We received copies of the Demographic Study of the district from SchoolFinances.com last week and board members have had a chance to review the document.  We will review some of the main findings in the report at this meeting, but will not go into great detail.
Ann Thomas and Jim Sheehan will be present at our regular board meeting on 5/28 to go through the report and answer any questions that the board may have about it's contents.

A copy of the Five Year Capital plan is attached to this item for your review.  The items listed under the 2013-14 school year are projects as submitted by Dir. Of Bldg & Grounds Jeff Heine.  While there are no individually large items on the list for next year, the cumulative total is still significant at just over $200,000.  We will review the list of items and try to establish priorities for next year that work within our budget.  I will work with Mr. Heine to finalize the list of priorities to bring back a final proposal on May 28.
I have also attached a copy of this year's Operating Capital Budget that reflects our current year site/grounds budget of $74,000 for your review.

In current statute, school districts are required to develop a principal evaluation process that will include student academic growth and survey data as part of a scoring rubric used in the evaluation tool. I have met with our district principals and we have discussed the new requirements as well as our current evaluation model (we currently do not use academic growth or survey data as part of the process).  We have revised our current model to include the state requirements while maintaining our core belief that the evaluation process is more about administrator growth and professional development than it is a final score on a rubric.
We believe the proposed model that we are sharing with you will meet the requirement of current state legislation while continuing to allow us to focus on professional development.  I will go through the proposed model at the work session so all are clear on the components of the model.
As a side note, we have had several meetings with teachers and administrators regarding the new teacher evaluation process that must be in place for the 14-15 school year. Again, we are working on modifying our current process to meet the current state requirements in an effort to have a model for us to try throughout next school year and then make any desired modifications before the 14-15 school year when it is mandated to begin.  (Currently there is debate at the legislature about delaying the implementation of the teacher evaluation mandate by one year - we are following the progress of those discussions but still feel it is prudent to move forward  with our process.)

As you may recall, we will be required by federal food service regulations to raise our meal prices over the next couple of years until our meal price average equals the federal reimbursement level for a free meal (currently that reimbursement level is $2.59).  That will require a $.10 increase on both the elementary and secondary prices for next year bringing them to $1.90 for elementary and $2.05 for secondary.  In addition, the adult meal recommendation is to increase the cost by $.25 to $3.50 per meal.  In spite of the proposed increases for this coming year, we still continue to have some of the lowest prices for our school food service meals in the area.
I will have a request for approval of these new meal prices at our regular May meeting.

A number of new policy revisions have just been submitted by MSBA.  I have selected the first 5 revised policies for review this month.  They are:  203.5 - School Board Meeting Agenda; 205 - Open Meetings and Closed Meetings; 405 - Veteran's Preference; 406 - Public and Private Personnel Data; 407 - Employee Right to Know - Exposure to Hazardous Substances.
In addition, we will have the 3rd Reading of Policy 807 - Health & Safety at our May meeting.

At last month's work session, Mr. Wick spoke about our current state of technology in the district.  I would like to continue that discussion on Monday night, but begin by speaking to what we are expecting to change in our classrooms and with our students as we continue to implement technology into our classrooms and curriculum.  I am working on a presentation for Monday night and will post it as an attachment to this item as it is completed.  My goal is to lay our transition to 21st Century Learning Skills of Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity and innovation and how we can move forward in that direction with the assistance of technology tools.

Tuesday, May 28 –   5:30  Finance Committee Mtg.
                                 6:00  Regular Board Mtg.
Sunday, June 2 -      2:00  Graduation
Monday, June 10  -   7:00 School Board Work Session
Monday, June 24  -   6:30 Finance Committee Mtg.
                                  7:00 Regular Board Mtg.