Van Wijk Blog

Home of the Collierville Schools Citizen's Report

Posts Tagged positive

Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Business Meeting, December 13, 2016

Dec 13

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

Regular business meeting for the Collerville School Board. All board members in attendance.

Special Recognition: Tara Oaks Elementary’s Tiger Tones. Should mention that having them in the room for the Pledge of Allegiance was a special treat, also… (Most of these recognitions bring in the students after the meeting has gotten under way)

Ms. Risa Elder, 3rd Grade Teacher, Tara Oaks Elementary “Science Educator of the Year” for the State of Tennessee (lower grades)

Ms. Lauren Baker, Counselor, Collierville Elementary School “School Counselor of the Year” for the Elementary Division for the State of Tennessee

No public comments

Approval of Agenda, Minutes, October 2016 Financial Statements.

Chairman’s report:

  • Lot going on in the schools, trying to attend as many programs and open houses as possible. Very enjoyable to interact with the parents, students, and staff.

Superintendent’s report:

  • 2% longevity bonus for employees maxed out will receive half of that this month
  • Collierville Schools listed as the top educational employer in the area
  • Congratulations to reelected board members who were sworn in last week
  • State Report Card published today. Proud of achievement. Top 10 rating in state for English and Math. Expected dip in statewide achievement scores due to TN Ready challenges was visible. American History is main area of opportunity for Collierville Schools.
  • 24.6 composite ACT score for the district
  • Challenges around the future format of the report card – will lead to reduced visibility in key areas.
  • State level lots of discussion on charters, vouchers, etc.
  • Friday half day for students for Christmas break
  • January will start rezoning meetings
  • iPads will be issued in January

Business Items:

Board officer position elections: chair, vice chair and Tennessee Legislative Network

Mark Hansen nominated to continue as chairman, with support from the rest of the board. Honored to accept. Exciting work.

Kevin Vaughan nominated to continue as vice chairman. Accepts on condition Mr Hansen keeps up his attendance record.

Cathy Messerly nominated to continue as TLN representative.

Pro-Rated device fee for Middle School iPads: $25. 6th and 7th graders will carry device home. Annual fee is $50. This will cover protection through Safeware against damage, loss, and theft. 4th and 5th graders will not take device home, and will thus not be assessed a fee. Note: devices are in protective case to preserve them.

Meeting adjourned.

 

 

Tags: , , , ,

Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Working Session, November 15, 2016

Nov 15

Posted by E2Dutch in Rave, School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

Collierville Schools Board Working Session. Full board present.

Digital Learning Update

Note: the (draft) resource guide for the technology rollout is online. NOTE ALSO: THIS IS NOT FINAL

Rollout planned to start early in January 2017 with iPads for grades 4-7. Summer 2018 will see rollout to the high school with MacBook laptops. Grades 6+ will be able to take devices home. Home use of devices for grades 4-5 is not currently available, but may be an option in the future.

Fees listed in the draft resource guide are not final/approved yet.

Updates to network infrastructure are under way to ensure sufficient bandwidth is available.

Devices will be controlled through the Filewave Mobile Device Management tool. Has the devices locked and controlled remotely. This will render any stolen devices completely unusable, in addition to pushing updates and content out to the devices. All internet use will be filtered and restricted while on campus, but will also have filtering when the students are off-campus. The result is a powerful digital tool that is controlled by Collierville Schools.

Major component of the technology roll-out is Digital Citizenship. All teachers are in the process of being certified in the digital citizenship model promoted by Common Sense Media. In the first couple of months of the roll-out, all users will complete 5 lessons on digital citizenship. This will have annual refreshers and continuous reinforcement.

Collierville Schools is using the Schoology Learning Management System (LMS). It is integrated with PowerSchool, including schedules and rosters. It also lets teachers create digital content and assessments, and has freely available digital content from around the world from other teachers and service providers.

Student emails have been created for all Collierville Students with an @colliervilledragons.org domain. The email is through the Office 365 service, which allows each user 1Tb of cloud storage, and provides Microsoft Office applications on up to 5 devices, such as home computers. K-5th grade students can only email within the district.

Discussion of concerns around students getting email access, especially in the lower grades.

Part of the digital learning is also significant support for the admin, staff and faculty. Professional development geared to the grade levels. Selected classroom teachers per school are designated members of the ‘Vanguard Group’ to help their schools with the technology integrations and to support their peer teachers.

Deployment schedule:

  • Grades 4-7 in January 2017
  • Grades 3-8 in Fall 2017
  • Grades 9-12 in Fall 2018
  • Grades K-2 with 2:1 ratio devices in Fall 2019

Collierville High School Update

Collierville Schools stays closely informed on construction progress through bi-weekly review updates with the architects and construction management. These meetings also preview upcoming work, and to cover decisions to be made. Currently, the project is “absolutely not behind schedule.”

Presentation showed progress in a 3-D image. This showed the weekly and even some daily progress with footings, foundations, slabs, walls, etc. Concrete work started on 8/31.

Bids for interior finishes were opened 10/27. This includes millwork, drywall, tile, vinyl and wood flooring, and paint. Qualified lowest bid selection process under way.

Design being finalized for the athletic complex.

Update on the financial angle – close monitoring of the cost against budget.

Question from Mr. Vaughan about road infrastructure around the school and the concerns around peak times. This is subject to projections and modeling and the town is working to prepare for this.

Tags: , , , ,

Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Board Meeting, October 18, 2016

Oct 18

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

Full board in attendance.

Special recognition of Collierville High – SGA. Highlighting the recent fundraiser effort – a week-long cooperation with Houston High raising funds for St Jude. Raised over $21,000 between the two schools.

No public comments.

Approval of agenda, minutes and financial report.

Chairman’s report:

  • Lot of work being accomplished in the High School construction zone.
  • School Board Association convention coming up Nov 1
  • School board election coming up – all three candidates (Hansen, Cox, Vaughan) unopposed.

Superintendent’s report:

  • Thanks to staff and faculties for successful first quarter. Report cards coming out next week.
  • Race for the ‘Ville was successful.
  • Graduation rates published – showing some additional improvements, which is a point of pride.
  • High School test scores are due at any time – but no 3-8th grade scores will be available, which impacts various assessments.
  • Working Session for next week will take place.
  • School construction is getting regular oversight; phase 3 (athletics) details are about to be set.

Mr Vaughan comments about recent social media happenings.

LEA Compliance report approval.

Next year calendar is similar to current year. All municipal schools are looking to be on the same calendar again. Last day before Christmas is a Wednesday, and the first day back is a Thursday. This is due to where Christmas falls. Unofficial 2017-2018 Instructional Calendar – linked here. Calendar approved unanimously.

Final item: 2017 school board calendar.

Meeting adjourned.

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Board Meeting, August 9, 2016

Aug 9

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

First business meeting for 2016-2017 school year. Full board in attendance.

Special recognitions:

  • Collierville library and librarians
  • Central Church – hosts of annual teacher appreciation banquet and other schools events; hosts of CS central office during summer renovations at the office; host of Collierville Education Foundation car show, etc.
  • Principals at the 8 schools – appreciation for the work over the summer and throughout the year

No public comments.

June financial statements – approved.

Chairman’s report:

  • New school year under way. Good performance and great direction with great leadership
  • Focus on strategic objectives and what we want to school system to become
  • Thanks for community support at all levels

Superintendent report:

  • Updates on High School construction – some new renderings of interiors, as well as fly-thru videos. Should get posted on schools website soon.
  • Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen just approved the necessary road improvements (for $6.8M)
  • Mr Hansen: great job blending modern styling with historic attributes in the design. Lots of open spaces and natural light.
  • Site work under way, confirmed the ground is stable underneath
  • Another note of appreciation for all the work by the staff
  • Central Office approved for occupancy last Friday
  • Portables were installed at CHS and are in use – traffic patterns being adjusted
  • Lots of logistics for first day
  • Buses in decent shape, being adjusted for actual needs

Business Items:

  • Change order for portables – sprinkler requirements >> approved
  • High School fees schedule amendment - addition of chorus >> approved

Meeting Adjourned

Tags: , ,

Collierville Schools and sensationalism, rash judgement, misinformation and other nonsense

Jul 11

Posted by E2Dutch in Ramble, Rant, Reality Check | Comments off

The tone and content of some comments and posts in the Collierville Schools group on Facebook sometimes take a turn for the worse… A few personal thoughts and observations in response to some of the posts here:

  1. (How can Collierville Schools agree to a 4 year contract with Durham for transportation?!) In order to get a reasonable agreement (in cost, etc.) with a company like Durham, there has to be commitment to certain things from both parties. That means, among other things, committing to a certain number of years.
  2. Agreements like these include provisions for quality performance of the agreed upon services. Breach of those will allow for termination of the contract (or sometimes other penalties).
  3. The school board for Collierville Schools chose to leave start times the same for this year in order to allow the best chance of getting everything operational and making sure they were fiscally responsible. The Durham contract, per discussion at the school board meeting last month, allows for changes in start times (and going to 2 if desired). It changes the number of buses needed, which changes the fees charged to the school system.
  4. Mr Aitken has said it many times: operational vs aspirational… This year, the focus is to get a good school system up and running in time for when kids show up. That means for this year at least, a lot of items are being left as they were last year or reverted to legacy SCS policies, because any significant change will be disruptive to getting everything and everyone started.
  5. I trust our local representatives and the administration they have put in place with my kids for their education. I have already seen so many improvements put into place or set into motion over last year’s mega district and even the legacy SCS!
  6. Change is hard. In some areas, laws, regulations, and financial reality force decisions and limit options. Collierville Schools, in my opinion, has done a very good job in weighing options and making choices. Yes, I have a list of aspirational changes, but I am pragmatic enough to realize they are not of utmost priority.
  7. A lot of people put a lot of their own time, energy and emotions into the new school system. They are taking personal and professional risks. The occasional vitriol that pops up in community response to their work is disappointing.
  8. Our town of Collierville is providing tremendous support for the school system. Financially, logistically, etc. I have never seen a community be so united in support for such a huge undertaking.
  9. I have three kids at Collierville Elementary and a wife who is a teacher in Bartlett. I am highly invested in the local education programs. I am not an expert in most aspects of what is being accomplished, but I have a decent dose of intellect and common sense… And I think the right choices are being made, overall. And I am excited!
  10. Don’t believe everything you hear or read in the news. The words used can be either misleading or poorly chosen. Either in an effort to sensationalize (they got your attention!) or out of lack of understanding of what is in play, or inability to convey nuance. I found there to be insufficient reliable information in the media about the schools, so I started attending the meetings. I decided to try and share accurate summaries and observations with the group, and will continue to do so as long as I can afford the time, and there appears interest. It has allowed me to observe the workings, and the effort, and the character of those involved. This is an exciting time, and it is going to be great!

 

Tags: , , ,

Collierville School Board Working Session and Special Called Meeting – June 23, 2014 – Citizen’s Report

Jun 23

Posted by E2Dutch in Uncategorized | Comments off

This week, the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the School Board have swapped nights… The Collierville School Board has both a working session and a special called meeting on the docket.

My summary and observations from the meeting tonight:

Mrs Messerly was absent, CS staff was well represented. Only a few members of the public were in attendance.

Tonight’s working session saw some new and a few previously approved policies brought back for revision, based on changes in TN law. Policies covered in this session were a policy on sex offenders, placement of AED devices in schools, insurance management, separation policies for tenured and non-tenured teachers, attendance, student surveys and student records. In the personal communication device policy, an addition was made for wearable technology.

Most discussion took place around interscholastic athletics. The proposed policy is fairly short, and focuses on school representation, payment to coaches, and participant insurance. Mr Vaughan, himself the parent of two varsity athletes, wanted to ensure the school system would aspire to improve upon things he has observed and found less than ideal in the recent past. None of these are items that would have been addressed with this particular policy, so the policy should move forward at this time. Mr Aitken assured the board that he was aware of opportunities, and his office would be in a position to help improve matters. Mr Hansen added that openness will be key.

In the Superintendent’s update, Mr Aitken highlighted three key dates for the school district:

  • July 27 4-6pm open house to celebrate the new school system, at the central office
  • August 1 teacher appreciation event hosted by the Collierville Education Foundation
  • July 29 registration day

Mr Aitken also provided some key points from the biweekly shared services update newsletter, which listed updates on all the shared services efforts across the municipal districts. Things are on track, communication and cooperation are going very well.

Mr Hansen, in the chairman’s update, complimented the school staff on the amount of work being completed for the upcoming school year, including the completion of 6 new hire orientation sessions so far.

Mr Simpson, the consultant provided several logistical updates. The process to develop a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan is moving forward, with the committee having its first meeting on June 12, where they set goals and objectives, and received an update from the school planner. This committee has members from the various stakeholder groups across the community, including the school system and the BMA, as well as a parental representative and city planners. Their next meeting is July 17.

Mr Simpson also discussed the process for the architectural and engineering firms and their statements of qualifications. 13 firms will be providing presentations for himself and Mr Vaughan over the next couple of weeks.

The final update from Mr Simpson was around the condition of school facilities and maintenance on them. Parking lot work is being done where needed, and the town is providing a lot of help with this.

In his closing remarks, Mr Hansen highlighted the importance of having the town planning efforts and the school district’s long-term plan working closely to ensure responsible growth remains positive.

 

Immediately following the working session, the school board moved into a special called meeting in order to vote on several proposals. Nobody from the public addressed the board today.

The first proposal was the annual approval of special courses, which, today, was to ensure 5 special courses would continue to be offered, including one honors English class and two ACT prep classes. Approved.

The second item was the approval of the proposed contract with Kelly Services to provide substitute teachers to Collierville Schools. Key items to note:

  • This is the model most municipal districts are following
  • This is the same provider already in use for DeSoto Schools in Mississippi
  • Principals will be able to provide lists of preferred subs for their schools, and named subs can be requested for specific classes
  • Long-term subs can be converted to district employees, or can be retained long-term through Kelly Services
  • This model is preferred because of the amount of logistics involved in attracting, retaining, and managing a substitute teacher base, including, new this year, rules around the affordable care act for employees who work 30 hours a week or more
  • In the 2012-2013 school year, the 8 Collierville schools had 2819 teacher days of absence. Detailed figures for last year are not available.

Approved.

Item 3 is a contract with Durham Transportation for the school buses. This contract is close to final, and the board is asked to authorize the superintendent and school board chair (Executive Committee) to engage in a contract with Durham for 4 years. Collierville is managing transportation for all 6 municipalities. 34 regular buses will be needed for Collierville. By the end of the 4 year term, all buses will be airconditioned. Route planning is advancing very well (somewhat ahead of schedule). After some additional discussion, the board provided its authorization.

Next up – a three year lease arrangement for 600 laptops from Apple for just over $700k for the duration of the lease will be entered into by the town of Collierville. The school board is not able to enter into a capital lease like that, but will be paying the town for this. Approved.

The final item up for a vote this evening was the detail around the health care plans. Three contracts are to be entered into to provide for health care plan administration, trust fund management and a healthcare administration agreement among the participating groups. The health care plan will be administered by Meritain, an Aetna company. These contracts are to be in place by July 1, which is when school admin and central office personnel will fall under that plan.

Tags: , ,

Collierville School Board Business Meeting – May 13, 2014 – Citizen’s Report

May 13

Posted by E2Dutch in Rave, Reality Check | No Comments

Regular business meeting of the Collierville School Board. All of the board present, as well as a significant contingent of school and central office staff. Bill Dries from the Daily News was also present (albeit a few minutes late…).

At the start of the meeting, there were two public comments. The first was from a representative from Cigna, who wanted to relate some additional points of information about their response to the RFP. The second comment was from the CEO of Healthchoice, which is an organization that is affiliated with Methodist Health Care managed care, as far as I understood. His comments were in support of Cigna as a health insurance provider.

Following the moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance, Beth Robbins presented the Collierville Highschool Academic Allstars, as recognized by the Commercial Appeal. She also noted that of the 11 overall scholars designated by the CA from the are, 3 are from Collierville High. Mr Hansen congratulated the students, and commended them on being a great example of what Collierville Schools exemplify.

The report from the chairman touched briefly on the interlocal agreements still in progress (with some recent “hiccups”) among the municipalities. Germantown will be voting on a budget on 5/14, which will hopefully include the shared services. Mr Hansen also mentioned the almost completed central office facility, which will be a great place to showcase Collierville Schools. The move-in date is Monday May 19th.

The Superintendent’s report had four quick items:

  • The personnel plan for Collierville Schools has been approved by the State Board of Education
  • The County Commission has approved $1M for capital projects in Collierville, which will primarily be directed to a new roof at Collierville High
  • Job offers for teachers and administrators were delivered this past week
  • Regular meetings have started with SCS around the transition of buildings and personnel over the next few weeks

Mr Simpson, the consultant had an update with more detail about the finishing touches for the central office. Additional updates covered the contracts for services that the school district is still working on, including two later on in the agenda, and the transportation contract as well as others for safety equipment and insurance. Mr Vaughan asked if the bus radius is being changed, to which Mr Simpson replied that in order to most efficiently and economically start services in August, no changes from the current transportation plan were being made. This includes bell times.

The next agenda item was added at the last minute: a presentation on the benefits plans recommended to the board, based on the RFP process that was followed. Karen Naccarato explained the process followed, which included representatives from the municipalities to set out the objectives and perform the RFP process. For health benefits, the options considered were the state plan, full insurance and self insurance. 10 companies provided proposals.

The recommended option is from Aetna, as it came out with the best match of the required features and the cost. Its proposal also will provide for various allowances to allow for change management to ensure a smooth transition. A significant change from the current provider (Cigna, the runner up) is that Aetna offers two network choices: Methodist plus St Francis or Baptist plus St Francis. The employees will have that choice, with the Baptist plan being slightly lower cost.

There was significant discussion around this recommendation, including concern with changing insurance administrators from the current provider, whether this plan provides for the state-mandated level of services, etc. While the employer/employee split is improving from 63/37 to 66/34, it appears the monthly cost will go up slightly for employees. Mr Hansen pointed out that his employer (FedEx) has had major overhaul in its health insurance plans and associated cost, primarily due to the Affordable Care Act, and every employer is facing similar issues.

The board is not yet ready to vote on this, and a vote is not needed until the 23rd of May, so a special called meeting was decided on for one week from today. Mr Vaughan will be unable to attend, but expects consensus among the board.

Metlife Dental, Davis Vision and for basic life insurance, Metlife, are recommended. That maintains the current providers for all those.

Up next, the board considered the policies that were presented three weeks ago at the working session. Mr Aitken pointed out some minor changes that were made, mostly for grammatical reasons. Additionally, the facility use policy was updated to allow use of kitchens, provided under appropriate supervision. The policy on naming of schools and school real estate was simplified based on feedback from the working session. The policy on athletic participation insurance was restated to allow parents to provide for their own insurance or accept the risks of not having insurance if they so choose.

The 63 policies were approved.

Two new policies were presented: first, vacation and holidays, which mostly stipulates the non-teaching personnel policies around vacation and holidays. A key improvement over current policy is to reduce the wait time for the commencement of benefits from 1 year to 6 months. Also, those employed by SCS during the current school year are not considered new employees under this policy, and will thus enjoy the vacation amounts commensurate with their time at SCS. The other new policy is around On-the-job injuries.

Finally, two contracts were up for review and approval:

Both custodial services and maintenance services are recommended to be provided by the current custodial services provider, GCA. For maintenance, SCS currently uses in-house personnel, which may not be economical for a small district. Collierville is proposing to work together with Germantown specifically on this, and the two municipalities will share the use of 11 skilled maintenance personnel, such as plumbers, HVAC technicians, locksmiths, etc. Germantown is expected to vote on, and approve, this arrangement in their meeting on May 14. These both passed.

Tags: , , ,

Collierville joint School Board and Board of Mayor and Aldermen budget working session – May 6, 2014 – Citizen’s Report

May 6

Posted by E2Dutch in Rave, Reality Check | No Comments

On May 6, the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) and the Collierville School Board held a joint working session to review the draft budget for the 2014-2015 school year. The Collierville Schools budget is not finalized yet, but is very close to being finished. The BMA needs the preliminary numbers for its budgeting purposes by next week. This post summarizes my observations from today’s meeting, and any editorial comments are clearly identifiable as such below.

The full BMA and School Boards were present, as well as the town administrator, and most of the Collierville Schools senior office staff. The audience was very light.

For most of the meeting, Superintendent Aitken walked the board through the numbers that make up the detailed budget. The budget balances revenues and expenses at this time. The expense side of the budget is based on the projected enrollment number of 7900 students. The revenue side is based on an estimate of 7600 students, which is the number of students in Collierville schools as of April. This is the number the state board has decided to use as the basis for allocation of funds. Per state law, the actual payments out of the county tax and state education funds will be based on actual enrollment numbers, as determined during the school year. In June following the school year, a true up payment will be made as appropriate to account for the difference. It should be noted that in the case where the actual enrollment actually is realized, that June payment could be around $2M at the end of next school year.

There are a few items still under negotiation with vendors, but reasonable estimates have been included in the budget.

The projected total cost for the 2014-2015 school year is $60,695,411. Revenues match this number for a balanced budget. Mr Aitken pointed out that there are approximately $800-900,000 in savings realized through the use of shared services by the participating municipalities. In the current setup, Collierville is responsible for approximately 26% of shared services cost, when allocated on a per-student basis among 6 municipalities. For comparison, Germantown’s share is 19%. Should Germantown opt out of some or all shared services, those costs will then be spread among the participating school districts.

Into budget detail…

The largest portion of revenues is state funding. Second is county funding. The municipal contribution is currently set at the state mandated formula relating to the property taxes, but is being funded through the local option sales tax.

On the expense side, by far the largest portion is teacher salaries and related general education expenses. The projection is that there will be 395 general education teachers, which is an increase of approximately 13 teachers over current staffing levels. Most of the increase in teachers will go to CHS and SFMS. In the health insurance projection, the current district-employee ratio used is 66-34%. It is estimated that 80% of eligible personnel will actually enroll in the health care plan.

Another area with significant personnel numbers is special education. Special education staffing will follow current numbers, which are generally where legacy SCS was. It should be noted that by law the ‘maintenance of effort’ rules around special education are based on the first year of operations, whereas the overall maintenance of effort will be based on numbers after three years of operation. Maintenance of effort refers to the rules around towns that fund school districts not being allowed to reduce their funding levels for the schools unless there is a significant reduction in enrollment.

In reference to budget line items around instructional equipment, the question was asked if measures are being taken to ensure current school inventories will not change after the end of the school year. The settlement agreement stipulates that everything in the schools as of the time of the agreement will stay with the schools. Mr Aitken assured the boards that this is being watched closely. The superintendents in the county (including SCS’ Hopson) are discussing this in a meeting this week. Inventory documentation exists and school administration is keeping an eye on it.

Other notable budgeting items:

  • Health rooms will see a nurse at each school, and a medical records clerk at each school.
  • There will be a full-time librarian at each school.
  • Librarian assistants and cafeteria monitors will return to the schools.
  • Each school will have a plant manager again.
  • Special Education clerical staff will remain at each school (these are being cut at SCS).
  • Janitorial Services will continue to be outsourced as per the legacy SCS model.
  • Transportation will be outsourced, because of the inability to start an in-house system in the time allowed and funding available.
  • Career and Technical education will be a shared service provided by Arlington under contract.
  • Curriculum Technology Trainers (CTT) will be assigned two schools each. There will also be 6 tech support resources for the district.
  • After three years, the school district, by state law, must have built a reserve fund equaling 3% of its annual operating expenses.
  • No major capital items are included in the budget for this year.
  • Collierville Schools will be awaiting the results of discussions at the county level around some overdue maintenance items at some of the school buildings.
  • In the budget is a line item for $500,000 to be paid to SCS as part of the settlement agreement for the next 12 years.

Throughout the presentation, there were clarifying questions asked by various board members. My comments above generally include the explanations given.

At the end of the meeting, Vice Mayor Maureen Fraser asked about enrollment confirmation letters, and was told that the last of those should have gone out today. Generally speaking, all requests had been honored. Another question by Ms Fraser was about school start times. After remarking that this would depend on the arrangement with the transportation company, Mr Aitken also clarified that while the aspirational goals might be to go to two start times, for practical and budgetary reasons, it looks like the district will remain at three start times at least this coming year. A change in start times would seem likely after a few years, but not right now.

In conclusion, Mr Aitken pointed out that the main objectives were to restore services and service levels to the legacy SCS levels, at the least. Having shared services is a key element in being able to spend more of the district’s money in the classrooms.

 

Teacher hiring:

After the meeting, in a conversation with Mr Aitken, he indicated that teacher employment offers should be going out this week. There is no requirement of currently having tenure to be eligible to be hired for next school year right now. This is good news for all those teachers eager for news about their continued employment in their municipal schools!

Tags: , , ,

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.

Tags: , ,

Collierville School Board special called meeting – March 18, 2014 – Citizen’s report

Mar 18

Posted by E2Dutch in Rave, Reality Check | No Comments

Tonight the Collierville Municipal School Board met in a special called meeting for the purpose of approving the Superintendent engaging the district into agreements for various communications services. Below are my notes from the meeting. As expected, the board chair made some comments about the progress of an interlocal agreement with Germantown. Please note this is from my notes and observations, and I will be sure to indicate when I am inserting my own opinion.

Not a big crowd in attendance for today’s meeting, but yet again the full board was in attendance.

There were no comments from the public.

The business part of the meeting had Mr Aitken describe the communication services contracts for the school’s internet services, the internal network, telecom services (land lines) and wireless services (for select employees). Through a group purchasing coop (erates) the district will spend $18,018 on phone lines (discounted from $42,900) and $116,000 for internet and network services. As part of the RFP process, the district is going to get increased bandwidth from what is currently available to the schools. This will help ensure that online testing will run with appropriate network capacity.

The board approved Mr A to enter into the appropriate agreements. Legal review of the contracts is under way, and upon completion of that process, the agreements will be signed in time for the Friday 3/21 deadline that is in place due to telecommunications regulations.

Before adjourning the meeting, Mr Hansen provided a brief update on the interlocal agreement with Germantown. He stated that the Germantown board is expected to vote on the proposed agreement in a special called meeting Thursday evening (3/20), and because he wants to put this urgent issue to rest, has called a special called meeting for Friday at 6pm for a vote on the same agreement by the board.

I expect this agreement to cover what was discussed in the previous meeting: currently enrolled Collierville resident students at the Houston Middle and High Schools, as well as the Collierville resident elementary school students (Farmington and Dogwood) will be able to remain at those schools until their exit grade. Transportation will be made available for those students.

This should alleviate the concern currently expressed by parents of those students, as their kids won’t be required to register at their zoned Collierville school if they are going to attend in Germantown.

An observation: it seems to me the Collierville school board has acted with appropriate urgency and due diligence in his matter. The base principle has always been to get all Collierville resident students in Collierville schools, but this has been paired with the desire to allow students to finish out at their current schools if those families wanted to. This will also allow the CMSD a little more time to plan for the increasing attendance.

Tags: , ,