Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
Board
Members Present: Sandy Flint, Cassie Gaede, Sheryl Palmquist, Karen Paul, Tom
Plocher, Brenda Swanson, and Jeff Vitali.
Board Members Absent:
Ex-officio member,
Visitors: Lindsay Jarombek,
1. Call to order and approval of agenda.
The new agenda was approved
with a motion by Gaede; second by Swanson.
Motion carried
2. Roll Call and consideration of minutes of the
previous meeting.
It was noted that we did have
a quorum and the October minutes were approved by a motion by Swanson, second
by
3. Open forum
There was no one for open
forum.
4. Visitors
There were no visitors, but Quarnstrom
reported that Senator Olseen had been to visit the
school that morning and that in December the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant)
students would be present to report on their experiences with the class. In addition the auditors will be visiting in
December to present the results of the audit to the board.
5. Consideration of claims and accounts
5A. Bills. Miller presented the bills in two separate
listings, one dated November 10 and the other with today’s date, November
19. Miller quickly perused the November
10 listing and then itemized the bills on the November 19 list. She pointed out a bill in the November 19
listing, reflected by check number 2872.
This item was voided, for it had been paid previously and the entry was
a duplicate entry. Swanson moved approval of the payment of the bills reflected
by checks numbered 2834 through #2858, totaling $31,811.58 and bills reflected
by checks numbered 2860 through 2876 totaling $11,284.09 after the $64.00
voided payment was subtracted. Palmquist
seconded the motion. Motion carried.
After the meeting another notation was added which was as follows: Check
#2859 was voided because the first check to Alert Fire and Safety included
sales tax. A new check #2864 was issued
to them.
5B. Finance Report. Miller presented the financial report
dated
6. Old Business
6.A. Committee News. The Crisis Management Team reported with a handout in the packet. Completed projects include the defib machine having been installed in the great room and all staff training for its use as well as CPR training for some staff has been conducted. Emergency boxes with essentials for lock-down drills have been strategically located throughout the building. A listing of tasks to be completed this year was also included and Quarnstrom reported that office blinds have already been installed.
Palmquist reported that the next Sex Education Committee meeting is Monday, November 23. The committee will peruse the health education courses to evaluate the sexual health portions of those courses. If not adequate, they will consider a separate, new course for sexual health subjects.
The Marketing Committee met earlier in the day. They are creating a 13 month calendar to stay organized and have decided to try some strategies that don’t cost anything. The minutes of this meeting will appear in the next board packet.
Jarombek reported for the Wellness Committee, stating that the flu and the health of our students have still been the focus of the committee. The H1N1 flu vaccine is still in short supply, but Miller reported that initial clinics for Chisago schools have taken care of the youngest children and that Chisago County Public Health will be notified the week of December 7 how much vaccine they will be getting for the month of December. Meanwhile our school is still taking precautions with surface cleaning and reminders to wash hands, plus hand sanitizers throughout the building. The new attendance line is working well.
6.B . Shared Vision Action
Plan.
6.C. Enrollment Report. Swanson reported that we are adding students daily. Second quarter admissions include 10 full-time students and 6 supplemental students. We now have about 150 students and our Learning Managers all have a near full advisory of students. Nine students graduated after summer school and four graduated after term one. She reported that word-of-mouth advertising seems to be the most effective.
Flint presented two sheets of graphs which pictured the Wolf Creek enrollment percentages by grade and then another which showed the school district of residence of our students. This year, Chisago Lakes and Forest Lake residents have been somewhat fewer, while North Branch and “other” district percentages have increased.
6.D. Laptop Check-out Numbers. Ten of our student mini-laptops are currently checked out. One change in the laptop checkout guidelines was found to be needed. The notation that “if a student leaves our school, a checked-out laptop will be due immediately” will be added.
7. New Business
7.A - D. Required Policies. Quarnstrom presented the second reading of Policy 304 regarding the Superintendent contract, Policy 403 regarding student discipline, Policy 519 regarding interviews of students by outside agencies and Policy 520 regarding student surveys. Swanson asked for consideration of section B of policy 304. She suggested that instead of a full evaluation of the director each year, that we conduct a full evaluation every-other year with a review of contract and file review be conducted in the years between. A discussion followed with the idea that a yearly evaluation is good for the perception of charter schools in general. It was suggested that a small committee be selected to review this part of Policy 304. Those selected were Flint, Gaede, Swanson and Plocher to do a review and report back to the board at its next meeting.
Quarnstrom submitted a request by letter that her contract for this school year, through December 31, 2010 remain unchanged, including her salary.
Swanson moved the acceptance of the second reading of all policies, once policy 304 is finalized. Plocher seconded the motion, motion carried.
7.E Extension Procedures. Quarnstrom and Swanson presented the 2009-10 procedure on course extensions. No rollovers will now be allowed and the guidelines clearly present the procedure for students requesting a course extension. Learning managers also have clear guidelines. One correction was made to the written guidelines, specifying the last day of the term be the deadline for submitting requests. Palmquist moved the acceptance of the corrected guidelines. Swanson seconded the motion. Motion carried.
7.E. PSEO Procedure Review. Swanson presented a change to the stated guidelines for approval for student PSEO involvement. She recommended an addition stating that our school will follow the guidelines set forth by the Chisago Lakes schools. Also included was a GPA requirement of at least 3.0 as well as consideration of the 10th grade PLAN test results. This is being done, she explained, to help each PSEO student be successful. Acceptance of these changes was moved by Gaede and seconded by Plocher. The change will be posted on our website.
7.G. Director Evaluation. Swanson reported that the evaluation instrument would be reviewed and distributed in the next few weeks. Staff and board members are asked to complete and return prior to the January board meeting for compilation.
This was just a review of the discussion from Policy 304 above.
7.H. Curriculum Review. Kelly Legg was to give a Moodle lesson, as she was not in attendance this month, she will give this report next month. Quarnstrom reported that Elluminate review determined that proper supervision was vital. At this time students can enter the chat room without the requirement of a monitor there and could be using inappropriate language or visuals. As with any school product, our students need to be safe and the cost for an upgrade to ensure their safety would be about $3000. Board members wanted Quarnstrom to discuss the safety concerns with Elluminate further and make sure that the upgraded cost would ensure full safety measures. Quarnstrom will bring the issue back with more details to the December board meeting.
7.I. Q Comp Changes for 2009/2010. A letter by Stacy Bender was submitted, resigning her position as Quality Compensation coordinator. Stull will take over Q Comp Coordinator position along with her Lead Learning Manager position for Q comp. Quarnstrom and Swanson are the other members of the Q comp team and will help Stull when needed in either position for support. Quarnstrom has asked MDE if the Q Comp coordinator can also be the lead learning manager. When MDE responds, this committee will work on the changes and a board resolution if needed.
7.J. Text Messaging Alert System. Quarnstrom reported that there is a texting alert system available for a cost of $400.00. This system would allow for communication with students/parents/board with imminent information that can be quickly given to many people. Quarnstrom will research the system further and give a more thorough report in December. It was also noted that Quarnstrom may want to look into the Sky Alert system available from Skyward for phone calls and emails to parents.
7.K. Attendance Procedures Revised. Quarnstrom presented an addendum to Wolf Creek’s attendance policy. The new section concerns the requirements of lab attendance as determined by those in charge of the student’s learning. After some wording adjustments for clarity, the revised addendum was accepted by a motion by Vitali; second by Paul. Motion passed.
7.L. Veterans Preference in Hiring and Termination
Procedure. Quarnstrom reviewed the policy of veteran’s
preference in hiring and termination.
She stated that there are two ways to proceed with this and the school
must decide on one of the methods. One
is to construct a rubric based on a scale of 100 points in hiring
teachers. Veterans would get 10 more
points than non-veterans. The other method is to interview all candidates who
identify themselves as veterans. They
then would be in the same position as all other candidates. It was moved by Swanson that we interview all
veterans and put all candidates on the same level. Motion was seconded by Palmquist. Motion carried.
7.M. Board Training Letter to MDE. Quarnstrom brought
up the requirement by MDE that requires new board members to attend training
within six months of service
on a school board. She
responded to MDE by pointing out that the present offerings for training were
not adequate. She is sure that MDE will
eventually provide on-site training once an approval process for vendors is
obtained. All board members expressed a desire to be trained but trainings need
to be made available on a variety of dates, due to schedules of board members
and cost for them losing work time.
7.N. Special Education Monitoring. Quarnstrom
reported that the monitoring date for special education at Wolf Creek in
October was cancelled. When a new date
is established Quarnstrom will report the new date to the board.
7.O. New Charter Law Updates. Quarnstrom reported that MACS
is offering a service whereby they will look at our bylaws and take note of any
non-compliance to the new charter school law.
It was generally applauded by the board as a great service. Quarnstrom will follow up on the review with
MACS as soon as possible and bring results back to the board.
7.P. Update from iNACOL Conference Quarnstrom, Swanson and Stull attended an iNACOL conference in Texas last week. They reported a great conference. Especially noteworthy was the emphasis of the conference on online schools having a physical presence or campus, where students can connect with teachers and other learning helps. Since Wolf Creek is that kind on online school, our representatives at the conference were considered “highly innovative” for being leaders in that concept of online learning.
8. Communications
Three
communications were included in the board packet. An article on “Race to the Top”, an article
from MACS on charter school populations and the MN 20/20 report on charter
schools were discussed.
9. Other
Emily Stull submitted a request for maternity leave starting about the week of February 15th and concluding within a week of April 5th. A motion was made by Palmquist to grant her request; Flint seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Palmquist submitted a request for donated crock pots again to be used in conjunction with her crock pot cooking class. She is asking that the crock pots be donated by January 1.
The next Wolf Creek Online High School board meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. at Wolf Creek. The meeting was adjourned at 5:17 pm with a motion by Swanson and a second by Plocher. Meeting adjourned.
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Chair, Tom Plocher Date