Corporation Discussion Notes
Monday, September 10, 2007

Members Present: Martessa Conover, Nancy Dawson, Helen Bray, Karen Podell, Karen Bontrager, Jan Kienholz, Steve Sims, Wayne Shipe, Lossie Crane

Administrators Present: Dr. Keen, Rick Phillips, Nick Verhoff, Chase Stinson, Kevin Scanlon, Ed Mendoza, Chris Baldwin, Susan Hobson, Dave Mundy, Todd Lambert, Cindy Keever

Administration Items:

Item One: Salary Adjustment

1.  Our pay increase of 2.25% took effect as of the August 31st pay.  This 2.25% increase was in accordance with our previous contract.

2.  As part of our newly ratified contract, an additional pay increase of .5% will take effect as of the September 28th pay.  This will bring our total pay increase to 2.75% for this school year.

3.  Since our first two pays (August 31st and September 14th) do not reflect the new pay increase of .5%, that amount which would have been added to the paycheck will be paid retroactively and divided over the next 24 pays beginning on September 28th.

Item Two: Surveys

Dr. Keen asked Mr. Lambert to talk about the surveys since they fall under his jurisdiction of Continuous Quality Growth (CQG) initiative. Mr. Lambert explained that the surveys that are being conducted so that “customer satisfaction” information will arrive back at the CQG Leadership Team (which consists of Dr. Keen, Lynn Schemel, Cindy Keever & the eight building principals) so that a data analysis can be helpful to all staff. The surveys have been given to parents, teachers, technology staff and are currently in the hands of the Technology Coordinators at each building.

There will not be secret data collected; they plan on keeping the anonymity of staff members, nonetheless, no data to place anyone in an embarrassing or awkward situation. The feedback will be shared on a regular basis with the staff and WCTA.

Item Three: Grants

With the absence of Lynn Schemel, Dr. Keen briefed us on the one of the grants for High Ability Students which is a total of $49,000. He asked if Lynn could report directly to Martessa Conover on the particulars of the grant, she agreed.

Chase Stinson reported on a total grant from Federal and State funds of $36,000 coming to the district to assist with the English as a Second Language students in the district.

WCTA Items

Item One:  Video Approval Form

WCTA presented that there had been several buildings contact her with concerns over the implementation of the Video Approval Form.

Dr. Keen responded that was put in place due to the removal of the “Safari/mission control” type of environment where the videos were handled by a staff member. This form has been implemented to prevent a problem NOT get rid of an existing abuse of video use. With the freedom of each staff member having a VCR/DVD player in their room, it poses a greater threat of an inappropriate, non-curricular movie being shown to the students. He agreed that videos that are housed in the building Media Center, shown from United Streaming or part of a curricular adoption would not need a form to be shown ONLY videos that teachers bring in from the outside of the building. Additionally, once a film has been approved, it does not have to be approved again, year after year.

He did make it clear that he understood that there are occasions whereby staff members use entertaining movies as a reward or filler for a variety of occasions. He just wants to make sure that staff members make choices that are age appropriate and he can defend if an issue is raised by a parent.

Prior notification is part of the form. He also understands how emergencies arise and the two day time frame in advance would not be able to be met. He would still like for the staff member to file a form at their earliest convenience after an emergency.

Item 2: Healthcare Sign-Off

WCTA described that having all staff members sign-off on a healthcare plan for students who have healthcare needs is a concern of many staff members. Many fear that a signature on a form will cause more liability for the staff members. This is particularly true of staff members with a large student body, who might not remember which students have particular health issues.

Dr. Keen stated that the accountability always falls with the teacher but in educational law, it is always seen as “Did the teacher do what is reasonable?”. He and Chase Stinson were in agreement that they thought the school nurse personnel were making the sign-off as more of a way to inform staff of such health care issues, not that each staff member is solely liable for the care of that student.

Everyone agreed with subs in place in the buildings and teachers taking medications on field trips to administer as well as the implementation of the strict HIPPA policy that this was a very big issue to plan. Dr. Keen asked that they have a chance to review the process and perhaps figure out a plan of action. Dr. Keen will then bring this issue back to the table with a more suitable and reasonable plan that would help in a variety of healthcare instances with students.

Item 3: Professional Development (District)

WCTA brought to the table the Professional Development that takes place district-wide & the fact that it needs to be as applicable as possible to certified staff. WCTA suggested that allowing the staff to participate in the decision-making process or voice their needs would promote more ownership regarding the District Professional Development that is held each year.

Dr. Keen agreed that Professional Development needs to address the mutual needs of Central Office & certified staff. He had already spoken to Todd Lambert & Lynn Schemel regarding this issue. This is a big part of the CQG (Continuous Quality Growth) plan for the district to evaluate the effectiveness of the Professional Development. Mr. Lambert & Mrs. Schemel would like to meet with the WCTA Executive Board at WCTA’s convenience to discuss the funding for and the need for relevant Professional Development.