Board of Education Planning Session (Tuesday, June 6, 2023)

Generated by Nikkol Sipes on Monday, June 19, 2023

Members present
Tim Daugharty, Zen Kelly, Virginia Morgan, Matt Morse, Beverley Romanin, Jason Tauriainen, Patti Truesdell, Penny Vadla, Debbie Cary

Meeting called to order at 12:58 PM

1. Planning Sessions

Discussion, Information: A. Four Day Work Week Discussion

Questions/comments:
How does it affect younger children
Length of the school day needing to be increased
How does it affect student performance-need to find what works for KPBSD due to varied results on student performance.
Is there a net positive?
Quality of life for teachers could positively impact students.
1/2 day work week and inservice for teachers and staff
Extending the school length? rather than the day length?
What about Child care?
What about students in need of intervention?
Attracting teachers and staff? Or otherwise.
OCS referrals occur most of the time at home. What kind of stress does that put on families? Do families have more time to spend together?
Bullying reduction? Where do these students spend their time on their off day?
Day off opportunity to engage with community partnerships and volunteer or spend time with elders.
What about support staff how does it impact them?
Are there measures that we can implement this and see the results?
Student Nutrition Services.
Absenteeism in the schools, how does it affect?
Popular with staff most likely.
Concern with elementary students and child care.
Small communities advantage.
Consider the students with disabilities and consider their needs through out the school week.
Encourage family input.
Different needs at different schools due to diversity in the district.
Ideas:
Reach out to the community, parents & staff- surveys etc.
Group Discussions:
1. Paul Thompson articles: helps to understand the data and how it is desegregated and how will that affect KPBSD what is the KPBSD student population made up of? Small Schools benefit from the 4 day work week and KPBSD schools could be considered small even the largest.
sufficient data shows test scores are even or increasing in rural or small communities.
2. Last article on the list Proof Points Seven impacts: Difference between small towns and rural community results.
How does this affect students would be affected in small and large communities. Cast system possibility? Drastic positives but also drastic negatives?
3. Rand Blog & journalist resource: cumulative regressions could be similar to those seen during the pandemic. Was this due to the 4 day school week or is it due to some other variable? Savings in cost not substantial in the article. Inequitable funding and teacher stress.
Adding time to a day rather than extending the school year.
Ideas adding less time per day. And there may not be so much push back to longer days if the whole year there were 4 days of work/school and 3 day weekends.
4. PowerPoint from Hanover Four day calendar change overview: Potential scenarios in the KPBSD and thinking about a community and what the potential effects could be on these communities. Instructional time is lost. Concerns about individual families and childcare, and social emotional learning the school adds. State of Alaska has a requirement for number of days. How many days do teachers and staff work? If there was implementation could KPBSD use pilot programs and what schools can be used as models to implement to the whole district.
What is the ultimate purpose of the 4 day work week? Cost, student achievement, staff etc??
4 day work week Mr. Graham:
Rural district in Montana looking at absences especially in relation to sports. Why are you changing to a 4 day school week. Mon-Thurs. no away games Mon-Thurs. They didn't want to lose any instructional time.
The community must be heavily involved.
No substantial saving costs.
The students if struggling could come in on Fridays (or the off day) to get caught up.
The students didn't want to have the four day work week since it was so rural and would have to go and work on the farm/ranch.
Not so much of a child care issue.
Monthly community meetings to discuss implementation for 18 months.
What did the district look like:
Teachers worked the off day or made it a half day.
Added hours to the day first year.
Next year extended the school year.
Next Steps-
Clearly define why implement:
Cost
Staff
Student achievement

Discussion, Information: B. Review 2022-2023 Board Self Evaluation

Quarterly evaluation: Look at the strategic plan and have discussions to ensure that the "living document" or "clear path" is being adhered to.
Quarterly evaluation: Goal revisits. Have a Laminated Board Goals for each member and admin at their desks to adhere to and revisit these each meeting. Laminated strategic plan?
Connect everything that the Board does back to the strategic plan-Legislative Priorities, Board Goals.
Communicate where to find out the Board Meetings. (maybe website? advertisement?)
Convey a more central message when communicating to the public, and better communication.
Communicating during Board Meetings: Try to be more succinct during Board Comments.
Be more transparent to the community. How can we reach more people in the community?
Smaller meeting settings are desired to have productive and meaningful conversations. Move tables down to the Chambers to have more intimate conversations.
Testifying during meetings, how can we ask them more information from the public or ask a clarifying question to gather more information from them.
Policy process overview- make it more clear for the public. Maybe make BoardDocs more accessible.
**Introduction on the policy committee script regarding the process or where you can find the overview.
Can we take a break after public/student comment to talk with them to ask questions.

Discussion, Information: C. Review 2022-2023 Board Goals

Ms. Truesdell left the work sessions at 1:15 p.m.

Discussion, Information: D. Develop 2023-2024 Board Goals

Daugharty: Political process to get funding for the District.
Romanin: Have the Board be as supportive to the district as possible. Primarily funding but also policy. Inform the community and public about advocating funding. Talking with and meeting with legislatures????
Tauriainen: Focus on funding as a primary focus.
Morgan: What does the district administration need for support from the Board.
Ms. Dendurent: STATEWIDE BSA marketing campaign through school board members talking with other school Board members.
State Board collaboration for increase in funding.
Adjourned the work session at 3:01 p.m.
Mr. Kelly left the meeting at 2:38 p.m.

2. Planning Sessions Video

Information: A. Planning Sessions Video