Members Present:   Mr. Donald Koors, Chair
                                  Ms. Shirley Amond, Vice-Chair
                                  Mr. Gary Bates
                                  Mr. John Hill for Mr. Robert Marra
                                  Ms. Cynthia Pittman
                                  Ms. Kathy Botkin
                                  Senator Teresa Lubbers

Members Not Present:  Dr. Eugene White

Administration Present:  Mr. Jim Durst, Superintendent; Mrs. Rosemary Adams, Principal; Ms. Gail Ringwalt, Principal, Mr. Hal Owens, Asst. Superintendent.

I. Call to Order
Mr. Koors called the meeting to order and Ms. Samadzai took roll.

II. Approval of Minutes
The minutes from the August 22, 2005 meeting were reviewed.  There were no additions or corrections.  Ms. Amond moved for approval of the minutes with no changes; Mr. Bates seconded the motion; motion carried.

III. Chair Remarks
Mr. Koors welcomed everyone to the meeting and encouraged anyone who had an issue or concern to always feel free to address the ISBVI Board.

A.  Special Recognition
Both the Boys and Girls Track teams took first place at conference this year.  The track team scored 100 points more than the second place team to capture this award.  Mr. Ford, who works in our maintenance department, has come aboard this year as one of our track coaches and brings a wealth of track experience to this team.  Mr. Durst expressed how refreshing it was to be able to have a staff member from a different department, who was not a member of the teaching staff, except this responsibility.  Ms. Altmann is also one of the track coaches for this season and has done so for a number of years and ISBVI appreciates her hard work as well. 
Ms. Altmann was pleased to announce that our school also received the Sportsmanship Award for this year and Heather Oklak was named Female Track Athlete of the Year.  We are very proud of both of these accomplishments.  The conference meet also included a talent show this year the evening before the meet, in which we had three of our girls, Rylie Robinson, Sammy Weisenbach, and Alex Hurley, win the First Place Award for Talent.  Congratulations to all of our Athletes.

IV.  Superintendent's Report

A. School Update

Mrs. Durst with the IERC and Mr. Durst were able to attend the Mindness Conference in Dallas, Texas a few weeks ago and were able to obtain plenty of useful information.  There is an ACT that is in process that will require publishers to submit publication files to a depository.  The depository, which has been designated as American Printing House (APH), will then supply all states with a compilation file to see a full listing of available material.  This should enable us to have formatted material/media to students faster.

APH held their annual conference this past week and Ms. Wingert and Mr. Durst were able to attend.  Ms. Wingert, Outreach Director,  was on a panel that discussed Short Course Programs being offered across the nation.  We are one of four schools in the nation who offer this program at this time and it is good to know that we have moved forward and are able to offer this type of program to other school corporations who need assistance.

Access Through Optics (ATO) is on track for the school year, offering two clinics per month.   This clinic provides low vision aids and appliances to students at ISBVI as well as to students in other school corporations.  The reason we believe these ATO clinics are so vitally important is it allows students to not have to rely on Large Print or other media, they can use these appliances and aides on non-adapted material.

The "other" James Durst was on campus this week and spent a lot of time with our students in not only our music classes but in other classrooms as well.  We had a great week of learning and creativity which ended with three concerts on Thursday:  the first concert was offered Thursday morning for our elementary students and we invited the elementary students from Park Tudor to join us,  Thursday afternoon, was offered to our High School and Middle School students and staff, and the last concert in the evening was open to all staff, students, and the community and was a huge success.  The finale of the evening performance was a duet between Mr. Durst and the "other" James Durst singing "You Are My Sunshine," in which both Mr. Dursts performed wonderfully.

Mrs. Francisco and a number of other staff members helped to organize our Star Spangled Banner Celebration last month.  It was a patriotic program that recognized our troops overseas as well as our own staff members who have served in the military.  It was a terrific tribute to all of this country's military personnel.

Mark your calendars for this year's Holiday Program on Thursday, December 22nd.

On October 7th Dick Wolfsie did a taping at the Art Center with some of our students.  We do not have a date for the showing of that program.

ISTEP testing has been completed for this year and we are awaiting the results.

The playground equipment for the Aldur/Lambert building has been installed.  We now have not only our swings and slides, but some outdoor musical instruments on this playground which has been a huge hit with our children.  David Letterman has agreed to cover more than two-thirds of the cost of the playground.  We will be inviting his attorney out to the school to tour the playground.

B. Monthly Financial Statements

Mr. Owens presented the August 2005 Monthly Financial Statement (Attachment 2) which shows deducted reserve.  93% of our budget falls into Point One which covers salaries.  It is fairly low at this time because of a few vacancies that we have currently. 
September 2005 Monthly Financial Statement (Attachment 3) was then presented by Mr. Owens.  Overall everything is looking good.  Some concern about Point 2 expenditures as we come into October and November as this is our utility cost and we look for an increase in our natural gas prices with heating.  We will set all of our thermostats at 68 degrees over the winter to cut the cost of heating.  Point Three is already at 68% but this is fine because most of the bills being paid from Point Three are yearly expenses for copiers, equipment, and other material so the bills will not come around again until the next fiscal year. Point Four will have to be watched closely for food expenses.  All other points look good. 

C. Personnel Actions Updates

Refer to Personnel Actions Update and Personnel Status Summary for the month of September (Attachment 4A-4B) FTE Filled 185, FTE Pending 9, Intermittent Filled 23.
Refer to Personnel Actions Update and Personnel Status Summary for the month of October (Attachment 5A-5B) FTE Filled 186, FTE Pending 8, Intermittent Filled 23.

D. Vacant Positions

Refer to Vacant Positions - Pending (Attachment 6A-6B).  It is the desire of the ISBVI administration to fill all vacant positions listed.

We are having problems in filling the OT position and our Dietitian position because we are not competitive with other school districts and the private sector.  At this time we are out of compliance by not having an OT on site and are looking into private vendors which can be very costly.  Senator Lubbers and Mr. Marra have been discussing this issue at length with Mr. Durst to have some of these positions that are under paid moved to a different classification.  Senator Lubbers will look at helping to construct some legislation to provide better, comparable compensation to these positions.

E. Physical Plant Update

Churchman Air Conditioning:  Contractor is finishing the "punch list" items.  Waiting on new  equipment, drain pans, and roof leak to be patched to finish.

Campus Security:  Transferring $105,670.60 into this project to enable completion. Moorehead Electric Company was the low bidder and will have the contract.  Total available funds for this project will be $353,600.

Exterior Campus Lighting:  Additional funds will be needed to complete this project.  Electrical grounding project, $25,180 was removed from this project to complete emergency repairs to the Aldur/Lambert electrical system.

Renovation of Tunnels:  New Jac, Inc. has won the bid and is awaiting their contract to begin work.  Upgrade of infrastructure, replace water valves, replace pipe hangers are a few of the items this project will encompass.

Reroof Churchman and Keever:  Project is in the bidding stage for $125,000.

Tuck Pointing Renovation:  Project is on hold pending the outcome of new pricing on the project to repair roofs on F-building and the garage building.  Funds may need to be transferred.

Repair Roof, F-building:  After taking numerous core samples of the roof on F-building it was found that the moisture scan tests were not accurate.  The scans had been picking up heat from the interior of the building.  The garage roof will also be replaced due to extensive damage.

Recoring Campus:  Still have six rooms in Aldur/Lambert, B-dormitory, two educational classrooms, complete D-dormitory, and all Maintenance rooms and areas.  Look to have this completed by the end of the year.

Replace Sidewalk Along College Avenue:  Bids were opened on October 7, 2005.

Replace carpet in Aldur/Lambert:  Contractor has still not completed punch list items.  Maintenance needs to trim several doors to allow for the transition strips to fit..

V.  New Business

A. Donations and Contributions

Refer to Donations and Contributions Under $499.00 and Donations and Contributions Over $500.00 (Attachment 7A-7B).  Under Total = $2780.09 , Over Total = $13,285.30
Mr. Bates moved to accept all donations over $500.00; Ms. Pittman seconded the motion; motion carried.

B. Revised Spending Plan

Budget Agency asked administration to crunch the numbers again and revise our spending plan for this year.  (See Handout)
Point 1 - expenditures for this year has been revised to $9,726,300.  This is figured by salaries for the year and vacation buyouts for teachers.  Plus, nine month employees will be able to cash out 30 days worth of vacation at the end of the school year.  Possible increase in insurance cost but have not gotten the figures on those yet.  Also included is extra curricular activities for students such as track, wrestling, etc.
Point 2 - Natural Gas will go up by roughly 50% this year.  IPL projects an 8% increase in electricity cost.
Point 3 - Moved one position in Outreach from Point 1 to a contract position.
Point 4 - Food cost up 8.7%, plus gasoline is included in this Point at a 71% increase.
Point 5 - Equipment expenditures should not increase since this is a cost we can control
Point 6 through 9 - No concerns
We are still well within the Budget Agency appropriation to us but that is with the reserve.  All cost increases are not based on usage increases; we are looking for ways to cut usage with out cutting the quality of our programs.

C. New Employees

Ms. Wingert introduced Mr. Ferrell as the new Elementary P.E. coach.
Mr. Durst introduced Connie Gilbert as a new member to Outreach, who is working as part of a team with Diane Childers doing school-age consultations.  Welcome Back, to Ms. Harvey in dietary; Ms. Harvey had retired a few years ago but is now back on staff with us.  Ms. McGee who is a new Recreation Aid; she could not be here this morning.

VI. Public Comments
None

VII. Board Comments
Senator Lubbers will see what she can put together is regards to the salary situation for some of our positions here at the school and would appreciate any feedback or ideas from other Board Members.

VIII. Next Meeting
January 23, 2006 at 9:30 a.m. in the Aldur/Lambert Multipurpose Room

IX. Adjournment