Fairfax R-3 Board of Education met in regular session November 15, 2018, in Elementary Room 3. Mike Lewis, board president, called the meeting to order at 6:27 p.m. Board members present were: Mike Lewis, Jon Graves, Doug Miller at 6:34 p.m., Josh Oswald, Marshal Oswald at 7:00 p.m. and Chris Smith (Sam O’Riley was absent). Others present were: Superintendent Jeremy Burright, K-12 Principal Dustin Barnes, Secretary Karen Burke, and Debra Wyatt and Patty Bredensteiner representing the CTA.

Mike Lewis presented the agenda. Jon Graves made a motion to approve the agenda, which was seconded and approved.

The board reviewed the minutes from the October regular meeting. The board reviewed the financial report and the monthly reconciliation report indicating a liquid balance of $554,689.78 as of October 31, 2018. Dr. Burright reviewed the fund balance with the board, indicating a total balance of all institutions at $894,399.59.

The November monthly bills in the amount of $94,106.24 were reviewed and approved for payment.

SUPERINTENDENT REPORT–

Construction Update: The tuck pointing is approximately 90% finished. We have received our first bill from Wilson Grouping for $37,979.10.

Transportation Update: Bus 5 is at Vetters in Shenandoah; the ABS system module needs replaced and will cost approximately $2,200.

Wellness: We are moving ahead with this and we are partnered with 4-H to get incentives for this program. February is the roll-out date. Any questions can be directed to the superintendent.

Principal Report: Attendance – High School 94.14% overall with 84% of students at 90% or above; and Elementary 96.39% overall with 93% of students at 90% or above.

• School is not in session November 21-23 for Thanksgiving Break

• Students in 7th-12th grade went to Tarkio on November 7 for a speaker about school safety. From the feedback we have received it was a really good program.

• MAP assessment scores are set to come to the school around November 29, according to the latest information received. It will be looked at as soon as we have it.

• Half Day PD Days on November 7 and 14: We have touched on topics such as our Teacher Growth Plans, MAP and EOC assessment, At-Risk, New Teacher Mentoring, Lit Team and CTE Reports.

• Working on CTE Reports with the Business, Ag and Facs Teachers: This year we are doing a self monitoring form. We will use the self assessment information to identify areas of strength and weakness in our individual programs and will be creating school improvement plans, for ourselves, so we can attain the scores we feel we need to next year when we start having a more formalized reporting process.

• Book Fair started on Friday, November 9, and will continue through the next week. Having it on Friday, November 9, in coordination with the Thanksgiving meal, allowed us to sell over $1,000 on Friday alone.

• Project Lead the Way open house night is on Monday, December 10.

• High School Band will be performing their Nursing Home Tour on December 10.

• K-12 Music Program takes place December 12.

ATHLETICS–

• High school practices have started:

a. HS Girls – 24 total, 5 from Fairfax

b. HS Boys – 21 total, 8 from Fairfax

c. HS Wrestling – Around 14, 1 from Fairfax

• First high school basketball games are Tuesday, November 20, at Tarkio vs. Maysville. During the evening, KMA will be inducting the 1999 Tarkio Girls’ State Basketball Championship Team into their Hall of Fame.

• Mound City Tournament starts week of November 26.

• JH basketball teams are in tournaments this week and will conclude their season in the 275 Conference Basketball Tournament the end of this month and the first week of December.

• At our 275 Conference meeting, conference schools voted to start volleyball at 5:00 p.m. on nights when we have JH, JV, and Varsity – across the board. This year it was a local decision made by the two schools playing.

• We had a co-op board meeting in late October – Will discuss during session.

CONSENT AGENDA–

Jon Graves made a motion to approve the consent agenda. The motion was seconded and approved.

New Business–

• Selection of an Auditor: Conrad/Higgins is the lowest bidder and comes with recommendations from other districts. They are also the only firm who submitted an actual bid. Doug Miller made a motion to approve Conrad Higgins for our auditor for 2019 at a cost of $5,600, 2020 at a cost of $5,700 and 2021 at a cost of $5,800. Jon Graves seconded the motion and the vote was 5 (yes) and 0 (no).

• EA Wolves Co-Op Meeting: The co-op board met October 30. At this meeting we discussed the handling of finances related to the co-op including the payment of coaches and the sharing of the cost of single-site facilities. We also discussed the difficulty of after-practice transportation and the potential to cancel district transportation for students after practices are finished each day. Though there was general agreement that the issues discussed were valid, at this time the board has made no indication that Fairfax R-3 will work to modify the current financial agreement and as of November 19, 2018, we are still working with Tarkio to plan transportation before and after practice. We work with Tarkio under two EA Wolves agreements. The first is the original co-op agreement that grew from our partnership in football and the second is an administrative agreement which defines details for supervision, coaching, purchasing, etc. It was recommended that the schools combine these two documents into a single co-op agreement which can then serve as a guide for our decision making moving forward. Our current agreement with Tarkio for EA Wolves is valid for another school year.

• Coaches Pay: It is the consensus of the board to keep coaching pay split the way we have always done it. We will pay our coaches and Tarkio will pay their coaches.

• After Practice Transportation: Athletics transportation is the most complicated issue the co-op deals with. Because we are down a driver for an actual bus, we are consistently scrambling to ensure students have practice and event transportation. We will continue to provide school transportation to and from practice except for days when school is not in session.

• Payments from our Lease Purchase Account: Doug Miller made a motion to approve payments to HTK for a total of $39,709. Our lease purchase funds have $411,589 remaining of the $450,000. This is after payments to the architect have been made. Our first payment to our contractor was approved by the board and will be made this week. Doug Miller made a motion to approve a single payment to Wilson Group in the amount of $37,979.10. This  payment is for work done for “Total completed and stored to date” costs minus retainage of 4%. Costs are detailed on the payment to Wilson in board documents and are mostly for tuck pointing and job preparation.

• Facility Priorities: The board will use a December work session to revisit the school priority list. The sound system will be added to the list of discussion items.

Announcements/Miscellaneous: The next regular board meeting will be Thursday, December 20, at 1:00 p.m. with a work session to follow.

The regular board meeting adjourned at 8:07 p.m.