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Archive for April, 2014

Collierville School Board working session – April 22, 2014 – Citizen’s report

Apr 22

Posted by E2Dutch in Uncategorized | No Comments

Below is my summary of the April 22 school board meeting. This was a working session, where information was provided to the board, but no votes were taken. Immediately following the working session was a special called meeting scheduled to vote on two items that were discussed two weeks ago.

Low attendance in the audience – approximately 12-15, most of whom did not last the whole meeting. The board was fully present, as were a significant staff contingent.

On the agenda today were 63 proposed policies regarding the operation of the school system. Most of these are dictated by law and regulation, and the language is often prescribed by the law. Some highlights:

  • Safety, Emergency Preparedness, Security policies. Notable: continued presence of Collierville Police School Resource Officers in each school. As a parent, I am very excited to hear that.
  • Community use of school facilities. This has some linkage to state laws.
    - use by non-profits only (including cultural, civic and charitable organizations)
    - school-associated groups have use free of charge
    - use of kitchens will be strictly limited, and most likely require CS employees to run those for a fee
    Intent is to make sure the schools are an integral part of the community, and are open for civic use.
  • School naming – not after living persons, but the policy also includes prescriptive language that limits school names around geographic location (street or area). This will get updated to allow the board more freedom. All naming of schools or parts of schools and other facilities has to be approved by the board. The superintendent also removed a reference to avoiding similar names, as there are already some prominent violations of that in town.
  • Retirement of facilities – need to add a stipulation that any retirement of facilities considers the settlement agreement with the county and SCS, as unused facilities are to be returned to the county school system.
  • Food Service Management – to be run as a non-profit. Any balances owed to be picked up by the school system.
  • Student insurance – mostly related to sports activities. Collierville Schools will more proactively stimulate enrollment, rather than parental waivers and assurances of responsibility, as the cost will be low for the families.
  • Home schooling – a surprisingly prominent role to be performed by the Collierville Superintendent of Schools to ensure children who are homeschooled are getting this instruction in accordance with TN laws.
  • Zero tolerance policies around certain offenses introduce the fact that the superintendent has some case-by-case leaway on deciding what to pursue and what not.
  • Dress Code – will be same as current year for 2014-2015. Policy does not have any use of uniforms after the 2014-2015 school year ends, but this policy may get changed by that time.
  • Use of personal mobile communication devices (by students) – Default is turned off and stowed in backpack or bag. Teachers may grant permission to students for use that enhances learning. Principals may grant permission outside of those classroom, Intent is to create an environment where teachers have the freedom to make such choices.

Following the walkthrough of these policies, a quick update in TCRS, which is the state retirement plan that current SCS teachers use. Current certified teachers are mandated to retain those benefits and will continue in  the program. Current classified personnel will likely also continue in this plan, but that is as of yet undecided. The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen will have to accept fiscal responsibility for the teachers that are coming into Collierville Schools, since they are the funding body. Some changes to the TCRS are also under way, which will be addressed in the next regular business meeting.

Finally, Mr Aitken executed a lightning round of updates:

- Funding for some federal and state-level programs will have to be renewed, which Ms Claney is working on with the team.
- Updated funding estimates from the school are coming out higher than foreseen in the feasibility report. This is good news.
- Employee health insurance will be settled by next week based on meetings and presentations this week and next.
- May 6 there will be a joint working session with Collierville Mayor and Aldermen on budget.
- Optional enrollment and transfer application acceptances will start being communicated next week.
- Teacher should get offer letters within the next 2-3 weeks.
- Classified staff will be provided with application procedures by next week on how to apply for jobs at Collierville Schools. By state law, only teachers have job protection.

In closing comments, Mr Aitken expressed his gratitude for all the administrative staff in the school offices and the town offices over the past months. Tomorrow is administrative assistant day, and he recommends it be celebrated.

The chair had limited comments, and the meeting was adjourned.

In the special called meeting, the nutrition services and transportation services interlocal agreements were discussed and voted on. Both passed.

That concludes a three-hour meeting with no breaks…

(my apologies for rushing this summary – it is a late night for me at this point)

 

Collierville School Board Business Meeting – April 8, 2014 – Citizen’s Report

Apr 8

Posted by E2Dutch in Rave | No Comments

Below is my summary of the April 8 Collierville Schools Board meeting. This was a regular business meeting.

All of the board was in attendance. About two dozen of the public were present, as well as various Collierville Schools staff. There were no comments from the public.

After approval of the agenda, which included the removal from the agenda of the two interlocal agreements, and the approval of the minutes of the various March board meetings, the chair delivered his report.

Mr. Hansen commented on the positive results of the enrollment nights, and on the progress made towards the interlocal agreements which will allow the municipalities to band together on common services and thus have high quality services at a much lower cost than when set up individually. While the agreements weren’t ready to be voted on this week, they are nearing completion. Mr. Hansen also mentioned the Collierville Education Foundation fundraiser the board attended last week. This is a very highly commendable organization that provides grants directly to teachers. Finally, Mr Hansen touched upon the preliminary BEP funding estimate Collierville Schools got from the State Department of Education, with more detail to be provided by Mr. Aitken.

Mr Aitken, in his Superintendent’s report, addressed the BEP funding. This is the funding for the schools by the state, which is the largest part of funding for the schools. This is a set amount per enrolled student. The estimated amount, based on current enrollment numbers, was approximately $1M higher than the feasibility study had used.

Enrollment numbers from the enrollment period came out around 90-91% of the projected fall enrollment, which is, according to Mr Aitken, a very good result. The schools have continued to follow up with families who have not yet provided their intent, in order to get even more reliable enrollment projections for next year.

Mr Aitken also mentioned the new hires for Collierville Schools:

  • Director of Student Services – Herchel Burton
  • Head of nutrition – Marsha Landstreet
  • Three Powerschool administrators – Karen Dew, Becky Kenley, Tabitha Barnes
  • Director for Curriculum and Accountability, Louise Claney
  • Pre-K through 5 Supervisor, Dr Andre Crafford

These all come with significant (legacy) SCS experience.

The nutrition and powerschools positions are shared services positions, which means their expense will be spread among the participating municipal school districts, which will be covered through interlocal agreements. Mr Aitken took the time to address some concerns from the public that he had heard about the phrase ‘shared services,’ especially in regard to nutrition. The bottom line, he explained, is that each school will have staff to prepare and serve the staff and students. The cafeteria at each school will operate independently, but will have the support of the planning, administration, purchasing and budgeting processes from the central office.

With the application deadline passed for non-resident enrollment at Collierville Schools, there are approximately 700 non-resident applications to be reviewed.

Finally, Mr Aitken asked the board to authorize him to initiate an RFSOQ process for a future school to be built. This process authorizes him to review the qualifications of architecture and planning firms to help select a future site and start the planning for a new building. The need for a new school was presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen last week, and met with approval. The Collierville School Board voted to authorize the RFSOQ process.

The next agenda item was a report by Mr. Simpson, the consultant. He updated the board on the progress made at the historic high school building (Poplar and Walnut) for the Collierville Schools central office. The work is being overseen by the Town, and the move-in date is projected for the second week of May. Secondly, the Town has engaged Ms Debra Rike as a consultant to select a bus routing and planning software package and prepare for its use. The package under consideration is called Versatrans, which includes GPS functionality, which may offer parents the ability to see the location of the bus, and the projected time at each stop. Routing staff will be hired soon. The final part of Mr. Simpson’s update addressed work with The Pool, a Tennessee Risk Management organization that is expected to provide insurance for Collierville Schools properties and liability.

Following these updates, the Superintendent presented the proposed policies for second reading. He highlighted a few adjustments made since the last reading. Mr Vaughan motioned to suspend the rules and vote to approve the policies on the consent agenda, rather than have them return for a third reading. The motion, and the policies, were approved. A summary and some comments on these policies from the working session two weeks ago can be found here.

Finally, in closing comments, Mr. Aitken indicated that immediately following the working session in two weeks, there would be a special called meeting to vote on the interlocal agreements that were dropped from the agenda today.

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