District Exploring, Seeking Affordable Health Insurance Options
The Meadows Valley School Board held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 13. Board members Barbara Dixon, Jeffrey Leff, Chris Peterson, and Shayleen Brooks were present along with Board Clerk Carol Whitney, Superintendent/Principal Dee Fredrickson, and Vice Principal Katey Basye. There were four audience attendees.
The meeting began with comments from the school’s Insurance Team, a group of teachers and staff, who have been working to find more variable and affordable medical insurance options. During discussion, the board mentioned that the current insurance plan was adopted many years ago under a teacher’s union. The conversation among current staff was partly spurred by individual circumstances, finding the out of pocket maximum very high, and the monthly charge to simply maintain insurance with children on the plan nearing $1500 per month.
The school’s insurance broker gave three plan options which were presented to the board along with a state buy in option. A request was also made to the board to add to next year’s budget additional supplementary money for each staff member for insurance, citing amounts provided to staff by other comparable districts and the need to consider factors for teacher retention.
The District Board is finalizing salary and budget plans currently, so they could not give a number that evening. They did say an increase was likely. Once the budget and salary schedules are finalized and a supplemental total is given to the Insurance Team they will take it to the full staff to discuss and decide how to move forward. A potential reduction in cost to staff for insurance along with an increase in supplemental funding from the district would positively impact teachers and staff.
Audience comment continued with a presentation on the senior class trip by student Angel Wittell. The senior class’ plan to split their senior trip funds between a one day trip to Boise with four students chaperoned by Mr. McIlvain and donation of a record board for the school’s weight room was approved unanimously by the school board.
The Superintendent’s report began with projected enrollment numbers for next year. Current projection is down by seven students for next school year, but Fredrickson said she anticipates an increase as preschool and new student enrollment finalizes.
Vice Principal Basye presented academic testing numbers beginning with the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI) for kindergarten through third grade. A high goal to have 80% of K-3 students reading at grade level by the end of the school year has been met. These classes started with 41% reading at grade level. Third grade went beyond and tested 100% at grade level after starting the year at 43%. Fredrickson praised this achievement and gave thanks to Basye, Angie Mettie, and all K-3 teachers for all of their hard work to achieve this goal. Basye also presented tentative results from the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) for math and science.
Fredrickson reported on athletics saying track teams had done really well this season and expressed excitement for tenth grader Natalie Ruth who was heading to the state competition after winning in pole vault at districts.
A building inspection took place on Monday, May 12 and the Superintendent said everything went really great. She thanked Custodian Tamara Brusso for all her hard work in making corrections, updates, and fixes around the school in advance of the inspection. The Building Inspector said this was one of the best inspections he’s seen, said Fredrickson. She also reported that only three additional fixes were needed and that Brusso scheduled care of these well before the end of that day. Fredrickson said of Brusso, “We want to thank her at every opportunity. She makes our school better. I appreciate that greatly.”
A decision has been made on fixing the school’s fire system. Quotes of up to $600,000 had been received, and the school has settled on repairing the outside dry system pipes and drains under the building soffit on the exterior part of the building for a quoted cost of $49,841. For the internal system, they plan to continue replacing pipes and parts one at a time as needed. Since the quote is under $50,000, an action by the board was not needed, but they were in favor of the decision.
Fredrickson updated on the elementary playground improvement plan noting it is a high priority for the community and an item noted for work in the upcoming levy vote. Fredrickson said they hope the levy will pass so they can order new items for the playground immediately. The school has already received playground funding from the Frank Kahout Foundation, the school modernization fund, and others and would love to finish the updates over the summer so kids can enjoy the new playground at the start of next school year.
The project would include removing two existing swing sets and some metal climbing items and adding a few new pieces. The project plan includes future additions once further funding is available. The Board will need to do a conference call meeting to approve spending after May 20, but before the next official meeting.
Long time school librarian Loretta McConnor plans to retire at the end of this school year and the school is looking at options for next year. Current legislation now requires someone with a media specialist certificate.
The school’s Speech and Language Pathologist Vicky Stewart also plans to retire this year. Fredrickson said they hope to hire someone for in person work, but also presented a virtual care option saying this could be a good back up if they have no other candidates. The program, called eLuma, was recommended by another Superintendent. Stewart currently comes into the school once per week and she has offered to help some with the transition if needed. The virtual program could cost around $22,000 per year based on ten students participating.
The Board of Directors from Blue Cross of Idaho visited the school on April 28. Fredrickson said the visit went well and they also saw the new preschool. She hopes they will continue to donate to local programs.
Fredrickson presented again to the board regarding a potential agreement with the Community Center and the after school program with Youth Advocacy Coalition (YAC). The Community Center proposal includes remodeling the booster club room to add a commercial oven and refrigerator and hosting the program in the school. Fredrickson is researching costs and feasibility to report back and discuss further with the board. The YAC program currently meets twice a week at the community center with around 55 kids from preschool through 8th grade. Discussion included hopes the YAC program would be able to use the new Youth Center in some capacity once it is open.
End of the school year activities including an academic awards assembly and the Celebration of Learning event were brought up by Fredrickson. Senior graduation is scheduled for Saturday, May 31 at 2:00 p.m. at the school.
The Valedictorian was announced at the assembly as Kelton Fisher. Congratulations to him on the honor and hard work.
Fredrickson finished up with reports on new legislation. One bill would reimburse the school for mileage from non athletic related school bus and vehicle use, for example for field trips. Another piece of legislation provides a salary increase and establishes minimum salary standards by staff categories. These include a minimum salary of $50,252 for the R1 category, $53,402 for the P1 category, and $64,427 for the Advanced Professional category. These are statewide minimums.
Other new legislation includes changes to graduation requirements adding a one credit digital literacy class beginning with next year’s freshmen. The Senior Project has been renamed the Future Readiness Project.
Idaho’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield has added a requirement for localized pathways for high school classes. A minimum of two pathways should be established by the high school including a track of core and elective classes and local opportunities such as internships or mentoring projects that would be most applicable to each student’s post graduation goals.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. in the school library.
