OFFICIAL MINUTES OF
THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE MOUNTAIN HOME BOARD
OF EDUCATION
The following members of the Board were present for the meeting: Bob
Byrd, Mark Hollingsworth, James Madison, Neal Pendergrass, Linda Pitts, and Scott
Smith. Administrators, media and other
guests were also present. Mr.
Pendergrass called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Mr. Hollingsworth made a motion, seconded by Mr. Madison, to approve
the agenda as presented.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Mr. Byrd made a motion, seconded by Dr. Smith, to approve the minutes
of the regular meeting of December 16 and special meetings of December 16 and
December 21, 2004.
The motion was unanimously approved.
PRESENTATIONS
Report from McPherson &
Jacobson LLC
Mr. Pendergrass called on Mr. Bobby Lester and Dr. Tony Prothro
representatives from McPherson & Jacobson the superintendent search
consultants to come and address the Board.
Mr. Lester said they certainly enjoyed themselves during the time they
spent in Mountain Home last week. The
gave the Board members a copy of the interview questions and asked them to look
over the questions, add, delete, comment on any of the questions. These are your interview questions. Mr. Lester said they wanted to be sure to do
anything that the Board asked them to do.
After all interview questions have been turned back into Mr. Lester, he
will compile about 25 questions for the Board to use during the interviews of
each of the candidates for the new superintendent. He then talked with the Board about the procedures that will be
used during the interview process which is scheduled for March 7-11. He stated the Board would want to be as
consistent as they can be with each person who is interviewed. There are certain questions that should not
be asked during the interviews and Mr. Lester went over these with the Board
members. He said most of these types of
questions will be answered when the background checks are done on each applicant. The interview schedule for March 7-11 was
handed out. Mr. Lester explained the
focus groups, after their interview with each candidate, will respond to a
couple of questions. The questions are
what strengths did this applicant show and also did you see anything about this
applicant that you might question. The
responses from each focus group will be given to the Board that night after
they have formally interviewed the candidate.
This process will give the Board some quality input from the citizens,
administrators, teachers, support staff and students.
Dr. Prothro gave the Board members some superintendent salary
information. This information included
the five school districts in Arkansas with enrollments just above Mountain Home
and the five school districts in Arkansas with enrollments just below Mountain
Home. He said the average of these
salaries is $115,625. The Board may
want to consider dropping the highest salary and the lowest salary from the
list and the average would then be $114,638.
Dr. Prothro said the higher the salary the easier it is to recruit
someone, but they are not trying to tell the Board to raise the
superintendent’s salary. What they are
doing is giving the Board accurate information so that the Board can make a decision
based on the accurate information. Dr.
Prothro then reported to the Board on the results of the meetings with the
different focus groups. They met with
high school student council members, support staff personnel, teachers, central
office staff, principals and assistant principals and even held a community
forum. This was one of the most
pleasant experiences they have had. He
said it was very refreshing to have an experience such as this and they were
impressed with the participation of all groups. They asked each focus group three questions. The questions were: tell us the good things
about your community and school district, what are the characteristics, skills,
and qualities the new superintendent will need to be successful here, and what
are some of the challenges the new superintendent should be aware of in order
to hit the ground running. Dr. Prothro
shared with the Board members the focus groups responses to these questions. The Board members thanked Mr. Lester and Dr.
Prothro for their time and input.
POSITIVE NOTES
Mr. Hollingsworth recognized Mountain Home teachers Patty Marion,
Shelli Jones and Betty Braswell who received honors from the State Board of
Workforce Education. The teachers were
noted as pioneers in bringing innovative curriculum to Arkansas High Schools in
implementing Computer Applications I, II, and III.
Mr. Byrd congratulated the Junior High quiz bowlers who won the Quiz
Bowl tournament at the Educational Co-op in Melbourne in December, vying
against 21 other teams. Team members
are 9th graders Alyssa Andres, Brandi Bowers and Matt Smith and 8th
graders Dustin Horton, Devin Griffin, Bobby Howard and William Rhodes.
Dr. Smith recognized the Bomber swim team who took the first place
trophy at the Snowball Swim Meet at Jacksonville. Members of the team are Eric Robbins, Nathan Rosencotter, Kyle
Markowski, Eric Normandy, Chris Howard, Zach Bogart, Jake Eickman, Drew Keaster,
and Casey Stack.
Mr. Madison said Rebecca Wise and Kristen Melson competed in the
Oklahoma State University Winter Bonanza recently. Ms. Wise took a first place with her shorthorn heifer and Ms.
Melson took a fourth and a second with two different animals and won the
reserve grand champion steer award with her Angus bred steer. Congratulations!
Mrs. Pitts stated the Henry County, Tennessee school district sent 22
teachers and administrators to visit MHHS to learn how we actualize the small
learning community concept through our Career Academies. They were very impressed and are coming back
with their superintendent and selected staff.
This is the 6th time our high school has hosted another
school interested in learning from us about academies.
Mr. Pendergrass recognized nineteen MHHS band students who qualified
for all-region band at the competition last week-end and four of those
performed well enough to garner a tryout for All-State. Those four are Jenne Hibbs (flute), Sara
Nelson and Rebecca Knight (clarinet) and Chris Milner (trombone).
Mr. Hollingsworth said the third graders in Mrs. Carol Copeland’s class
spent two weeks doing extra chores at home and earned over $100.00 which they
donated to the Salvation Army. The
money will be sent to the tsunami relief effort.
BOARD ACTION ITEMS
Community Center Lease
Mr. Singleton recommended the Board approve a one year lease with the
Oakland Community Center located on Highway 62 East under the same terms and conditions
as the current lease.
Motion on Community Center
Lease
Mrs. Pitts made a motion, seconded by Mr. Madison, to accept the
Superintendent’s recommendation to approve a one year lease under the same terms
and conditions as the current lease with the Oakland Community Center.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Resolution for MH Education
Foundation
Mr. Singleton recommended the Board approve the proposed resolution for
the MH Education Foundation. He said he
had talked with MH Education Foundation members Ted Sanders and Sandy Irby and
they both recommended the Board pass a resolution authorizing the Foundation to
receive, distribute and administer all gifts and bequests for scholarships to
the MH School District, and further authorizes such transfers by the District
to the Foundation for the purpose of administering and distributing of
scholarships.
Motion on Resolution for MH
Education Foundation
Mrs. Pitts made a motion, seconded by Dr. Smith, to approve the MH
Education Foundation resolution as presented by Mr. Singleton.
The motion was unanimously approved.
.
Elementary Textbook Selection
Committee
Dr. Quinn explained the State of Arkansas does not ask for the local
boards to approve the textbooks which are selected, but they do ask the local
board to approve the textbook selection committee. The K-8 selection committee will consist of three members, Vicki
Brantly, Literacy Specialist, Teacher Martha Wedgeworth from
Nelson-Wilks-Herron, and Teacher Beth Coley from Guy Berry Intermediate
School. Dr. Quinn asked the Board to
approve these individuals as the K-8 Textbook Selection Committee. He said that reading and language arts are
the two big adoptions being worked on right now.
Motion on Elementary Textbook
Selection Committee
Mr. Madison made a motion, seconded by Mr. Hollingsworth, to approve
the Elementary Textbook Selection Committee (grades K-8) of Vicki Brantly,
Martha Wedgeworth and Beth Coley.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Superintendent’s
Update and Board Discussion
Mr. Singleton asked Mr. Mike Walker to report
to the Board members on the facility study reports. Mr. Walker said the good news about the report is nothing in our
district has to be taken care of immediately.
The report was conducted in the summer of 2004 and was based on the
standards provided by the RS means facility cost data that is generated across
the United States in school districts.
This study was conducted by approximately 300 architects, engineers,
design, facility needs people. Mr.
Walker told the Board members this is an assessment report not a repair or
master plan for the school district. This
assessment looks at deficiencies, life cycle costs, and compares them with
standards so that we can develop relative needs in the state and compare these school
district needs. This information can be
used to help develop a repair program or a district plan, but in itself is just
an assessment. Mr. Walker said the
report had priorities one – four, with one being the highest priority, the
first thing you would want to address.
Mr. Singleton explained when the people doing
the assessment were on site, if they had found anything that would be a danger
to students or a safety issue, they would have immediately contacted the
superintendent or district person in charge of buildings. They did not notice anything like this in
our district. When the report was
presented on the Senate floor, the comment was made better terminology could
have been used. Priority one is safe
and dry. Category two is the items
which left undone will cause further deterioration. Mr. Singleton explained some about the interpretation of the
report. The process at this time is the
data has been collected and now the legislature will go through and set the
standard. Mr. Walker said he would also
make the lifecycle report available to the Board members and also a report Mrs.
Arnold had done. The legislature will
have to come up with a funding source and the most difficult, Mr. Singleton
said in his opinion, is they will also have to come up with some type of
screening process that will not only be adequate but equitable. Mr. Walker said he felt much better after
attending the meeting at the state level where they explained this report was
not a repair report, but information that can be used to help develop a repair
program. Mr. Singleton encouraged Board
members to look over the report and give Mr. Walker a call with any questions
they might have. It will probably be a
month or two before the legislature really gets into the report.
Mr. Byrd referred to a report from the
athletic director, Mrs. Wood, concerning the space in the high school gym above
the concession stand. Mr. Byrd asked if
the Board was going to address this at some point. Mr. Singleton said he had been holding off on this because of not
knowing about the facility report and the building needs we would have to
satisfy because of this assessment.
Mr. Singleton asked Mrs. Arnold to explain
about the QZAB bonds. Mrs. Arnold
stated more information will be given to the Board before the next board
meeting. She said QZAB’s were bonds
that can be as low as no interest or very low interest bonds being made available
to school districts. OZAB’s are loans
that can be borrowed as either bonded or non-bonded debt. Statewide there is over $10 million dollars
available for the program. This money
can be borrowed for renovations and repair of existing educational facilities,
purchase of educational equipment, professional development and development of
course material. The possibility of
acquiring some of these QZAB bonds has been discussed with the administrators
and they are working on lists for their buildings. The limit on the QZAB is $250,000, but if there is excess money
the state will divide it up between districts who have asked for the
money. Also needed would be donations
that would match the amount. We can do
this with our volunteer hours. Mr.
Singleton said at this time what we are trying to accomplish is to get
qualified for this money. He suggested
waiting until the new superintendent is selected and then the Board would sit
down and discuss all the priorities in terms of buildings, look at the big
picture and wait and see what is going to need be required.
A break was taken at 7:45 after which an
executive session was called.
The regular meeting reconvened at 8:50.
Executive Session Results
Recommendation on Employment
Mr. Singleton recommended the Board approve the employment of Julie
Bulgin, Central Office Accounting Assistant; Art Roets, Maintenance Worker,
step 4 range 1, effective February 1, 2005; and Cecil Floyd, KDG/Special Education
night-time Custodian step 4 range 3, effective February 1, 2005.
Motion on Employment
Dr. Smith made a motion, seconded by Mr. Hollingsworth, to accept the
Superintendent’s recommendation to approve the employment of Julie Bulgin, Art
Roets, and Cecil Floyd.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Recommendation on Leave of
Absence
Mr.
Singleton recommended that the Board approve a leave of absence for Misti
Heide, Central Office Benefit Accountant, leave of absence from about February
17 to March 18, 2005; Jill Roach, High School Science Teacher, leave of absence
from around March 7 to May 9, 2005; and Kevin Roach, Junior High Science
Teacher/Coach, leave of absence from around May 9 to the end of the 2004-2005
school year.
Motion on Recommendation on Leave
of Absence
Mr. Byrd made a motion, seconded by Mr. Madison,
to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve a leave of absence for
Misti Heide, Jill Roach, and Kevin Roach.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Recommendation on New Positions
Mr.
Singleton recommended the Board approve the new positions of bus driver for
special needs bus, recommended salary range 2; bus aide for special needs bus,
recommended salary range 2; and instructional aide for self-contained classroom
at Pinkston Middle School.
Motion on New Positions
Mr. Hollingsworth
made a motion, seconded by Dr. Smith, to approve the Superintendent’s
recommendation on the new positions of bus driver for special needs bus,
recommended salary range 2; bus aide for special needs bus, recommended salary
range 2; and instructional aide for self-contained classroom at Pinkston Middle
School.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Recommendation on Transfer
Mr. Singleton recommended the Board approve the transfer of Fay Weimer from Pinkston Middle School personal care aide to Pinkston Middle School instructional aide, self contained classroom.
Motion on Recommendation on Transfer
Dr. Smith made a motion, seconded by Mr. Hollingsworth,
to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to approve the transfer of Fay
Weimer.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Motion on Resignation
Mr. Madison made a motion, seconded by Mr. Byrd,
to accept the resignation of Cynthia Malone, Pinkston Middle School Food
Service Worker, effective January 17, 2005.
The motion was unanimously approved.
ADJOURNMENT
At 8:55 p.m. Mr. Hollingsworth made a motion,
Mr. Byrd seconded, to adjourn the meeting.
The motion to adjourn the meeting was unanimously
approved.
______________________________ _________________________________
Neal Pendergrass, President Mark Hollingsworth, Secretary