Vermilion Country School

VERMILION COUNTRY SCHOOL

REGULAR BOARD MINUTES

Thursday, Nov 17th, 2016

5:00pm, VCS

Board Members Present: Kristal Strong, Muriel Scott, Jodi Summit, Joan Dostert, Karin Schmidt, TJ Pohl

Board Members Not Present:

Also Present: Kevin Fitton

AGENDA ITEM / SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION/ACTION / PERSON(S) RESPONSIBLE/
DATE DUE
1. Call Meeting
a. Roll Call
b. Introduction of Guests
c. Review and Approve Agenda /

Kristal, Muriel, Jodi, Joan, Karin, Kevin
Erin Anderson, Audubon
Motion to Approve Muriel, Joan 2nd, All in favor.

2. Public Input and Announcements
Please fill out request form and turn in to chair before meeting begins.
3. Consent Agenda – These are routine items that can be voted upon by a single motion. Any board member can request items be moved to the regular agenda for separate consideration. / 3A – Approval of Minutes: Motion for Consent Agenda – Motion to Approve Joan, 2nd Karin- all yes

Oct 27 Board Minutes
Nov 3 Personnel Minutes

3B – Letter of Support for Main Street. This is for the board to give their support to the Main Street project to help them with securing grants. There is no obligation for the school and a letter of support will be drafted upon approval. Admin recommends yes.
3C – Approval to hire, Gary Culbert as substitute custodian and activity space supervisor. This is to have someone available to fill in for Doug as he will be out for about three weeks in the wintertime and as someone to help activity Fridays in monitoring spaces like the shop. Admin recommends yes.
4. Information/Discussion Items / 4A - Open Campus – Discussion was held on the school’s open campus policy. Current policy was that students were not allowed off campus during the day, unless on school business. Students 18 or older are allowed to sign themselves in and out of school. Kevin reported that students have found a loophole by having parents write notes giving permission for their children to leave during lunch. Issues were discussed including school liability, school reputation, and fewer numbers of students eating lunch at school. Also, since school is on the outskirts of town, really nowhere to easily walk back and forth during the lunch period. Muriel made motion to go back to 18 only to leave campus, Joan 2nd. We will send a letter home for parents that explain that we are building a community here and need our students on campus during the school day. Also we want to encourage interaction with community members who come to school for senior dining, etc. Staff noted that today was awesome during lunchtime because kids were helping and were happy. Great turnout for the Thanksgiving lunch meal.
MOTION: Closed campus to all under 18.
Motion: Muriel, 2nd Joan, Kristal abstained, everyone else in favor of closing campus for all under 18.
4B - Strategic Planning – Jodi spoke about working with the board and staff to draft a “Vision into Action” statement for the school, based on a workshop from a charter school leader who was at Audubon retreat. This will show the parents, staff, and students a clear vision as to what the school stands for and direction school is going.
What do we want our school to look like, feel like, and mean as a community? Update our mission statement to reflect where we are now. Discuss goals and how we are going to meet out goals.
Kristal reflected on Essentia Health mission statement, how they review in evaluations about how one is meeting the mission statement’s purpose.
Jodi will bring a copy of a sample, and then set up a plan for working on our school’s draft version.
5. Board Training / Audubon is putting together an online group for board training. $300 to join and Audubon will pay half the cost. Jodi volunteered to sign up and Friends will pay the fee. Jodi would then bring the information to the rest of the board.
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6. Financials / Oct financials tabled to next month due to early meeting date.
7. School Committee Updates and Reports / Personnel – (Kevin Fitton) Most of the job descriptions have been revised and given to Jodi to review. Evaluation process has been discussed and will be decided at the next personnel meeting.
SpEd – new students coming in and many of them are from Mesabi East
Operations (Finance, Facilities, Marketing, and Technology) – (Kevin Fitton) - Still waiting on the new stove from the grant. If we do not get our stove after break, we will pick a different stove.
ACDC (Academics, Culture, and Discipline Committee) - Discipline issues, math needs, replacing Project Foundry with JMC for student transcripts
Staff/PLC – (Kevin Fitton) – short meetings; looking at math for all students, looking at data and schedules.
Student Achievement and Environmental Progress – report section with more elaborate and detailed information about student achievement and environmental progress. Karin question regarding Potter’s Field- she will contact Jayne Sundeen, who is digitizing all the records to request the information.
Other environmental programs students are doing: Vermilion Community College students coming to work with our kids – canoeing; DNR working with us on sustainable garden and greenhouse; Marnie from 1854 Treaty planning programs on natural resources; Friday journal projects on natural science and phenology.
8. COMMITTEE REPORTS
Finance Committee
Facility Committee
Personnel Committee / Did not meet this month
Did not meet this month
Looked at updating job descriptions to match current duties.
9. Next Meeting / Next Regular Board Meeting: Thursday Dec, 15th, 2016. 5:00pm VCS *Note, moved up due to holiday.
Motion to support John Soghigian’s mental health agenda – Joan, 2nd Karin, All in favor.
10. Adjournment / Motion to Adjourn – Muriel, 2nd Karin, All in favor.