At the November board meeting, the board approved the October Regular School Board Meeting and the Special Board meeting minutes. The board also approved the hiring of Melissa Yeo, LaHO teacher, and Angela Jacobsen, substitute bus driver.
In her Superintendent Report, Ms. Nieraeth shared with the board and public the Superintendent Goals for this year, as well as attendance percentages, the state report card, and updates on different projects and happenings at the district level. These include the approval of the Title Budget Narratives from ODE, ODE’s response to Alsea’s resubmitted Integrated Guidance plan, which was approved, the seismic grant application that will be submitted in December, and the implementation of Synergy.
For the K – 6 Brick and Mortar Principal Report, Ms. Nieraeth shared the two field trips our students took in October, which were our K – 3 students went to Davis Family Farms for an afternoon of picking out pumpkins, a hayride, and some goodies. The 4 – 6 students went to Clemens Park with Benton Soil & Water Conservation District to learn about the marine habitat and water quality of the Alsea River. Ms. Nieraeth also presented the Students of the Month for September who embodied the character trait of “WONDER.” Each student was presented with a certificate and a $10 gift card to Dairy Queen. She also presented to the board I – Ready lesson data for Reading and Math and discussed the importance of having students work on lessons for 30 – 49 minutes a week to help grow in areas that were flagged as needs improvement by their diagnostic through adaptive lessons or areas to help enrich what is currently being taught in the classroom.
Mrs. Shunk, the K – 5 LaHO principal, shared with the board her appreciation for the LaHO families and how much they work to create an effective learning environment in their homes for their students. She also shared that the teachers at LaHO have been trained in explicit reading instruction, which in turn helps student building strong literacy skills, reading fluency, and comprehension skills. The teachers have also been trained in providing systematic phonics instruction to help students understand relationships between sounds and letters, which builds stronger reading and spelling skills. Mrs. Shunk also shared how I – Ready adaptive lessons has made a positive impact for LaHO students. She again praised the LaHO families on how well they work together with their student’s teacher to work through the technology challenges, as well as helping the teachers maximize each student’s learning experiences.
Ms. Nieraeth also mentioned that all families with students in grades K – 6, including LaHO families, have access to their student’s I – Ready accounts to have their student work on their adaptive lessons during the breaks.
For the middle/high school, Mr. Rothenberger, in his report, shared that the staff is working on ensuring students are successful in the classroom, both academically and behaviorally. Staff have pulled grades and is working with students to help those who are struggling. The Graphic Design class designed new Clemens Foundation logos and are currently working with the Alsea Community Action Collaboration on a design for their organization. The physical science classes have been studying motions by working with groups and designing blimps to see how high they would go when flown. The English classes have been working on reading for fun, which is shown by the amount of students who are now reading outside of class. Our HS volleyball and football teams are done with their seasons. The football team played in the second round of the state playoffs, losing to Echo. Both MS volleyball and football teams did well in their season.
Mr. Rothenberger also wrote that due to lack of drivers, the district had to transport students to and from school using vans. The district is continuing to look for anyone interested in driving a school bus, a Type 20 bus, or a van to help with the shortages we are having for drivers.
Ms. Nieraeth brought in samples of student work from the CTE shop. Mr. Stevens brought in a representative from a company that services CNC machines to help clean it up and get it going. The rep was here all day Monday and worked with both Mr. Stevens and the students to create different projects. One of those projects was a metal cutout of the district seal for Alsea School District.
Mr. Staehely reviewed the financial reports and reminded the board the district needs to be looking at savings to help with the lower ADM for future budgets. He also went over the revenues and expenditures and gave the board an update on where both of those are at. He reminded the board of the audit presentation for the December board meeting.
The board voted to postpone the implementation of GASB 87 and 96, as per Mr. Staehey’s recommendation, for the last fiscal year. The board also approved to accept the OSBA Bylaw Amendment Resolution, the OSBA Creation of a Rural School Board Caucus Resolution, English Novel Surplus List and Resolution 24 – 05. Ms. Nieraeth presented the Alsea’s SIA Annual Report to the board. This report goes over last year’s spending of the SIA dollars and how they helped the district. The board also agreed to discuss the OSBA conference at the next work session.
The board also moved the January and February 2024 meetings to January 10, 2024, and February 7, 2024, as there were conflicts with home basketball games.
The board voted to approve Board policies BD/BDA, EFA, EFAA – AR, GDBDA/GDBDA, GCBDA/GDBDA – AR, GDBDF/GDBDF, GDBDF/GDBDF – AR, and LBEA.
The board’s next meeting will be December 5th at 6pm. It is a work session for board self – assessment. The next regular board meeting will be December 14th at 7pm.
