This is my summary of the June 16, 2020 Work Session of the Collierville Schools Board of Education. This is the first meeting back in physical form, with the board and attendees spread out in the Community Room at CHS. As always, these notes represent my best understanding of the proceedings. Please contact me if any update or correction is needed.

Frank Warren is absent – vacation, rest of the board in attendance.

Review of policies:

• Need to review policies in light of different return to school scenarios; this yielded .
• Appeals to and Appearances Before the Board. Changes to public comment section include elimination of yielding time to other speakers and limiting total public comment time to 30 minutes total. Note: any citizen who wants to use more than 3 minutes may do so through a request (7 days or more in advance) to the superintendent and will be allowed to include presentation materials and will then be added to the formal agenda upon approval by the executive committee of the board. Mrs Chism points out that it is very rare that anyone has public comments, and the proposed limit of 30 minutes has rarely been exceeded in all her time on the board, and wants to consider additional time to be added. The discussion points out that the chairman or a board majority may choose to extend the time at their discretion. Additional emphasis will be placed on those wishing to speak being required to complete the comment request card prior to the start of the meeting.
• School Board Records. Updating title and address for information requests.
• Payroll Procedures. Updated to reflect bringing payroll processing in-house and changing pay frequency to bi-weekly (as opposed to twice a month) for every employee, and through direct deposit only.
• Safety. Addition of the topic of ‘Pandemic or other public health emergency’ to the listing of safety program content.
• Vacation and Holidays. Vacation leave will start to be assigned at start of employment, and at 20 days, rather than starting with accrual after six months. Additionally, vacation day payout at termination or resignation will be capped at 25 days of unused, but only if they have completed at least 12 months of service. Employees who provide at least one year notice of intent to retire will be eligible to have their accrued vacation time paid out on a prorated basis over their last year, raising their pay for that year in regards to retirement calculation, and will allow the district the ability to better plan for succession and transition. An additional adjustment to the language around holidays was inserted to ensure proper and equitable calculations. Discussion took place to determine if 20 days up front may be too many, and possibly should be reduced. The main benefit for providing 20 days up front is to improve the ability to hire seasoned staff who may have accrued a significant amount of vacation time in their previous jobs.
• Staff Rights and Responsibilities. Addition of the ability to require face coverings or other personal protective items as needed, determined by either the board or the individual school.

Review of other business items:

• Interlocal Agreement for Planning. Agreement with Bartlett Schools. Extension of existing agreement.
• Differentiated Pay Plan Proposal. Presented by Mrs Sheryl Johnson. State requires selection of at least one of three programs: hard to find positions, performance based, or instructional roles/responsibilities. Collierville only uses the differentiation based on instructional roles/responsibilities.
• Consolidated application for IDEA/ESEA federal funds.
• May Financial Statements. Some drops in revenues, but larger drops in expenditures. Meals extending through June are going to extend nutrition cost. CIP budget activity due to capital projects under way.
• Fiscal year budget closeout amendments.
• Review of 5-year Capital Improvement Plan. Most exciting in there is the new gym planed for Collierville Elementary.

Update by Dr Lilly on the reopening plan. Eleven essential function teams have been meeting. Surveying and parental representation on these teams where appropriate. Plan is not complete. Overwhelming feedback to not have week on/week off if students cannot all be onsite at any point. All municipal superintendents had meeting with County Health Department. Plan will be submitted to them. Capacity isn’t as much a concern as distancing is, which is also more difficult. Some communication on progress is going to be developed, as there is “a hunger for information.” Mr Hansen pointed out that there are a lot of items outside of our control, and that it will be necessary to make options available to students and parents. Transportation is a particularly complicated issue. County Health department has been significantly more helpful than state department of education with specific information and feedback.

Meeting Adjourned.

Meeting was immediately followed by Dr Lilly’s performance evaluation discussion in a Special Called Business Meeting.

Brief discussion of the superintendent’s performance evaluation by the board attorney. Overall ratings very favorable. Favorable evaluation makes superintendent eligible for performance bonus per employment agreement. Evaluation formally accepted, and performance bonus approved.

Tags: budget, Citizen's Report, Collierville Schools, COVID-19