At the September 4, 2019, Chatfield School Board meeting all board members were present. Also present was Superintendent Ed Harris, Administrative Assistant Lorri Lowery, and Principals Shane McBroom and Randy Paulson.
Under consent items the August 7 special meeting and monthly meeting minutes along with the August 21 special meeting minutes were approved.
Board member Lanny Isensee discussed the activities meeting he attended. The parent-coach surveys are not giving very valuable information and the committee decided to redo them and have students give feedback. The committee also discussed fundraising and what should be funded by the school. The committee intends to have an annual meeting with the youth association to help people understand just how much the school’s facilities are used.
All three administrators congratulated the staffs of both schools for getting the buildings ready for the start of school and for their work over the summer. The school year is off to a great start. They also thanked the Chatfield Commercial Club and Taher for providing breakfast and lunch respectively for the first day of workshop. Randy Paulson, high school principal, spoke to the board about the Flex program that is being implemented for grades seven and eight this year. It is very similar to the high school Flex program started last year where students have a 30 minute period in their day to choose an activity for the day. This also would include tutoring options. Elementary Principal Shane McBroom discussed the workshop activities at the elementary school. Teachers were given refresher courses in CPI (Crisis Prevention Intervention) and coaches from EdVision worked with staff to give them ideas and examples of Personalized Learning implementation. He also brought to the board a different schedule for grades five and six for their rotation classes. This would see these classes having more physical education and music classes for the first semester within the rotation that also includes art and technology.
Superintendent Harris stated the district agreed to an offer from HBC to buy the fiber connection between the high school and elementary school for $55,000. The district will lease back what it needs for a nominal fee. This agreement will preserve connectivity needs for the district far into the future while eliminating maintenance liabilities. Since this was a sale of capital equipment, the proceeds need to be directed to the operating capital fund and used for capital expenditures. In other words, these funds should not be used to address shortfalls in the general fund or future budget reductions. At the August 21 special meeting, the board reviewed the reduction of the budget for this year and that the board needs to certify the preliminary levy by September 30. He discussed the chain of command that the board had decided to review at its retreat. He showed a slide of how this would work and how board members could deal with queries from the public.
The following junior varsity coaches were approved as consent items: Ryan Eppen, Matt Davidson, Damien Nickelsen, Josh Berhow for boys basketball; Kyle Tollefson, Matt McMahon, Scott Schmaltz for girls basketball; and Zach Curry, Matt Mauseth for wrestling. New hires approved were Rianna Cooper, elementary paraprofessional; Dominic Pape, elementary paraprofessional; Colleen Bradt, preschool assistant; Kim Muller, ECFE assistant and Lyle Dietz, high school paraprofessional. The resignation of Patti Obey, activities assistant and facilities coordinator, was accepted. The special meeting minutes for July 9 and the job posting for seventh grade girls basketball coach were also approved.
In other business, the board approved the annual reading of district policies and the second reading of district policies. Under action items the board approved the Resolution Relating to Appointing Election Judges for the November 5 School District Special Election and the Resolution Establishing Combined Polling Places for Multiple Precincts.
The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be on October 2 in the high school forum room at 7 p.m.