February 27, 2017 at 6:30 PM - Regular

Description:  Demuth, Habben, Hesse, Humbert, Schurman, and Wesenberg. 

Student Members:  Lisa Volkers, Tayler Dingmann, and Nick Warne.

Description:  The School Board Chair will lead the board and attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Description:  Board action to approve the agenda for the meeting is expected.

Description:  The agenda is open to visitors of the meeting to offer comments to and/or requests of the school board. The comments and requests should follow the adopted district guidelines which are printed and available at the meeting.  As a general rule, items introduced in the opportunity for comments and requests do not receive action from the School Board, but are taken under advisement or consideration for future action.

Description:  February 20-24 is designated as School Board Recognition Week in Minnesota.  The district did not have a school board meeting during that week, but will honor school board members for their service during the meeting of February 27.

Description:  Student board members have opportunity to share information about the activities of the Student Senate or other comments as they desire.

Description:  This agenda item is intended to be a formal opportunity for the School Board and its members to recognize and celebrate success within the ROCORI School District.  Most of the recognition comes in the form of ROCORI Proud presentations although the recognition is not limited to that format.

Description:  This ROCORI Proud recognition is intended to represent exemplary performance that is completed or accomplished at a high standard. The ROCORI District expects to be central Minnesota's public education standard of excellence. Behaviors, effort, and performance demonstrating that high standard is worthy of recognition.

Description:  Derek Thompson became ROCORI's newest basketball player to record at least 1000 points during his high school playing career.  

Description:  The ROCORI Vex Robotics team has been very successful during its competition.  ROCORI had several teams qualify for state competition and advance through the competition.  Vex Robotics team members who qualified for the competition include:  Brett Bartell, Gaege Bechtold Schaefer, Caleb Donat, Nick Drew, Sam Drew, Caleb Fuchs, Daren Guerrero, Alex Heinen, Brisa Hendricks-Soanes, Joselyn Hoyt, David Hutar, Michael Arceneau, Ellie Ruhland, Griffin Lessinger, Adam McDonald, Jayden Pikula, Hayden Prill, Leah Ring, Alex Ryan, Brady Schafer, Chase Schulzetenberg, Tucker Smith, Chaz Steinhofer, Joshua Symanietz, Dylan Voigt, Stephen Warne, Giannah Schramel, Hunter Mann.

Description:  Nick Warne set a new school record during the 2016-2017 wrestling season when he recorded his 157th career win.  

Description:  This recognition is intended to represent actions and behaviors that improve conditions, have significant impact on others, or dramatically affect the school district, individuals or organizations within the school system.

Description:  This award is intended to recognize actions and behaviors which provide a foundation for the future of individuals or organizations within the district. Long-lasting changes, major innovations, or significant work on the direction of the school district are appropriate elements for recognition. Elements of district vision, anticipation of issues in the future or other improvements which "create a better tomorrow" would be eligible for recognition.

Description:  Action is requested on the following items of the consent agenda. Consent agenda items are typically adopted without discussion of the individual items because they are routine or ordinary in action.  Any consent agenda item may be removed for further discussion and deliberation by any member of the board.

Description:  The minutes from the Regular and Work Session meetings of February 13, 2017 are included in the exhibits. Recommend approval of the minutes from the meetings.

Description:  Brianna Koltes is being recommended to fill the 5th grade Elementary position at John Clark Elementary.  This position opened with the retirement of Jeanne Burtzel.  Jeanne will complete her service to the district on March 10.  Brianna is expected to start with the district on March 6.  Recommend approval of the hiring of Brianna Koltes.

Description:  Aaron Pilarski, Buildings and Grounds Director, has indicated that he has been offered a Buildings and Grounds Director position in another district.  He is expected to submit a letter of resignation with an effective date of February 28, 2017. Recommend acceptance of the resignation.

Description:  This would be the third and final reading of Policy #1-6 School Attorney, #2-8 Policy Development, and #4-3 Fund Balance.  Recommend adoption of the policies as presented.

Description:  The district has received a notice from Education Minnesota--ROCORI of its intent to negotiate a teacher employment master agreement.  The current agreement expires June 30, 2017, and the association desires to negotiate with the district to establish an agreement for 2017-2019.  Recommend acknowledgement of the letter.

Description:  There are several standing items of business related to financial reports in the district. The standard agenda items are included at this time.

Description:  Board Treasurer Jason Wesenberg will review financial information for the board.  Approval of Treasurer’s Report is recommended.

Description:  Treasurer Wesenberg will review the monthly bills and offer recommendation regarding payment. The Treasurer has typically been at the school site to review bills, ask questions, and confirm information prior to the meeting.  Recommendation is to offer approval of bill payment as directed by the Treasurer.

Description:  The business office provides an update of district expenditures and revenues through the Budget Comparison Report.The report is intended to provide a financial picture of the district in a couple ways.One is to compare current year expenditures to the previous year.The second is to simply give a report on the current financial status.In addition to the report, special items of note are highlighted in the explanations offered. This report does not require formal action but is provided as an informational item.

Description:  Action items receive individual attention because of the nature of the issues, the need to discuss or review the information prior to taking action, or the specific kind of action required for the item.

Description:  The ROCORI School District has been receiving Integration and Achievement funding for the last couple school years as part of the greater St. Cloud Integration District.  The members of the consortium work together to plan broad goals and direction for the entire group.  Within the Integration resources, each school district is required to complete a program plan to follow.  

A team of academic leaders has been working to develop the ROCORI grant application.  Primary leaders have been Malea Bergeson and Jen Lessinger.  Jen Sabol has recently helped to coordinate the final steps of the grant development process.  The team has worked with Beth Bertram in effort to maximize the use of A&I resources to support programs within the district.  

Jen Sabol is expected to be present to share information about the grant application and the structure of the grant.  The grant is consistent with consortium parameters but also framed to meet needs within the ROCORI District.

Recommend approval of the Integration grant application and budget.  The approval commits the ROCORI District to the structure and processes for the next two years.

Description:  After establishing lacrosse as a district activity, the Activities Department has received a number of inquiries about the program and many questions about whether or not ROCORI would be willing to enter into a cooperative arrangement for the program.  

A number of the inquiries came from parents or students rather than from other school districts.These students had participated in the lacrosse program when it was a club-status activity but was not under the rules of the MSHSL.  Part of the approval process moved the ROCORI team under the MSHSL rules and jurisdiction.  As such, individual students cannot be simply "grandfathered" into the program unless a cooperative arrangement is made with other school districts.

ROCORI has received a formal request from the New London-Spicer School District to enter into a cooperative agreement for lacrosse.  Although the initial intent and desire of ROCORI was to establish an independent team, without a cooperative arrangement, discussions between the two districts have unfolded.  In the discussions, Activity Director Joel Baumgarten has been very clear that a cooperative agreement would be beneficial to both NL-S and ROCORI in establishing the program but that it is expected to be an arrangement lasting for about two years.  It is expected that the ROCORI program would operate independently from a cooperative setting by the year 2019.

Administrators from New London-Spicer have put together documents formally requesting a cooperative program with ROCORI.  Although the NL-S board is expecting to approve a formal resolution at the same time as the ROCORI School Board meeting, our district typically takes action on the arrangement itself.  

As such, it is recommended that the cooperative agreement between New London-Spicer and ROCORI be approved.  Approval would include the expectation that the cooperative arrangement would be experimental in nature and extended for a two-year period of time (covering the 2017 and 2018 lacrosse seasons) with the likelihood of ROCORI operating independently from that time forward.

Description:  With the resignation from Aaron Pilarski effective February 28, 2017, Ken Kraemer has agreed to act as our interim Building and Grounds Director until a replacement can be hired and during the transition period.

Recommend approval of the contract for Interim Building and Grounds Director.

Description:  Discussion items receive individual attention because of the nature of the issues and the need for introductory or other discussion in order to review the information prior to taking action.  This is also the agenda location for items which simply need school board review, but no formal action on the item is required.  Discussion items will typically return to the agenda at a future point for more specific action.

Description:  The Policy Committee has met to review some of the policies referred to Committee.  Work on the policies has resulted in modifications to a couple policies while committee work will continue with other policies.  The committee has revised policies and is submitting them to the full board for a first reading. These two policies have not come before the board in the same fashion as our new approach; both came to the policy committee by other referral.  The committee has reviewed the two policies and is recommending the revisions be considered by the full board as a first reading.  If additional work is not required or expected, these policies would return at the next meeting for a second reading for additional review and then in the meeting that follows be placed under the consent agenda for a third and final reading.  No formal action is required at this meeting as it is the first reading of the policies.

Description:  At the last two meetings, the parameters and assumptions used to guide the budget development process were introduced and reviewed by the School Board.  The information from the budget assumptions has been reviewed within the Business Office and processed in regard to impact or effect on the budget.  

The Finance Committee is expected to review the same information prior to the meeting on Monday in order to offer a recommendation to the full board.  It is important that a projection model be accepted so that budget targets can be pursued and that the Business Office may begin to develop the FY2018 budget in earnest.

Administration, in effort to be somewhat conservative but also follow the desires of the Finance Committee, is recommending that the budget project based on 2026 students and 1% state funding be used as the budget base for FY18.

Description:  Members of the ROCORI School District community have been engaged in conversations with the School Board and district administrators over the last calendar year regarding efforts to address the needs of students experiencing dyslexia.  The district has made significant efforts to learn more about and develop approaches to assisting students with dyslexia.  Although plans and programs are still being developed, recent questions have encouraged this update in the agenda.

Details of the district approach are still in the process of unfolding.  However, it can be noted that the district supported teacher training in the summer of 2016 by making available resources to support training in the Barton method.  Decisions were made to send two staff members to training in Orton-Gillingham approaches.  The two teachers have recently returned from training and are beginning to have conversations within the district about how it will relate to Tiered Interventions, student support, and applications for core classroom instruction.

In addition, other training opportunities have occurred across the district for all school staff.  Sessions focusing on instructional approaches for students with dyslexia have been part of district inservice including sessions at the district Academy Day.

Information from professional trainings has been shared with other teachers in individual, small group, and larger group settings.  Staff members who have received training are willing, and expected, to share their information in a broader manner.  The district teams of instructional staff are working out methods of deploying the information they have learned and gathered.

No action is required as this item is informational in nature.

Description:  Administrative reports are requested of each administrator for update purposes. For the second meeting, the reports are offered by the Business Cabinet members. 

Description:  Superintendent Staska is expected to have a report for the board regarding district activities and information.

Description:  Board members will report on activities within their portfolio of committee and representative assignments.

Description:  A calendar of upcoming issues of concern to the school board is included as part of the agenda.