The International Falls School Board held a work session Monday during its regular board meeting to discuss three topics affecting the district’s schools.
Superintendent Jeff Peura explained that the work session would allow the board to have public discussion about topics related to the schools since members had already designated the evening for the district.
Peura asked the board to submit topics for future meetings. No action was taken on any of the issues, but the board and community provided feedback on the issues.
School calendar
The first item on the agenda for the workshop was the school calendar, and specifically staff development days for the 2011-2012 school year.
Peura and Falls High School Principal Tim Everson explained they wanted to book a speaker for three Q-Comp days in fall 2011 to discuss differentiated instruction.
The school needs to book the speaker, Richard Cash, about a year ahead, Peura noted.
Peura asked the board to support a similar calendar as 2010-2011 as far as staff development days.
Board member Stuart Nordquist shared some opposition to the current calendar and future use of staff days without students in the classroom.
“Show me some proof on Q-Comp — why we need those additional days — I’ll go along with it,” he said.
Nordquist has said he is concerned with the downward trend of instructional days, down from a high of 176 to current student instructional days of 170. Board member Gordy Dault also shared concern about the decreasing number of student instruction days.
“If we have the same number of days, the same type of calendar, we’ll be fine,” said FHS teacher and union leader Marie Blumhardt. “We’re trying to be forward planning.”
“We can’t just shoot to the middle and hope we hit most of the kids,” Blumhardt said, regarding the individualized attention the differentiated instruction program would encourage. “All of that takes time.”
She said the district’s teachers are being encouraged by state mandates to provide more rigorous education, which takes more time and planning than other teaching methods she has used in her 17 years at the school.
“Those Q-Comp days have been used in various ways to approach the goals of the district in raising test scores,” she said. “There’s only so many days in the contract. If you want to start adding days in the contract, that’s all up to negotiations, but it’ll cost money to add days to a teacher’s contract.
“We completely agree that the kids need more time, but so do the teachers to prepare adequately for their needs,” Blumhardt said.
FHS parking lot
The board also discussed repairs to the parking lot adjacent to Falls High School.
“It’s when — not if, but when — do we plan that we’re going to address this need because it’s really becoming, not dangerous, but the longer we delay, the more it’s going to cost us,” Peura said.
Peura described an initial estimate of $70,000 in 2008, which Jeff Veeder, transportation director, explained would likely be in excess of $100,000 if completed in 2011.
Board member Will Kostiuk said the situation is so bad, he’s waiting for the district to get a hypothetical repair bill for a vehicle damaged in the uneven lot.
Peura proposed to use unreserved general funds to fix the lot. However, other board members questioned the ability to use capital outlay funds, intended for building and grounds improvement projects.
Veeder said he would present a list of capital projects he would like to pursue at the December school board meeting. Several board members said they would like to prioritize that list with the parking lot to determine the best use of school funds.
Eleventh Street drop-off
Board members again discussed the potentially dangerous situation that has developed on Eleventh Street in front of West End Elementary and Falls High School, as discussed by Kostiuk.
Kostiuk urged the board to act quickly to remedy the situation he said occurs when traffic coming from four directions mixes with the school’s youngest students being walked into school by parents who park along the school’s front curb.
Falls police officers have been monitoring the situation this school year. Kostiuk, who is also a Falls police officer, asked the board to change the traffic flow so it went behind the school rather than at its front. That would reduce the speed of traffic where kids would be walking, as well as eliminate non-school traffic from the equation.
However, logistic concerns with each proposed solution left the board without an answer to Kostiuk’s request.
