The Shelton School District Board of Directors met in regular session at 6:00 p.m. on April 8, 2008 in the board room located at CHOICE Alternative School.

 

Board members present:  Chairman Holly Sharpe, Sue McCausland, Gene Crater, Peter Boome, Julianna Miljour and student representative Daniel Glenn.

 

Staff members present:  Superintendent Joan Zook, Linda Arnold, Alison Nutt, Eric Barkman, Ray Field and Jennifer Deyette.

 

Others present:  Jeff Green, Dedrick Allen, and several Shelton High School seniors.

 

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Sharpe called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

 

ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

There was one addition to the consent agenda which was a new Item 9.05 – supplemental personnel report.  Sue McCausland made a motion to adopt the agenda with the addition of Item 9.05.  Peter Boome seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

 

Julianna Miljour read the district’s Mission Statement.

 

BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS

§         Daniel Glenn said that the Shelton High School ASB recently gave $7,200 to the high school auditorium to be used for needed repairs.

 

§         Gene Crater had lunch with Mr. Warner to end is 3-month “board buddy” program at Evergreen.  He is meeting with Oakland Bay Junior High tomorrow to start his buddy program there.  Gene will be on the interview team tomorrow for the Teaching & Learning position and he and Sue will be reviewing Shelton High School scholarship notebooks on Thursday.

 

§         Sue McCausland enjoyed the nice weather over spring break and also commented that she and Gene will be going over scholarship notebooks this Thursday for the board’s Drake Scholarship Awards.

 

REPORTS AND RECOGNITIONS

§         Olympic Middle School has another student who was selected to attend Space Camp this year.  Louis Hernandez is a 7th grader and was one of six migrant students selected state-wide to attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. 

 

§         Ricardo del Bosque received his $1,000 award last Friday at a ceremony in the Senate Chambers.  Ricardo was one of thirty six classified employees selected by OSPI to receive the 2007 Washington State Classified Employee Award.  Ricardo was nominated by Gail Straus and Jean Fairbrother, who also attended the ceremony.

 

DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS

8.01 – Drake Scholarship Trust Fund:

The Robert & Donald Drake Scholarship Trust Fund was established by the Drake family in 1972 to be held in trust for a minimum of 10 years for the purpose of giving scholarships to Shelton High School seniors.  Since 1982 the district has continued to recognize the wishes of the family and the board has continued to give scholarships using the interest only on the $200,000 principal.  The board can continue to do this indefinitely, but Joan Zook suggested there were many other worthy causes the principal could be used for at Shelton High School.  She suggested one idea that the board might consider is using the principal for the ongoing repair of the track and tennis courts and to name them the Drake Memorial Track and Tennis Courts.  Also, in the past few years a number of students haven’t claimed any or a portion of their scholarship funds because of the low amounts given.  The board might consider giving several large scholarships and still use some of the principal for a project at the high school.

 

Gene Crater liked the idea of using some of the principal for the track and tennis courts since this would benefit both Shelton High School students and the community.  He also agreed that giving larger scholarships would be more helpful to students than giving just a $1,000 scholarship.  He also liked the idea of honoring the Drake family by naming the track and/or tennis courts after the family.

 

Julianna Miljour also thought this was an excellent way of having a memorial for the family and agreed strongly that the board should give out fewer scholarships but at larger amounts.

 

Daniel Glenn agreed as well, but said he did not want to see the $200,000 principal used up in a short period of time.

 

Peter Boome was not in favor of dipping into the $200,000 principal and felt it was a short sighted idea.  He felt that if in 1982 the board had decided to use the principal to fix the track for instance, we would not have any scholarship money to give today and the track would be old once again and we would have the same issues.  He was in favor of using the interest for other projects such as the track and would also be in favor of giving larger scholarships, although as a scholarship student himself, he feels every dollar amount counts, whether large or small.

 

Chairman Sharpe said she envisioned using the $200,000 principal in way that it would be self-sustaining and would not deplete itself over a matter of time.

 

Sue McCausland suggested the idea of splitting the money evenly by using $100,000 for improvements at Shelton High School and using the interest earnings on the remaining $100,000 to continue to give scholarships.

 

It was agreed that Joan Zook would do some follow up research for the board and then the board would continue this discussion at a future meeting.

 

8.02 – Date for a board study session:

A tentative date of Monday, April 28th from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. in the central office conference room was set for a study session on the 2008-09 budget.

 

Board members wondered if their study session scheduled for April 21st could also start at 4:00 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m.  Joan will check with Seattle Northwest Securities to see if this is possible.

 

8.03 – Alliance for Adequate Funding for Special Education:

Several years ago the Shelton School District, as well as many other Washington school districts, signed on to be “Amicus Districts”, joining together with the School Districts Alliance for Adequate Funding of Special Education who filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington for their underfunding of special education.  Joan said this lawsuit is being appealed and we have been asked for our continued support as a “Friend of the Court”.  It does not cost our district any money to be a “Friend of the Court” and she did not ask to have our name removed but wondered how the board felt.  All board members said they still feel very strongly about the state’s underfunding of special education and they want our district to remain as a “Friend of the Court”.

 

8.04 – Senate Bill 6183:

Senate Bill 6183 allows the dissolution of existing director districts and reapportionment of the district into three director districts and two directors at large.  Joan Zook asked board members if they would like to pursue this by asking for voter approval.  Under the current arrangement, some director districts are very large and others small because they have to be balanced by population.  Joan is not sure how this would work for the current sitting board members.  Board members were interested in this and asked Joan to gather more information from WSSDA on how this redistricting would affect current board members.

 

8.05 – Preparation for the board’s yearly self-assessment:

Joan Zook said the board’s self-assessment document is enclosed in board packets and the board will need to decide if they want to do their self-assessment at a study session or a regular meeting.  It was decided that the board would meet in a study session from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., prior to the start of the regular meeting on April 22nd.  Each board member will complete their own self-assessment document and bring that to the study session where they will be compiled.

 

CONSENT AGENDA

Sue McCausland made a motion to approve the consent agenda with the addition of the supplemental personnel report as a new Item 9.05.  Julianna Miljour seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.  The board:

 

§         Approved minutes from the March 25, 2008 regular board meeting.

§         Approved overnight travel to Bellevue, WA on April 11-13, 2008 for Shelton High School FBLA students to attend the Future Business Leaders of America State Conference.

§         Approved cancellation of General Fund Warrant Nos. 109679 and 109911 and ASB Fund Warrant No. 17553, either issued in error or stolen.

§         Approved the regular and supplemental personnel reports as submitted and as attached.  (See Attachment #1.)

 

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Included in board packets is a summary from the six regional stakeholders meetings conducted in the state for the purpose of sharing the results of the State of Washington Pupil Transportation Funding Formula Survey and to garner information on trends observed in those results.  Joan said the state was working on a new funding formula, but that does not mean all the issues will be solved.  This year, the Shelton School District was underfunded by approximately $400,000 for transportation, which is probably a low figure with the increased fuel costs.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

At 6:38 p.m. Chairman Sharpe announced the board would take a 5-minute recess and would then enter into executive session for 20 minutes regarding an employee performance matter.  Action is anticipated after executive session.

 

The board returned to regular session at 7:00 p.m.

 

ACTION TAKEN AS A RESULT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION

Gene Crater made a motion to terminate the employment of Terri Ragan and Sue McCausland seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

ADJOURN

Chairman Sharpe declared the meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                    Chairman, Board of Directors

 

 

 

                                                                       

Secretary to the Board