Board Minutes – November 16, 2016

MEETING MINUTES…WHITEHALL BOARD OF EDUCATION…November 16, 2016

The November 16, 2016 meeting of the Whitehall Board of Education was held at Whitehall Memorial Conference Room. President, George Everson called the meeting to order at

6:30 pm. Roll was called and a quorum established. Other Board members present: Byron Fields, Julie Dokkestul, Jason Molis and Dan Koxlien. Absent: Leah Johnson and Kristen Carroll. Others present: Superintendent/6-12 Principal, Mike Beighley; Elementary Principal, Damon Lisowski; MS Principal/Improvement of Instruction Director, Beth Lisowski; Special Education/Pupil Services Director, Vickie O’Dell; Assistant HS Principal/Athletic Director, Jamie Youngbauer; Finance Manager, Cheryl Maug; American Government Students, Jacob Fremstad and Clayton Johnson; Julie Fremstad; Jami Hanvold; Jennifer Estenson.

Molis moved to approve vouchers as presented. Dokkestul seconded. Aye – All members. Motion carried.

Fields moved to approve the following items of the Motion Calendar:

  1. Approve minutes of October 19, 2016 Budget Hearing and Annual Meeting
  2. Approve minutes of October 19, 2015 Regular Meeting
  3. Approve Extended Contracts for 2016-17: Drew Anderson – 10 days, Melinda Goplin 31 days, Delaine Stendahl – 5 days

Koxlien seconded. Aye – All Members. Motion carried.

Rooms have been reserved for the WASB State Education Conference January 18 – 20, 2017. Board members planning to attend should let Beighley know so registrations can be sent in.

A 4-School In-service was held on Monday November 7th with approximately 260 teachers in attendance. The day was organized in an Ed Camp structure. Pernille Ripp was the keynote speaker. She was born and raised in Denmark and is currently a Language Arts Teacher in Oregon, WI.

Trempealeau Valley Co-op holds meetings every 2 weeks and things are progressing. CTE teachers from all 4 schools are currently working on what they want to offer for 2017-18. In 2017-18 juniors and seniors from all 4 schools will meet and be presented with the CTE class offerings. The Co-op would like to move towards and Academy structure for 2018-19.

Discussion held regarding Sunday athletic practices if there is a Monday event. With Board consensus it was decided that it will be allowed on a trial basis for one year and that Beighley and Youngbauer would have the discretion to approve or deny Sunday practice requests.

Johnson Controls has developed a no tax (no revenue limit exemption) proposal for the Boards consideration. The work would involve updating to LED lighting/auditorium lighting and variable drives/pumps/motors for the boilers. A Special Meeting will be held on Monday, November 28th to review and act on the Johnson Controls proposal.

Administrative Reports:

B. Lisowski –

Thursday 7:15 am Professional Development meetings were implemented this school year. The first few meetings were general staff meetings, Epi Pen & Google trainings. Professional Learning Groups have been established with an average of 8 in each group. The groups are studying/discussing concepts such as poverty and how it effects students, anxiety issues at home and at school, Autism, Project based learning. Two meetings a month are group meetings and the other 2 are PBIS and/or staff meetings.

O’Dell –

Administration has been working with and Early Childhood consultant from CESA to take an overall look at this program to see how we can best serve this age group of students (3-5K).

D. Lisowski –

The ELL (English Language Learners) student population continues to grow, The District currently has 49 ELL students with 39 in the Elementary. This growth creates issues on how to best serve these students. Mikayla Smith (HS English) is a certified ELL teacher and will be doing the testing for the Middle and High School ELL students.

Youngbauer –

Community Day of Service event was held on November 10th. It all began with the Health Care Center wanting 45 students to help them move. It was decided to involve all of the High School 6th period students. Some of the places and projects the students assisted with were: Health Care Center, rake leaves, assisted living, Tremplealeau County Humane Society, read to students in LMC, help Dr. Wilmeth remove invasive species on River Road, trash pickup in town and on school grounds.

Everson recessed to Executive session pursuant to S.S. 19.85 (c) to discuss initial staffing models for 2017-18 and related performance reviews. Time: 7:19 pm.

Cheryl Maug

Reporting Secretary