposal of the four closed session
tapes from April 25, 2006.
Ayes:
Ridley, Schlueter, Swanstrom, Tilton, Houldson, Prombo, Gray. Nays: none.
Motion carried.
ACTION
ITEMS
Disposal
of District Property
Motion:
Ridley; Second: Schlueter; to approve disposal of an old, nonfunctioning
pottery wheel from the district inventory.
Ayes:
seven. Nays: none. Motion carried.
Principal
Evaluation Form
Due
to state regulations, all building principals will need to be evaluated before
February 1, 2008. A new evaluation tool
was created that meets the criteria of the new legislation. Dr. Ware requests that the new evaluation
tool be approved so she can conduct the evaluations by December 20, 2007. Dr. Ware would like to bring her
recommendations to the Board regarding the principals’ contracts.
Motion:
Prombo; Second: Ridley; to approve the principal evaluation form as presented.
Ayes:
seven. Nays: none. Motion carried.
RECORD
OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MORRISON
COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT #6
November
20, 2007
Contract
for Electricity
Motion:
Swanstrom; Second: Schlueter; to accept the electricity contract from
Constellation New Energy which will be in effect until May 2009.
Ayes:
Tilton, Prombo, Ridley, Schlueter, Swanstrom, Gray. Nays: none.
Abstain: Houldson. Motion
carried.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Policy
Committee
Jim
Prombo reported that new policy changes have just been received and will be
reviewed.
Strategic
Planning
No
report
Personnel/Negotiations
No
report
Finance
Committee
No
report
Facilities
Committee
No
report
Citizen’s
Advisory Committee
Greg
Houldson reported that the committee had met on October 29th. Susan Hamstra was elected secretary. The committee by-laws were distributed. Discussion items were discipline reports,
health/life safety, and the wellness plan.
The next meeting will be held on November 26th, and the group
is going on a health/life safety tour.
Extra-Curricular
Committee
No
report
Insurance
Committee
No
report
Local
Wellness Committee
No
report
Energy/Utility
Committee
No
report
CLOSED
SESSION 8:29 P.M.
Motion:
Houldson; Second: Schlueter; to enter into a closed session for the
appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of
an employee and review of the closed session minutes of October 23, 2007.
Ayes:
Houldson, Prombo, Ridley, Schlueter, Swanstrom, Tilton, Gray. Nays: none.
Motion carried.
RECORD
OF MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MORRISON
COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT #6
November
20, 2007
CONCLUDE
CLOSED SESSION AND RETURN TO OPEN SESSION
10:00 P.M.
Motion:
Houldson; Second: Prombo; to conclude the closed session and return to open
session.
Ayes:
seven. Nays: none. Motion carried.
ACTION
FROM CLOSED SESSION 10:02 P.M.
Motion:
Ridley; Second: Swanstrom; to approve the closed session minutes of October 23,
2007.
Ayes:
seven. Nays: none. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT 10:04 P.M.
President
Sally Gray adjourned the meeting by consent at 10:04 P.M.
(President)
___________________________________________
(Secretary)
___________________________________________
Date Approved _________________________