The meeting this evening lasted about fifty minutes. Most people at the meeting were either on the board or employed by the school district in one way or the other. The following are the highlights from my perspective:
1. Board Member Comments:
a) Trisha Funke asked whether the school currently had an Anti-Bullying program or a Drug and Alchohol Abuse program. Superintendent Olney replied that the district is currently implementing a program called "Why Try?" which deals with some of these topics. Additionally, Olney stated that the district delivers instruction relevant to Cyber-Bullying and Cyber-Security.
b) Trisha Funke also asked about ASB cards for elementary students. Her concern had to do with the cost of admission to football games (and presumably other sports events). Olney and Principal Tsubota both indicated that they intended to provide ASB cards to elementary students who earned them.
c) Trisha Funke also asked about Homecoming floats. A discussion about floats ensued which drifted onto the topics of the bonfire and the T-lighting. Due to liability concerns the district no longer sponsors float-building, but continues to host the parade, the bonfire, and the T-lighting. Any students wishing to participate in float-building activities must do so as a member of a community sponsored group.
2. Community Comments: Doris Van Horn was the only person addressing the board at this time. She announced that the Fire Department is providing an assembly on the topic of Fire Safety at the elementary school at 9:30 AM on October 4th.
3. Superintendent's Report:
a) Enrollment is at 285 for the entire school district. According to Olney this number is up eighteen students from last year at this time.
b) Interdistrict Transfers - Three students who reside in Trona have been given permission to attend school in Ridgecrest since their parents work in Ridgecrest.
c) Bus Cameras - A somewhat lengthy discussion of bus cameras took place. Olney said he was investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of installing bus cameras. The cost would be approximately $1000 per bus. One of the limitations of the cameras is that buses are now equipped with seats which have high backs which limit visibility. Trisha Funke strongly supports bus cameras and not only attested to the durability of the solid state memory of these devices, but also insisted that the cameras are necessary for the safety of the driver and the students. She claimed that there have been two fights on the bus in the last week. Also she asserted that a bus driver was pushed and head-butted by a student. On top of that she insisted that sexual harassment and bullying are common during bus rides to and from school. Further she stated that she had called Mark Goins (who is in charge of transportation for the district) twenty times so far this year concerning bus-related issues.
d) Common Core Update - Olney explained that he wants to make sure that the school is equipped with adequate technological infrastructure to ensure that students have the ability to access online educational resources. He is concerned about whether or not the school has adequate bandwidth to meet the needs of students. He also spoke highly of efforts by the teaching staff to deal with matters related to curriculum and assessment during recent meetings he has attended.
e) Solar Panels - There was some discussion about solar panels, but nothing substantial.
f) Royalty Report - A royalty check for $361k was received for July. There was some discussion of the pending legislation which would reduce royalty payments back to 2%.
4. Consent Calender: Board Member Garrison asked about $3900 which was spent for several trees. Goins (Head of Maintenance) explained that these were large trees and not the kind of thing that would be purchased at a typical nursery. Garrison also asked about money spent on 2-way radios. Goins explained that the federal government has mandated that schools operate their radios within a more narrow bandwidth beginning January 2013. In order to be in compliance with this mandate the school had to purchase replacement radios. Actually a few radios were capable of being programmed to operate within the narrowed bandwidth, but others could not be programmed in this way and had to be replaced.
5. Class Size Reduction (CSR) - The district will hire a teacher in order to receive $73k in CSR funding and to reduce class sizes in grades one and two. Currently the first grade class has 29 students and the second grade class has 28 students. With the CSR funding there will be three classes with 19 students in each class. One class will be a first/second combo class.
NEXT MEETING:
October 11, 2012
Open Session beginning at 6:00 PM