The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Hearing and Meeting
Biggsville, September 21, 2011 Last Wednesday, West Central Board President Lonnie Brent conducted a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. prior to the West Central CUSD #235 Board of Education's regular meeting in the elementary cafeteria. The hearing was for the FY12 district budget. Board members Brad Arnold and Paul Anderson were absent at roll.
Only one district resident asked a question about the health life safety fund and what this money could be spent for. After the meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:33 p.m.
Each building principal introduced the teachers new to their building to the board, then spent time visiting with each of the new teachers.
At 7:00 p.m., Board President Brent called the regular meeting of the West Central CUSD #235 to order. All board members except Anderson and Brad Arnold were present at this roll call. Both gentleman entered the meeting at approximately 8:10 p.m.
President Brent led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag.
Under good news items the board recognized:
Clyde Siegfried, a WCHS freshman, for his heroic actions he took to save the life of fellow WCHS student Ryan Simpson who was involved in a swimming accident Aug. 21st;
230 grade 3- 11 students for their performance in the Spring 2011 standardized tests who either exceeded the State and/or District standards or had earned a perfect score on these tests.
WCHS football team on a homecoming victory
Gretchen Higgins for unanimously voted the MVP of the Carl Sandburg College volleyball tournament.
The agenda was approved with the addition of: Artwork in the elementary.
During recognition of audience, district resident Chad Gall offered a few comments concerning the search for a WCHS boys' varsity basketball coach.
Items approved under the consent agenda included:
Minutes of the August 17, 2011 regular board meeting
The 2011-12 Application for Recognition of Schools.
Designated Superintendent Grimm as safety committee designee;
The proposed revisions of Policy 1:10 School District Organization - School District Legal Status, Policy 2:10 Board of Education - School District Governance, Policy 3:10 General School Administration-Goals and Objectives, Policy 3:70 General School Administration-Succession of Authority, Policy 2:125 Board of Education-Board Member Expenses and Policy 5:125 General Personnel-Personal Technology and Social Media; Usage and Conduct as presented on first reading
Declared the football scoreboard on the south campus as surplus property and give permission to the administration to dispose of the scoreboard as they see fit
The continued lease of a 2009 Chevy Cobalt from Bruce Foote Chevrolet of Monmouth in the amount of $150 per month
The architects report on the inspection of the temporary buildings
The recommendation to continue elementary after school tutoring with an hourly pay rate of $20 for the tutor with the total not to exceed $2160 for the fiscal year'
Pay building level teachers who serve as SIP team members a stipend of $1000
The lease with Midwest Bus Sales for a 2009 - 18 passenger mini bus with a lift for one year in the amount of $10,500
Under financial activity, the board approved the payment of all bills, the activity accounts for each building and treasurer's report as presented.
Supt. Grimm made a few remarks about the district's financial report and said as of September 21, 2011 the State of Illinois owed the district $147,201 in money that ISBE has vouchered to the Comptroller's Office, but the district has not yet received.
The board discussed the FY12 budget. Supt. Grimm briefly reviewed with the board some of the supporting material that he had included in the board packet regarding the FY12 budget. Some of the significant points that were highlighted were:
The budget being submitted is a deficit budget in the amount of $633,607
Total budgeted expenditures for the FY12 budget are $195,282 LESS than the FY11 budgeted expenditures which is approximately 1.9%
Budgeted revenue is $9,338,804 and budgeted expenditures are $10,002,411
General State Aid is down $372,000 for FY12 compared to FY11
This budget assumes that we will receive 3 transportation payments from the State even though the district is owed 6 transportation payments. Two are from FY11 and 4 from FY12
It is anticipated that this budget will need to be amended in May of 2012 as has been the case with the two previous fiscal years fiscal budgets.
After a brief discussions, the board approved the FY12 budget as presented.
The board approved an agreement with Warren County for consulting services. Essentially, this agenda item reflected the board's desire to have current Henderson, Mercer Warren Regional Superintendent Jodi Scott assist the administrative team on three distinct projects during her non-working hours.
Those projects will be assisting in the completion of a support staff job description and evaluation process project, the creation, distribution and summary of a needs analysis for district certified staff regarding the common core project and the creation and distribution of information for district stakeholders regarding the new common core standards project, the new certified teacher evaluation project and the new principal evaluation project.
The agreement calls for Mrs. Scott to work on behalf of the district the amount of time equal to 15 - 8 hour days. The consulting fee that will be remitted to Warren County will be $4500.
The board tabled an action item regarding the FCC educational broadband service license. As part of the discussion, the board heard from Supt. Grimm and district technology coordinator Mrs. Frakes about another option that the district should consider. This option essentially would allow the district to build out a network that would connect the north campus, south campus and Media campus wirelessly. This network then would allow the district to expand their bandwidth for internet connectivity.
The board was presented a proposal to build out this network, which is part of the requirement of the Federal Communication Commission for the district to continue to own the FCC EBS license.
A tentative budget of approximately $25,000 was presented to the board to complete this project. The board was informed that potentially once this network is built out, it could provide a substantial amount of money to the district in the future.
The board, by consensus, directed Supt. Grimm and Mrs. Frakes to continue exploring the build out this network at district expense. Supt. Grimm indicated to the board that he would bring back a report to them on this project at the October meeting.
The board reviewed reports from the building Principals and the Assistant Principals, also a curriculum report by Supt. Grimm, a district technology report from Mrs. Frakes, a special education report from Mrs. Farniok and a district athletic report as presented by Mr. Kerfoot.
The board reviewed the administrator's salary and compensation report showing the salary and benefit information for each of the district's administrators for the FY12.
Supt. Grimm informed the board that this is an annual September agenda item and is presented to the board to meet a requirement to first present it to the board in a public meeting and second, have this information posted on the district's website by October 1st of each year.
The board reviewed the 6th day enrollment report as presented. As of September 24, 2011 there were 918 students in grades K-12.
The board discussed a request from the administrative team to include two additional school improvement day early dismissals. These dismissals which will be at 11:30 are in keeping with the six SIP early dismissals that are currently found on the 2011-12 school year. Supt. Grimm will meet with the administrative team to select the most appropriate date to have the first of these two additional early dismissals. [The primary purpose of this request is to provide district staff time to complete the alignment of district curriculum to the new common core standards. This is one of the bulleted items that is included in the common core path to excellence document that the board has been reviewing over the past several months.]
The board will formally approve these two dates when the administrative team presents an amended FY12 school calendar.
The board briefly discussed the concept of early dismissal due to weather.
It was suggested that perhaps more information could be given to district stakeholders about how decisions are made relative to letting school out early due to extreme heat or winter related weather.
Supt. Grimm reiterated that the primary factor taken into account when making decisions about whether to dismiss school early due to weather related issues is student safety and whether or not students will be properly and adequately supervised if they are dismissed early.
There is a blurb about the topic on the district's website under the District tab.
The board reviewed and approved two photos from West Central Elementary art teacher Gary Ricketts depicting some additional artwork that he would like to add to the wall in the elementary gym and the elementary cafeteria.
The board asked Supt Grimm to have these two items on the October board meeting agenda as consent agenda items.
The board entered closed session at 9:45 to discuss matters pertaining to personnel, and exited at 10:47 pm and reconvened in the elementary cafeteria at 10:54 with all members present and took the following action:
The board was reminded that the regular October meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 in the elementary cafeteria at 7 p.m.
The board adjourned their meeting at 10:59 p.m.