Work SessionAugust 30, 2006

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UintaCountySchool DistrictNumber One

Work Session

Board of Trustees

August 30, 2006

A Work Session was held by the Board of Trustees for Uinta County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the EducationalServiceCenter, 537 Tenth Street, Evanston, Wyoming, on the 30th day of August, 2006. Notice of said meeting was published in the Public Notice Section of the August 25 and 29, 2006 issues of the Uinta County Herald.

1.Open Meeting–Vice Chairman Martin noted a quorum present and called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Board Members present were Mike Davis, Kendra West, Bob Faddis, Kim Bateman, Linda Cummings,Orrin Martin and Sherry Johnson.

Superintendent Wilson, Asst. Superintendents James Bailey and Ryan Thomas, along with other district staff and community members were present. There were approximately 15 in attendance.

  1. Uinta #1 BOCESAgreement – Dennis Boal, the attorney hired to review and work on modifications to the wording on the original agreement, handed out copies of the latest draft agreement. It included the original agreement along with the proposed wording changes for each section. Mr. Boal went through each of the changes and explained what it means to the BOCES and the school district. The changes in the agreement put this board in the drivers seat to the full extent, brings more people into the discussion and allows more input from administration, which he feels is a good thing. It also sets up for the groups to meet on quarterly basis. Mrs. Cummings asked the other board members how much time they are willing to put into talking about the BOCES programs, as the changes in this agreement have this board setting the goals for the BOCES, which will take a considerable amount of time. Ms. Bateman stated she is willing to put in the time and there will need to be some work sessions devoted to BOCES and setting goals. The board asked Mr. Boal to do some wording changes on the section pertaining to procedures for establishment of additional services. Right now it states that both boards have to approve any additional services, and the board would like to provide services as long as it stays in alignment and compliance with the set goals, even if WWCC does not approved the additional service. Mr. Boal reviewed section 11 in detail, as the wording came from WWCC and is all new to the agreement. He touched on areas of concern he has in the wording/language. He handed out a copy of wording he put together for this section as the other is from WWCC and not from BOCES or the school district.He feels this section still needs some work. Mr. Boal will make the changes presented tonight and get a copy to board members next week. He wants the board to come up with an agreement they can be happy with and he will then present it to WWCC. Mrs. Bateman commented that she has gotten a lot out of this discussion and feels it was very positive.
  1. Skill Based Pay System – James Bailey, Asst. Superintendent for Instruction, discussed the progress being made on the skills based pay system. He reviewed the handout showing the teaching standards rubrics and the descriptors in each of the 4 categories (entry level, emerging professional, advanced professional, accomplished professional) and 4 domains (content knowledge, student learning strategies, creating environment for learning, professionalism). The committee is currently going through the entire rubric in order to set rules for identifying where each teacher will be placed on the rubric. He explained how the evaluation process will work each year. Because we have a large group of younger staff and a large group of senior staff, there will be an “opt-in”, “opt-out” for those at the end of their teaching career that might not benefit as well from the new system. It is a critical time to implement this program with the large number of young teaching staff we have. For the pilot program, there are 29 staff members who have volunteered so far. There are some areas that are not yet covered, so we will be asking for volunteers to fill those. He talked about the trainingthat will be provided for those participating in the pilot program. He plans to discuss preliminary schedules, rules of movement and school based performance awards with the board at the next meeting. He will also be asking for permission from the board in September to go through with the pilot program and adopt the performance standards. We currently have 70 staff members bottomed out at BA+45 on the salary schedule and will have 92 next year. By encouraging individuals to get a master’s degree, this provides more staff that can teach con-current enrollment classes. He talked about variance pay for schools that improve and meet their goals.

Dr. Bailey talked briefly about the gifted and talented programs he is working on. There are also discussions taking place in principal meetings about what they are doing at the building level.

Superintendent Wilson informed the board that enrollment is up 135 students from last year. He gave an update on the new sidewalk project at UME. He will be leaving for Kazakhstan sometime in mid September to finalize an adoption his family is working on. He will be gone approximately three weeks.

  1. Adjourn–There being no further business to come before the meeting, Mrs. West moved to adjourn, second by Mr. Davis, motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 9:18 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Cheri Dunford