2023/02/27 Regular Board Meeting Agenda

Interstate 35 Community School District

Board of Directors Meeting

Monday, February 27, 2023

Regular Board Meeting 6:00 pm

High School Media Center

The Interstate 35 Community School District exists to develop life-long learners and responsible, productive, successful citizens in an ever changing society.

Regular BOARD MEETING–Tentative Agenda

1. Opening
   1. Call to Order--Welcome--Roll Call--Pledge of Allegiance
   2. Review of I-35 Mission Statement and District Priorities

Mission Statement

“The Interstate 35 Community School District exists to develop life-long learners and responsible, productive, successful citizens in an ever changing society”

District Priorities

1.  Articulate and support a cohesive, student-centered PK-12 vision for continuous school improvement
2. Engage in effective teaching and relevant learning for the 21st Century
3. Operate with fiscal integrity, efficiency and effectiveness

2. Discuss and/or Approve Agenda  (Action) 
3. Open Forum 

“Residents, students, parents/guardians, and staff members of the district may address the Board about relevant topics.  Those who wish to speak must sign up at the beginning of the meeting.  Speaker’s participation is limited to 5 minutes per meeting.  We ask speakers to remember that Iowa law prohibits the Board from discussing specific employees or students or their performance.”

4. 3rd Grade Spotlight–Education in Action
5. Administrative Reports 
   1. Mr. Bonte
   2. Ms. Whitson
   3. Mrs. Woods
   4. Mr. Weber
6. Superintendent Report
   1. Proposed Bills still on Agenda (Background information)
7. Discuss and/or Approve Consent Items  (Action) 

1. Past Meeting Minutes
2. Monthly Bills and Financial Statement
3. Open Enrollment
4. Resignations and Contracts
   1. Nathan McKinney hired as Track Throwing Coach.
   2. John Adams hired as the High Assistant Baseball Coach.
   3. Whitney Hutton hired as an Associate.
   4. Zadie Hatfield resigns as long term substitute.

8. Items for Discussion
   1. Third Reading of 100 and 600 series Board Policy (Action) Board policies need to be reviewed every five years.  We have set up a rotation for our board policies and this year we are reviewing the 100 and 600 series.  We will have three readings of the policies before they are adopted.  The grammar changes suggested are not listed below.  
      1. 100 series recommended changes
         1. Code No. 103.1 update our career offerings to include family consumer science, update contact information to include Mr. Bonte
         2. Code No. 103.1(a) update contact information to include Mr. Bonte
      2. 600 series recommended changes
         1. Code No. 601.3 updated elementary to include Preschool
         2. Code No. 603.3 removed, duplicate of Code No 610
         3. Code No. 604.3 changed ELL (English Language Learner to English Learner) to EL (English Learner)
         4. Code No. 605.4 add “or superintendent designee” and eliminated the evaluation of technology in the curriculum 
         5. Code No. 606.1 updated technology coordinator to technology director, added the statement for school use when staff are downloading programs
         6. Code No. 606.1E2 this policy was rewritten to read “Interstate 35 Community School District has committed to a multi-year timeline of issuing a technology device to  every student, a project referred to as the Interstate 35 Student Technology Usage Program. The district believes that technology integrated  into effective instructional practices will support students and staff to grow as creators, contributors, and  empowered, connected learners so that each person is prepared to achieve a lifetime of personal success. Before  being issued a device, students and their families must agree to the terms and conditions of the Technology Usage Agreement issued to students at the beginning of each school year and is also found online at https://www.roadrunnerpride.org/page/technology.   

Student Internet Access

Students may access the Internet while at school. Student

access to the Internet is designed for educational purposes and that theDistrict has taken available precautions to restrict and/or control student access to material on the Internet that is inappropriate, and/or harmful to minors. However, it is impossible for the District to restrict access to all objectionable materials that may be found on the Internet. Parents and guardians will not hold the District (or any of its employees, administrators, or officers) responsible for materials my child may come in contact with while on the Internet. Additionally, parents and guardians accept responsibility for communicating to their child guidance concerning his/her acceptable use of the Internet - i.e., setting and conveying standards for my daughter/son to follow when selecting, sharing, and exploring information and resources on the Internet.

Student Media Release

From time to time, photographs/digital photos are taken in the building for newsletters, class projects, newspaper features, district/classroom social media accounts, etc. Parent permission for media release is given electronically at the time of registration. 

If you have questions or concerns with your child’s use of the

district’s technology, network systems, internet access, and/or media releases please contact the District Technology Director.

2. Board Approval to Issue Project for Bid–air conditioning (Action) Board to consider a motion to tentatively approve and issue for public bid the I35 Schools HVAC Renovations project drawings, specifications, form of contract, and engineers estimate of probable cost.
3. District Redistricting (For Information) We are working with Cornerstone Geospatial Consulting to redistrict our boundaries based on the 2020 Census.  The proposed new boundaries take into consideration population shifts within the director districts.  The district populations should be within 10% (119 people–the 2020 Census shows a variation of 122 people) of the other director districts. As a result, the recommended changes to the districts are minimal.   We will prepare the materials to adopt these recommendations/resolution at the March meeting.   
4. Settlement Agreement with Support Staff (Action) Through recent negotiations, the District and the support staff tentatively agreed upon a $0.50/hour increase.  This is a 3.337% increase and will cost approximately $49,955.27. 
5. UTV Bids (Action)  We accepted bids to replace our current utility vehicle.  Mr. Bedwell  recommends the purchase of the Kubota from Sundown Equipment. 
6. Long Range Facility Plan (For Information Only)  This is the proposed recommendation to begin moving forward on our long range facilities work.  At the March meeting, we will ask for approval of or consideration for
   1. Possible pathways for funding sources–Review updated projections from Piper Sandler
   2. OPN Architect Services
   3. Consider next steps to secure funding for Phase 1 
   4. Preview options for Phase 2
7. Security Update (Additional exterior video door cameras and remote access) (Action)  The proposed additional security cameras with video access will be located on the North side of the building between the middle school west entrance and the high school east entrance.  These two locations are used by students and staff daily.  The video link will feed to the high school office for access.  This eliminates the need for additional door badges to be distributed.
8. Softball Field Upgrades (Action) Attached is the softball infield quote to update the field (adding dirt to support drainage).  Mr. Weber began having conversations with this company in the spring of 2022. They are the only local company in the DM area that will bring in the materials and properly level the infield surface to high school softball appropriate levels.  Multiple schools were contacted in an attempt to locate additional companies for this work.
9. Field Irrigation Bid  (Action)  As we look to begin work on Phase 1 of our new facilities project 
   1. Football Field will need to be used more if we break ground on baseball/softball (which currently is part of current football practice field)
   2. We plan to keep the current field for long term use. Once we have additional fields this would mean more mowing hours, and the current hours used to keep water rotating on field is extensive 
   3. With additional use on the current field, and no water system, the field will get torn up quicker and not be prepared for home football games

Note:  We have one bid submitted for this project….four companies were contacted to submit a bid.  

10. Early Retirement (Action) We are proposing opening the early retirement option for staff with the following criteria:
    1. 58 years old and 17 years of service in the district
    2. If the board opts to offer early retirement, I would like to set the following timeline.  Provide all eligible staff the early retirement packet by Wednesday, March 1, 2023.  The deadline to return completed early retirement will be Tuesday, March 14, 2023.  These will be brought to the board meeting on Monday, March 27, 2023.
    3. Positions may be posted as “anticipated” once the documentation is received by the district office.
11. Closed Session (School Safety Plan Review) a closed session under Iowa Code Section 21.5(1)(a) (to review or discuss records which are authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential) 

Adjourn. Next Meeting: March 27, 2023