Board of School Trustees Meeting

Mrs. Bond began her report by showing a video, being seen for the first time, of Dr. Parker promoting Mt. Vernon.  She then shared the following Good News:

1.  Mt. Vernon Middle School teacher Deb Thomas has been named a Top 30 Finalist for the Indiana Department of Education's Teacher of the Year.

2.  MVHS sophomore Maitlyn Griner has been named the Indiana State Representative for the International D.A.R.E. Youth Advisory Board.

3.  MVHS Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) teacher James Cochran had two Project-Based learning units he designed posted to their national website.

4.  MVHS Volleyball Team achieved the AVCA Academic Award for 2018-2019.  Only 21 programs have earned this honor.

5.  MVCSC currently has 289 community members signed up to attend the Mt. Vernon Community Champions meeting on August 27, 2019.

6.  MVCSC has distributed just over 150 65+ Club Event Passes to in-district residents.

Dr. Parker shared what he has been looking at for the Teachers' Evaluation Plan.  He has engaged in discussions with the CTA on what the evaluation calculations would like for teachers and whether a change was in order.  The current plan divides teachers into five different groups.  Dr. Parker centered on three of the groups: Half or More "Tested" Classes; Less than Half "Tested" Classes; and No "Tested" Classes.  In the past, each teacher's rubric scored weighed 70% of the overall evaluation and other factors included Individual Growth Model, School Wide Learning Measures (School Grade), and Student Learning Objectives.  Dr. Parker stated the idea is to use our school-wide learning measure to take care of the rest of the Indiana Code for teacher evaluations.  Moving forward to 2019-2020 he proposes to use the 80/20 measurement, 20% based on School Grade and 80% based on Effectiveness Rating (Rubric).   Dr. Parker shared his decision making process for this change.  He has met and held discussions with the CTA twice and received input via Google Form Survey.   108 teachers responded to the survey with results showing 38% were mostly comfortable with the change, 29.6% somewhat comfortable, 11% neutral, 17.6% somewhat uncomfortable and only 3.7% mostly uncomfortable.  Comments received were by and large positive.   Concerns included some were not even sure how we were doing it now and concerned that the work of other people in the school letter grade would impact individual evaluation scores.  Dr. Parker will hold a Q&A on  August 20th to answer any questions teachers may have.  

No board action is needed on this item.  Dr. Parker will follow-up with board members in this week's Weekly Update on how the Q&A went and what questions were asked. 

Mr. Smedley reminded board members that as previously discussed at last month's school board meeting, part of the funds from the  recently secured $2 million dollar GO Bond would be used to capture energy savings measures such as LED lighting, updated control systems throughout the district, etc.  He is recommending that Emcor Group, Inc. serve as our energy savings provider under a Guaranteed Savings Contract.  Mr. Tim Pitt from Emcor Group was in attendance and stated he had been working with Mr. Smedley and Mr. Shelton on this project and had recently conducted audits of our buildings looking at lighting, boilers, thermostats, inc.  

Mrs. Freeman asked if based on the audits done so far, is there an estimate of what we would save now.  Mr. Pitt said yes, he has shared an estimate with Mr. Smedley.   The estimate shows the cost of everything that needs to be done up front and now Mr. Smedley and Mr. Shelton will prioritize and decide what scope of work will be done.  Mr. Smedley reminded everyone that it will depend on how much money can be dedicated from the GO Bond and that is why they will prioritize.  

Mr. McCarty made a motion to accept the recommendation for Emcor Group, Inc. to serve as our energy savings provider under a Guaranteed Savings Contract.  Mrs. Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. Smedley reported that Mt. Vernon has been operating without a true pay schedule for classified staff for quite some time, so therefore, some of the pay rates within certain jobs varied significantly.  He has been working on developing a system more manageable and equitable when paying classified personnel to make it as consistent as possible.  He provided board members with Classified Staff Pay Scales for all the different classified groups in the district.  Some employees will not realize a pay increase based  on their initial placement on the scale.  An Experience Bonus was added for those folks who have given ten years or more service to MVCSC.   The calculation of completed years will be based on cumulative, not continuous, years of service. 10-14 years of MV experience will receive $300 and 15 or more years of MV experience will receive $600.  Also included in Mr. Smedley's recommendation was the designation between a full-time and part-time employee.  Any employee working less than an average of 30 hours per week  within a measurement period is considered a part-time employee.  The measurement period is the number of weeks from the first day of work until the last day of work within a school year.  The Classified Pay Scales, Experience Bonus and Full-Time/Part-Time Qualifications will all take effect January 1, 2020.

Mr. May made a motion to accept the Classified Pay Scales, Experience Bonus and Full-Time/Part-Time Qualifications.  Mr. McCarty seconded.

Mrs. Walls wanted everyone to know that these were hard decisions when they affect people's lives and she and other board members had agonized over them, but felt a system needed to be put in place to make the corporation financially solvent.  

The motion carried 5-0.

Mr. Elkins made a recommendation to raise the hourly rate for MVCSC security workers from $25/hour to $28/hour to stay competitive and attract/retain our security workers.  Other Hancock County Schools have already adjusted their pay to this rate.  This will represent an increased cost of $3400 per year. 

Mr. McCarty made a motion to raise the hourly rate for MVCSC security workers from $25/hour to $28/hour.  Mr. May seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. Elkins presented the updated Teacher Appreciation Grant.  The Teacher Appreciation Grant monies are received from the Department of Education and distributed to teachers  who meet the following criteria:  a)  Employed in the classroom or directly provided education in a virtual classroom setting;  b)  Received a Highly Effective or an Effective rating on their most recent performance evaluation; and c)  Employed on December 1st of the year the Corporation receives the TAG monies.  Teachers rated Highly Effective will receive a stipend of at least 25% more than the stipend given to those teachers rated Effective.  Mr. Elkins also asked that the second reading of this policy be waived as it has to be submitted prior to September 15, 2019 and the next school board meeting is September 16, 2019.

Mrs. Smith made a motion to waive the second reading of the Teacher Appreciation Grant Policy.  Mr. McCarty seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mrs. Smith made a motion to accept the Teacher Appreciation Grant Policy as presented.  Mr. May seconded, and the motion carried 5-0. 

Mr. Elkins presented the 2020 Budget.  He reminded board members that it is standard practice initial numbers are on the high side because a lot is still unknown and data is still coming in.  The DLGF will ultimately trim it back. Numbers will be more accurate in September.  He is asking for permission to advertise the 2020 Budget.  Advertising tax rate of 1.8926.  Last year the budget structure changed to the Operations (formerly CPF, Transportation and Bus Replacement Fund) and Education Fund (formerly General Fund).  Mr. Elkins believes that when all is said and done we will be around $1.1 billion in Certified Net Assessed Valuation.  For the initial advertisement he is estimating $51 million, but believes it will settle out to a $48-$49 million dollar budget this year: 

Education Fund     $28,500,000

Operations Fund    $10,500,000

Debt Service          $12,126,470

Penson                  $     255,144

TOTAL ADVERTISED BUDGET:  $51,381,614

Timeline for Budget:  Tonight asking to Advertise; August 21st First Legal Advertisement; September 6th Upload all budget materials to Gateway; September 16th Public Hearing; and September 30th Budget Adoption.

Mr. Elkins is also asking board members to vote on three resolutions.  The first resolution gives him the authority to reduce Lines 1 and 2 on Form 4B.  Line 1 & 2 are expenses and balances in funds.  Being able to adjust those lines will make the budget more accurate.  The second resolution is to adopt the School Bus Replacement Plan.  As we are maxed out on our bus routes this year, he would like permission to purchase six new buses, trading in only two.  He feels that since we are retiring one GO Bond and are only paying interest for a couple of years on the new GO Bond, now is the time to buy buses.  The third resolution is to adopt the Capital Projects Plan.  He provided board member with a list of proposed projects that are capital in nature and exceed $10,000.  Items can be added or removed and some, such as paving, are continuous.  

Mr. Elkins asked if there were any comments or questions from the public.  There were none.

Mr. May made a motion to advertise the 2020 Budget, Capitol Projects Plan (3 year plan) and Bus Replacement Plan (5 year plan) and make adjustments as need when new data comes in.  Mr. McCarty seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. McCarty made a motion to adopt Resolution 2019-1 to Adopt the 2020 Capital Projects Plan.  Mr. May seconded.  He asked if the items on the list would be prioritized at some point.  Mr. Elkins stated he would do that.  The motion carried 5-0.

Mrs. Freeman made a motion to adopt Resolution 2019-2 to Adopt the 2020 School Bus Replacement Plan as presented.  Mrs. Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. May made a motion to adopt the Resolution 2019-3 to Give the Chief Financial Officer or Superintendent the Authority to Reduce Lines 1 and 2 of Form 4B for the 2020 Budget.  Mr. McCarty seconded, and the motion carried  5-0.

Dr. Parker presented second reading of policy 8510 Wellness with all the corrections made. 

Mrs. Freeman made a motion to accept Policy 8510 Wellness.  Mrs. Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Dr. Parker, prompted from a memo from the Department of Education, presented a plan on how to request waivers when you have multiple number of cancellations days.  Currently, there is no limit to how many e-learning days we could have in one school year.  He presented guidelines with the goal to limit the number of cumulative days for e-learning in a school year to six to ensure at least 174 out of 180 days of in-school instruction.  For the 2019-2020 school year, scheduled e-learning days are September 25, 2019 and April 8, 2020.  On the 6th e-learning day on or before April 7, 2020, we would change April 8, 2020 to an in-school instruction day.  If school is cancelled causing a 7th day or beyond of e-learning, we would have in-school days on February 17, 2020, President's Day (if the 7th day is before) and May 29, 2020 (which is a teacher-only and graduation day).  

Proposing the same frame for 2020-2021.   While 2019-2020 guards against cumulative days, the 2020-2021 plan guards against cumulative plus consecutive.  Not to exceed six e-learning days in a school year plus not to exceed three consecutive e-learning days.  

 Mr. McCarty made a motion to accept the plan to manage E-Learning Days for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, as presented.  Mrs. Freeman seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Mr. Shipley began by recognizing and acknowledging the MVMS counselors Cary Cole, Chelsea Pacheco and Michelle Shepherd who recently earned the Indiana Gold Star School Counseling Award.  The work they did to earn this award also makes them eligible to apply to be an ASCA (American School Counseling Association) RAMP (Recognized ASCA Model Program) Award recipient.  In 2019 there were 11 schools in Indiana that received the RAMP Award for the national model.  MVMS is seeking approval for MVMS Counseling Center to apply to become a 2020 RAMP award recipient. 

Michelle Shepherd gave a presentation explaining the process that went into designing their counseling program.  

Mrs. Freeman made a motion to support the MVMS Counseling Department to become a RAMP Award Recipient.  Mr. McCarty seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.

Dr. Parker brought forth a motion that will cause us to look at our school policies differently.  Currently MVCSC uses NEOLA  to monitor policy changes.  Recently we have been working with our attorneys Church, Church, Hittle and Antrim who are in the policy business.  After conversations with our lead attorney Amy Matthews, Dr. Parker believes management of our school policies can be done more easily and effectively.  He is asking for approval for policies to be coded under the following sections:  a) Basic Commitments; b) School Board Governance; c) Students; d) Administration and Personnel; e)Instruction; f) Fiscal Management; g) Operations and Facilities; and h) Community Relations.   Will start this system immediately putting in the policies adopted previously and adding new ones. 

Mr. May made a motion to grant permission for a new board policy system and adopt the Resolution of the Board of Education of Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation on Board Policy Development System.  Mrs. Smith seconded.  Mr. McCarty wanted clarification that changes to the policies could still be made.  Dr. Parker stated yes, he will get guidance from Amy Matthews who will provide choices and decisions will be made what fits us best and then board approved.  The motion carried 5-0.