DELAWARE COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION
SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 (postponed
from 2-16-10)
6:30 P.M.
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
An executive
session was held at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the job performance evaluation of
individual employees.
MINUTES
Present: John Adams, President; Sean Burcham,
Vice-President; Tyce Stebbins, Secretary; Norb Heban, Member; Trent Fox,
Member; Darin Gullion, Assistant Superintendent; and Steven R. Hall,
Superintendent
I.
CALL
TO ORDER
At
6:30 p.m. Board President, John Adams, called the meeting to order.
II.
PLEDGE
OF ALLEGIANCE
III.
AMEND
AGENDA
A. A motion was made by Sean Burcham and
seconded by Norb Heban to amend the agenda as presented. The motion was approved unanimously.
IV.
MINUTES
A. A motion was made by Norb Heban and
seconded by Trent Fox to accept the minutes of the business meeting, and
executive sessions held on Tuesday, February 2, 2010. The motion was approved unanimously.
V.
FINANCE
A. A motion was made by Sean Burcham and
seconded by Norb Heban to accept the list of vouchers as presented. The motion was approved unanimously.
B. Purchase over $7,500
Norrick Petroleum Corp TSP $15,525.09
A motion was made by Norb Heban and
seconded by Sean Burcham to accept the bid by Norrick
Petroleum in the amount of $15,525.09 as presented by Assistant Superintendent
Gullion. The motion was approved
unanimously.
VI.
OLD
BUSINESS
A.
None
VII.
COMMUNICATIONS
FROM THE FLOOR
A. Julie Costello asked if the resignation
of a high school principal on tonight’s agenda would be that of Mr. Matt
Moulton. Upon hearing that it was Mr.
Moulton, Ms. Costello added that Mr. Moulton is a man of good character and an
honest man. Ms. Costello felt it was a
shame to see him resign.
VIII.
NEW
BUSINESS
A. Certified Staff
1. The Board was informed of the retirement
of Camille Mealy as a music and media specialist teacher at Eaton Elementary
School effective with the last teacher work day of the 2009-2010 school year. Superintendent
Hall added we wish her the best in her retirement.
2. The Board was informed of the resignation
of Matt Moulton as an assistant principal at Delta High School effective June
30, 2010. Mr. Moulton will be returning
to the classroom beginning with the fall semester of the 2010-2011 school year.
A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and
seconded by Sean Burcham to employ the following GQE and ISTEP+ Remediation
teachers (items 3 and 4) as presented by Superintendent Hall:
3. Employ five Delta High School staff
members for GQE Remediation.
Math:
Scott
Herring (10 hr.) and Stephen Scroggins (10 hr.)
Language
Arts:
Joey
Gossett (10 hr.), Cheri Ridley (5 hr.), and Julia Blakely (5 hr.) –
4. Employ ISTEP+ Remediation teachers.
ALBANY
ELEMENTARY:
Susan
Speicher
Lisa
Bradshaw
DESOTO
ELEMENTARY:
Betty
Johnson
Leslie
Orman
EATON
ELEMENTARY:
Tiffany
Turner
Lisa
McKee
ROYERTON
ELEMENTARY:
Machelle
Ross (sessions 1 & 2)
Loraine
Toney (sessions 1 & 2)
Maryann
Foltz (sessions 1 & 2)
John
Kelly (session 1)
Debbie
Christopher (session 2)
The motion was approved unanimously.
B. Classified Staff
1. None
C. Extra Curricular
1.
The Board was informed of the resignation of Elizabeth
Honegger as a head varsity girls’ track coach at Delta High School effective February
12, 2010.
2.
A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Trent
Fox to appoint Stephen Hopkins as an assistant girls’ tennis coach for Delta
High School effective for the 2009-2010 season pending successful completion of
all pre-employment testing. The motion
was approved unanimously.
D. Conference Requests/Field Trips
1. None
E. Information and Proposals
1.
Superintendent
a.
DMS
Art Education Award
Superintendent Hall
informed the Board Delta Middle School was presented with the First Annual Art
Education Award at the Gallery 308’s Juried Student Art Show. Mr. Harman was recently presented with a $500
check for Delta Middle School at Gallery 308 where some of the student artwork
was on display. Superintendent Hall congratulate Ms. Dorton, Ms. Piazza and the art students at
Delta Middle School.
Ms. Dorton, present in
the audience, stated it is a pleasure to work with the students and faculty at
Delta Middle School. A bulletin board
displaying the students’ artwork will be put up in the Board room in the
future.
b.
DES
Afternoons ROCK
A motion was made by Tyce
Stebbins and seconded by Sean Burcham to approve the Afternoons ROCK Program
for DeSoto Elementary School as presented by Superintendent Hall. The motion was approved unanimously.
c.
Proposed
Cost Reductions
Superintendent Hall brought
to the Board the need to begin discussion regarding proposed cost cutting
measures. With cuts in the budget
already announced by the State plus recently announced possible budget cuts
coming this summer, Superintendent Hall felt the need for more cost cutting
measures was pressing.
d.
Work
Session Schedule
Superintendent Hall
requested the Board set a work session to discuss the proposed cost reductions. A work session of the Board will be held on Monday,
March 1, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at the administration building. A presentation will be made at the public
meeting on March 2, 2010.
2.
Assistant
Superintendent
a.
Annual
Performance Report
Assistant Superintendent
Gullion presented the 2010 Annual Performance Report to the Board. There were no questions or comments from the
Board.
b.
Student
Enrollment/Boundary Lines
Assistant Superintendent
Gullion thanked all those at transportation, Donnie Williams, Mark Clawson, and
Julie Brown for all their help in putting together the proposed boundary lines
with maps and PowerPoint. Assistant
Superintendent Gullion showed the Board a map of the proposed boundary lines
for the Delaware Community elementary schools.
Also discussed were tentative enrollment numbers without kindergarten
students and tentative bus routes, also without kindergarten students. Kindergartners will be added after roundup
which occurs a little later in the spring.
The Board discussed some
of the possible savings to the corporation as well as pick up times for
students and student capacity numbers on busses.
The Board took several
questions from the audience at this time.
Questions included the following items among other things: boundary lines, bus routes and current
savings, as well as current enrollment numbers for the elementary buildings.
Superintendent Hall
stated there are no easy answers, but we had to draw the lines for the best
efficiency and best use of our facilities.
Board Secretary, Tyce Stebbins, added it’s been a very tough decision
and I understand and sympathize with the individual problems created, but it is
still all Delcom Schools and we still have to do what is best for the entire Delcom
community.
A motion was made by Norb
Heban and seconded by Trent Fox to approve the proposed boundary lines for the
Delaware Community School Corporation as presented by Assistant Superintendent
Gullion. The motion was approved
unanimously.
Superintendent Hall
added at this time a transition plan will be put in place to send letters to
families as well as a plan to set open houses at all elementary buildings so
the parents and students feel more comfortable.
We will begin coordinating those plans with the building principals.
c.
A
motion was made by Norb Heban and seconded by Sean Burcham to surplus and
declare worthless equipment from Delta High School as listed. The motion was approved unanimously.
A motion was made by
Sean Burcham and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to approve the following use of
building and fund raising requests from Delta High School and Eaton Elementary
School (items d and e) as presented by Assistant Superintendent Gullion:
d.
Tom
Devine requests permission to use the pool at Delta High School for the
Learn-to Swim Program to be held on the following Saturdays: April 17, 24, and May 1, 8, 15, and 22, 2010. The motion was approved unanimously.
e.
Kim
DeVoss requests permission for Eaton Elementary School to participate in a
Relay for Life through May 14, 2010 to benefit the American Cancer Society.
The motion was approved
unanimously.
f.
A
motion was made by Norb Heban and seconded by Trent Fox to approve Kelli Reagan’s
request for Albany Elementary School to sell chocolate Easter bunnies from
March 1, 2010 through March 18, 2010 to help support the Camp Tecumseh trip (Fall of 2010) and other PTO activities. The motion was approved unanimously.
IX.
LETTERS/NOTES
A. Superintendent Hall shared a letter from
the Indiana Department of Education which highlighted our summer meal program
launched last summer. Food Service
Director, Dee Orick, along with her staff were
congratulated for providing meals to a lot of students. The meals did not cost the corporation and
did help to employ some of our food service workers during the summer months.
X.
BOARD
MEMBER COMMENTS
Trent
Fox – Congratulations to Ms. Mealy on her
retirement. Congratulations as well to
the middle school on the art award.
Thank you to everyone for coming out and for sharing your concerns and
comments. That’s the reason we are here
and doing our best for our kids.
Norb
Heban – I would concur with Trent. Thank you to everyone for coming this
evening. Thank you
Julie Costello for sharing. Thank
you as well to Mr. Clawson and the support staff at transportation. Thank you Dee Orick for the
summer meal program. What a great
program for our community.
Tyce
Stebbins – Thank you to Ms. Mealy and
congratulations on your retirement. I’d
also like to say thank you to the principals for their work in trimming costs
in terms of conference requests and field trips. Congratulations to Ms. Dorton, Ms. Piazza and
the art department at Delta Middle School on the award. It’s nice to see the artwork displayed at the
middle school. I do sympathize with
everyone on the boundary lines, but I think whatever we can do to support each
other is good. We have a great community
in the Delcom community. Our hearts and
thoughts are with the young first grader from Royerton who passed away this
week and the family. Thank you everyone
for coming this evening and for sharing.
Sean
Burcham – I would concur with my fellow Board
members. Thank you everyone for
coming. Please keep the Royerton family
in your prayers.
John
Adams – Congratulations Ms. Mealy. Great job Ms. Dorton, Ms. Piazza and the
Delta Middle School art department.
Thank you for the wonderful work.
The students enjoy it and this is one of those programs that I
love. We need to do all we can to keep
these programs going. Times are tough
and we are hearing that more cuts are coming.
We must do our due diligence. I
also sympathize with the difficulties surrounding the boundary lines of our
elementary schools. We have to put the
lines somewhere and we have to move forward.
Please get out and visit those schools.
We have great staff in every building.
I want to thank all of our staff for stepping up and doing their job. I would also like to mention the bulletin
board from the Eaton Elementary Kindergarten Class. I would like to thank our bus drivers for the
great job of keeping our students safe as we started back to school after the
snow days. Also thank you to Barry
Harris and his crew for helping with snow removal. When you see these employees, please thank
them for helping to ensure safe travel for our students.
XI.
FUTURE
MEETINGS
A.
A
work session of the Board of School Trustees is scheduled for Monday, March 1,
2010 at 6:00 p.m. at the Administration Building.
B.
A
regular meeting of the Board of School Trustees is scheduled for Tuesday, March
2, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Administration Building.
C.
The
ISBA 2010 Spring Region Meeting will be held on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at
Welliver’s Smorgasbord with registration beginning at 6:00 p.m.
XII.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion
was made by Trent Fox and seconded by Norb Heban and Board President, John
Adams, adjourned the meeting at 7:30 p.m.
An executive session to
discuss the job performance evaluation of individual employees followed the Business Meeting.
JOHN ADAMS
SEAN BURCHAM
TYCE STEBBINS
NORB HEBAN
TRENT FOX