January 3, 2017

DELAWARE COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION

SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

6:30 p.m.

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

 

MINUTES

Present:  Adam Williams, President; Trent Fox, Vice President; John Adams, Secretary; Alice Gillis, Member; Tyce Stebbins, Member; Darin Gullion, Assistant Superintendent; and Reece Mann, Superintendent

 

  1. CALL TO ORDER 

    At 6:30 p.m. Superintendent Mann called the meeting to order. 

  2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 

  1. ORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF EDUCATION
    1. Superintendent Mann presided over the meeting for the organization of the Board of Education.  He asked for nominations for Board President.

       

      A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to nominate Trent Fox as President of the Board of Education for the year 2017.  A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by John Adams to close the nominations.  Both motions were approved four in favor with Trent Fox abstaining.

       

      Board of Education President, Trent Fox, asked for nominations for Vice-President of the Board of Education for the year 2017.

       

      A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Alice Gillis to nominate John Adams as Vice President of the Board of Education for the year 2017.  A motion was made by Adam Williams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to close the nominations.  Both motions were approved four in favor with John Adams abstaining. 

       

      Board of Education President, Trent Fox, asked for nominations for Secretary of the Board of Education for the year 2017.

       

      A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by John Adams to nominate Alice Gillis as Secretary of the Board of Education for the year 2017.  A motion was made by Adam Williams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to close the nominations.  Both motions were approved four in favor with Alice Gillis abstaining.

       

    2. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to appoint Cheryl Dominick as Corporation Treasurer and Lois Cole as Deputy Treasurer for the year 2017.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    3. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Alice Gillis to retain Steve Murphy of the DeFur, Voran, LLP Law Firm as the school attorney for the year 2017 on an as needed basis.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    4. A motion was made by Alice Gillis and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to hold regular school board meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.The Board of Education will meet at the Administration Office unless otherwise designated.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    5. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to continue the Board of Education compensation at the rates of $83 per regular meeting and $62 per special session. The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    6. A motion was made Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to appoint the position of Board President as the ISBA Delegate and the position of Board Vice-President as the ISBA Legislative Representative.  They will serve in these positions for the year 2017.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    7. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to appoint Janelle Davis as the Board recording secretary and Kim Kemper as the alternate at a rate of $40.00 per meeting for the year 2017.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    8. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to appoint Alice Gillis and John Adams to serve on the bid opening committee for the year 2017.  The motion was approved three in favor with Alice Gillis and John Adams abstaining.

       

    9. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to appoint all Board members to serve on the Board of Finance Committee for the year 2017.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    10. At this time, the Board members each shared, if any, conflict of interest disclosures. 

        

  2. AMEND THE AGENDA

     

    A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to amend the agenda as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously. 

  3. MINUTES 
    1. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to accept the minutes of the business meeting and executive session on Tuesday, December 20, 2016.  The motion was approved unanimously.

        

  4. FINANCE 
    1. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Adam Williams to accept the list of vouchers as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    2. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to approve end of year balancing of all accounts.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    3. A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to approve Form 9 for July 2016 – December 2016, as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    4. A motion was made by Adam Williams and seconded by Alice Gillis to approve Form SA5, as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

    5. E.Dr. Gullion informed the Board about the IRS mileage rate (53.5 cents), as presented.

       

    6. At this time Board President Trent Fox asked for a motion to recess the regular meeting to begin the Board of Finance meeting.  A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to recess the regular meeting.  The motion was approved unanimously.

       

      1. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to appoint all Board members to serve on the Board of Finance Committee in the same capacity of officers for the Board of Trustees for the year 2017.  The motion was approved unanimously.  

         

      2. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by John Adams to approve First Merchants and Mutual Bank as the depositories for the year 2017.  The motion was approved four in favor with Trent Fox abstaining. 

         

      3. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gullion reviewed the Summary of Investments for 2016.

         

      4. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gullion reviewed the Investment Policy for 2017.

         

        At this time Board President Trent Fox asked for a motion to close the Board of Finance meeting and to resume the regular Board meeting.  A motion was made by Alice Gillis and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to close the Board of Finance meeting and to resume the regular Board meeting.  The motion was approved unanimously.

  5. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Doug Marshall, Royerton Elementary Principal, stated just coming off Christmas Break, things are a little bit quiet as far as activities go.  He informed everyone teachers are having individual conferences with their students and setting goals for the second semester based upon NWEA scores.  They are coming up with a couple strategies they can do to help facilitate and grow in their achievement.  He stated it’s been exciting to see the kids get excited about setting goals and what they can do.  Mr. Marshall informed everyone their enrollment has increased.  They have picked up 10 more students over break which is exciting and he’s looking forward to a great second semester.

     

    Kelly Brown, Delta Middle School Principal, stated they have decided it’s too difficult with only 42 minute class periods for their teachers to meet individually with students to go over NWEA data so Ms. Underwood, Mr. Clark, and Ms. Brown are putting together strategies and meeting with every student in the building.  They are pulling them out of math and language arts classes, talking with them, and motivating them.  She stated teachers will also do this closer to ISTEP testing.  She thinks it will be very beneficial for the middle level because anytime they talk to the students in the hallway, it seems to make an impact.  They are going to start next Monday and are looking forward to it.  Ms. Brown asked Ms. Selvey, Media Center Specialist, to give her some stats.  She stated 99% of the students participate in the Accelerated Reader Program.  Teachers set goals each semester and students have to reach a certain number of points.  The Media Center is serving about 134 students per day and they checked out 8,138 books first semester which is 11.3 books per student.  She informed everyone the Book Fair at the middle school earned over $1,700 this year.  Ms. Brown stated they had a good day today for the first day back.  They didn’t have an extremely high number of absences, but a few students went home sick with the stomach flu. 

     

    Chris Conley, Delta High School Principal, informed everyone they will begin their second round of NWEA testing Monday.  They appreciate the number of Chromebooks that are now in their building.  He stated they can test multiple classrooms at the same time and several teachers have carts of their own for classroom use so they are able to fit testing in when it is good for them.  Mr. Conley is looking forward to reviewing the NWEA data.  He stated this is the one test that is going to be consistent over time compared to whatever they end up with from the State.  He thinks the data is valuable and will become more valuable over time and will help their teachers next year when they begin to write their classroom objectives for their evaluations.  He informed everyone they had a great day for the start of the semester.  They do a lot of class switching and schedule changes and everything went well. 

     

    Bryan Weaver, Director of Transportation, stated when he took over at Transportation, he inherited a problem he didn’t know about until a few weeks ago.  Throughout the year, the state of Indiana holds Bus Driver Training all across the state and we had committed to sponsoring and housing a 3 day school in May.  Mr. Weaver had to find a place to have this.  He contacted Ms. Brown and she was able to set them up and he wanted to publicly thank her.  He stated break went well and today was an interesting day. 

     

     

  6. NEW BUSINESS

     

    1. Certified Staff

       

    2. Classified Staff

       

      A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to approve the following (item 1):

      1. Resignation of Sherri Spay, Instructional Assistant at Royerton Elementary School, effective December 16, 2016.  

        The motion was approved unanimously. 

         

        A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Alice Gillis to approve the following (items 2-4):

         

      2. Recommendation to employ Jennifer Southerland as an Instructional Assistant at Royerton Elementary School effective January 4, 2017.

         

      3. Recommendation to employ Nikki Bookout as a Substitute Bus Driver effective immediately, pending successful completion of all pre-employment testing.

         

      4. Recommendation to employ Angel Valdez-Hernandez as a Substitute Bus Driver effective immediately, pending successful completion of all pre-employment testing.

         

        The motion was approved unanimously.

           

    3. Extra-Curricular

      A motion was made by John Adams and seconded by Tyce Stebbins to approve the following (items 1-3):

       

      1. Resignation of Amanda Craw, Student Council Sponsor at Delta High School, effective December 16, 2016.

         

      2. Resignation of Amanda Craw, Class Sponsor at Delta High School, effective December 16, 2016.

         

      3. Resignation of Chase Criswell, Girls’ Track Coach at Delta Middle School, effective for the 2016-17 school year.

         

        The motion was approved unanimously.    

         

    4. Conference Requests/Field Trips

       

      A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to approve the following (items 1-3):

       

      1. Adrianne Henderson requests permission to attend the Indiana Music Education Association Professional Development Conference to be held from January 12, 2017 through January 14, 2017 at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Ft. Wayne, IN.

         

      2. Darin Gullion requests permission to attend the Collective Bargaining Seminar to be held on February 14, 2017 at The Palms in Plainfield, IN.

         

      3. Julie Brown requests permission to attend the PowerSchool Midwest Conference to be held from May 22, 2017 through May 24, 2017 at the Blue Chip Hotel in Michigan City, IN and the PowerSchool National Conference to be held from July 24, 2017 through July 27, 2017 at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

         

        The motion was approved unanimously.

         

    5. Information and Proposals

       

      1. Superintendent

         

        1. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams to approve administrative pay increases and performance stipends, as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously.

           

        2. A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by John Adams to approve the School Resource Officer pay increase and change of job title/description, as presented.  The motion was approved unanimously.

           

        3. Superintendent Mann informed the Board about the following fundraisers:

           

      2. Assistant Superintendent

         

  7. LETTERS/NOTES

     

     

  8. BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS

     

    Adam Williams – Mr. Williams hopes everyone enjoyed their holiday break and school starting back up went as smooth as possible.  He had a disgruntled middle schooler this morning, but he survived.  He thanked everyone for coming and appreciates everything they do.

     

    Tyce Stebbins – Mr. Stebbins concurred with his fellow board member.  He thanked Dr. Gullion for his time working on all the finance stuff.  He knows that takes stress off as we start the second half of the year.  He thanked Mr. Williams for his service as Board President and Mr. Fox for stepping into the Board President role.  He hopes everyone has a good start to the New Year.

     

    Alice Gillis – Ms. Gillis wishes everyone a great 2017.  She said 11 books per student at Delta Middle School sounds like a lot of books for a student to read and that’s great. 

     

    John Adams – Mr. Adams concurred with his fellow board members.  He wished everyone a happy New Year.  He thanked the folks who enrolled their kids at Royerton Elementary.  He thinks it says a lot about our school corporation and to the folks looking for a good school, we have them.  Mr. Adams is very proud we have grown by 10 kids and hopes there are more families out there that would like to come and see what’s taking place in our schools.  He stated a lot of good things are happening.  He stated it’s good to hear about Chromebooks being beneficial again and hopefully we will hear more about that in the near future.  He stated, as a Board, they are dedicated to making sure they get them into the hands that need them.  He said it sounds like we are having success with the utilization and it’s good to hear feedback.  He stated it’s good to have Mr. Weaver here and to get an update from Transportation.  He wishes everyone a good second half of the year.  He thinks we’ve had a great first half and hopefully we can finish the second half strong.  He encourages all families and kids to utilize the data we get from testing to help make sure we are moving our kids along and giving them the education they deserve.  He appreciates all the administrators for what they do.

     

    Trent Fox – Mr. Fox thanked everyone for coming and sharing.  He appreciates it and stated it’s always good information to have.  He said it’s the start of a New Year and new beginning and he’s looking forward to how this one goes compared to the first half of the year.  Mr. Fox is excited about being Board President and appreciates the board members for allowing him the opportunity.  He looks forward to the upcoming year, moving forward, and seeing what we can accomplish. 

     

     

  9. FUTURE MEETINGS

     

    1. A regular meeting of the Board of School Trustees is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. at the Administration Building.

       

A motion was made by Tyce Stebbins and seconded by Adam Williams and Board President, Trent Fox, adjourned the meeting at 7:14 p.m.

An executive session on personnel matters was held following the business meeting.

 

 

 

                                                                     January 3, 2017

 

 

TRENT FOX                                                                                                                                      

 

JOHN ADAMS                                                                                                                                  

 

ALICE GILLIS                                                                                                                                   

 

 

TYCE STEBBINS                                                                                                                              

 

ADAM WILLIAMS