Sentinel Media records · public agendas and minutes, text only, refreshed nightly from each body's own site · not a newspaper
minutes meeting date 2026-05-21 · fetched 2026-09-17 · 13439 characters · official file · plain text
Ririe Joint School District #252 Thursday May 21, 2026 6:00 pm School Board WORK Meeting Minutes 6:00 pm – The Ririe Joint School District #252 Board of Trustees met on Thursday May 21, 2026 at 6:00 pm for their monthly School Board Work Meeting. Board Chair Hansen welcomed all those in attendance. 6:00 pm – Board Chair Hansen asked that roll call be taken. Roll call was taken and those in attendance were as follows: Board Chair Mike Hansen, Board Vice Chair Dallin Howell, Board Assistant Treasurer Darby Taylor, Trustee Brigham Cook, Trustee Kevin Landon, Superintendent Gee, Business Manager/Co Treasurer Trapper McCallister, and Board Clerk/Treasurer Kristi Hamilton. 6:02 pm – Action Item – Board Chair Hansen entertained a motion to approve the Work Meeting Agenda. Dallin made a motion to approve the Work Agenda as posted. Darby seconded; passed unanimously. 6:03 pm – Item 4/New Business a. Discussion Item – Elementary School BOND. Superintendent Gee informed that he has nothing new to report on the Elementary School BOND this month. He informed that he has not heard back from the realtor who is working on some information for the district yet either. b. Discussion Item – AG/CTE Building Update. Superintendent Gee informed that things are moving along. He informed of the meeting he and Trapper had with Bateman-Hall on Tuesday. He informed that they plan to start the framing process in about 2-3 weeks. He informed that Brigham and Kevin also attended the meeting. He informed that the concrete issue has been ironed out. c. Discussion Item – SRO Contract. Superintendent Gee commented that hopefully the Board will be approving this Contract in the regular meeting later. He explained the contract and informed that the total amount for this will be $107,243.58, which will be covered in part by the Grant he and Trapper wrote along with a portion coming from the Supplemental Levy. He informed that this is the last year of the Grant, but he intends to keep looking for another Grant to cover this position. d. Discussion Item – Board Policy; 2440. Dr. Teske informed that he and his staff have been working on this policy quite a bit. He informed that it deals with online learning, and the current policy is pretty antiquated. He explained further. He informed that the revised policy he would like implemented will do away with correspondence learning. He explained in detail. He informed that as soon as schools adopted 1-1 tech, scores went down. He informed that overall they are seeing some challenges with this. He commented that the most meaningful learning comes from face-to-face. He informed that this policy is meant to put safeguards to make sure every student succeeds. He informed that a lot of students are working on dual credit, and they are taking up a lot of lab space. He commented that as a school, we are here to help, but we just don’t have the space here to let all of the online students take up the space of those who are doing face-to-face learning here. He explained in further detail. He commented that a student could finish an online class using AI heavily, but not learn anything. He commented that many times they come to their final and are not able to pass it because they depended on AI throughout the course. He explained. He commented that we want to keep the rigor as high as possible here at Ririe. He then read over the verbiage he would like to change and explained. Brigham asked if the final tests are proctored. Dr. Teske informed they are. Brigham asked if we need to have someone go through the courses before to make sure they are good courses. Brigham commented that we want the kids in class here if we offer the same course. Discussion occurred. Board Chair Hansen asked what happens if a student takes an online course and earns an A all the way through, but flops the final, or if a student struggles with face-to-face all year. He explained further. Discussion occurred. Superintendent Gee commented that a pass/fail hurts student’s GPA’s. Discussion occurred. Dr. Teske commented that AI is the issue with the online courses. He commented that if a student is struggling, we are happy to put them in the course, taught here, face- to-face. He commented that AI is building and getting better and can be a tool for things, but it doesn’t help kids build their brains. He commented that another new thing is if a student fails an online or face-to-face dual credit course and they want to re-take it, they can do that with the approval of administration and replace the old grade with the new grade. He explained. He informed that they have let some students re-take the finals exam and they have succeeded. He gave an example and commented that he does not think it will be abused. He commented that it takes the fear of trying away and awards students for their persistence. He commented that our policy allows a parent to choose whether to transcribe a High School credit if it is taken in Jr High School. Dallin asked for clarification regarding Jr High School students taking dual credit High School courses. Dr. Teske explained. Brigham asked about the correspondence courses. Superintendent Gee informed those courses are set up through a consortium. He informed that a student can typically take up to 2 online credits per semester, which equates to 16 total in their High School career, unless they have a flexible learning plan in place. He explained. Discussion occurred. Dr. Teske commented that if this is approved tonight, he would like to get a letter out to parents informing them of the changes as soon as possible. Dallin commented that he really likes the changes and feels the new verbiage will allow a great avenue for recovery. e. Discussion Item – School Board Goal & Planning Meeting – Date, Location, Time. Superintendent Gee informed that this meeting usually takes place in June or July. He informed it is a meeting where the Board and Administration get together to Plan and set Goals for the upcoming school year. He then brought up a calendar and discussion occurred. He informed that the meeting could be done in conjunction with the Regular Meeting, but the Budget Hearing will also be held that night. Brigham asked if July is too late to do this. He commented that he has a concern waiting until then. Superintendent Gee commented that he would like to involve the new Elementary School Principal in this meeting, however, her contract does not begin until August. He commented that he will reach out to her to see if she can attend if it is held in June. Board Chair Hansen asked the Board to be prepared to come to the meeting with a couple of Goal ideas each. f. Discussion Item – School Board/Administration Dinner. Superintendent Gee informed that they did this last year and it was good to have an evening with the Board and Administration to do something together outside of school. He asked if the Board would like to do this again this year? Kevin commented that he thinks this is a great idea, and recommended it be done sometime in July. Discussion occurred. Comment was made to do this on July 20th @ 6:00pm, with the location TBD later. No motion was made on this in the Work Meeting, nor was a motion needed to be done on this in the Regular Meeting. g. Discussion Item – Bus Lane Concrete Bid. Superintendent Gee informed that they have been looking at the sidewalk in front of the High School for several years. He displayed a picture and explained. He commented that there are big tripping hazards. He then informed that two bids have been received, with the 1st bid coming in at $21,840 and the 2nd bid coming in at $30,800. He informed they are expecting a 3rd bid, but have not received it yet. He explained what each of the bids will cover. He asked if the Board would feel comfortable giving him and Trapper a number to work with and stay within. Brigham asked if we have talked to anyone about raising the sidewalk. Superintendent Gee commented they have and explained some issues and concerns with raising it. He commented that the light pole concrete also needs to be replaced. Board Chair Hansen asked what standardization they went off of. Superintendent Gee explained. Board Chair Hansen commented that his concern is that we are not comparing apples to apples between these 2 bids without knowing first what the specifics are. He explained further. Discussion occurred. Superintendent Gee commented that he can reach out to the companies that turned in the bids and ask them to present specifications. Trapper commented that he would like to get this completed in this year’s budget. He explained further. Superintendent Gee asked if there is a number the Board is comfortable with. He commented that he would hate to have to have another special meeting before the end of the month to get this completed within this year’s budget. Discussion occurred. Brigham commented that he doesn’t like being asked to approve something when the Board hasn’t discussed this at all before tonight. He commented that if they knew they were looking at doing something like this, they should let the Board know ahead of time. Superintendent Gee commented that the fact that we need to replace concrete in several locations has been discussed numerous times, including getting it done when the funds become available. Discussion occurred. Superintendent Gee informed that Bold Concrete did the last replacement section. Dallin commented they did a good job, in his opinion. Board Chair Hansen commented that he wants to make sure it works more closely with what we are doing. Discussion occurred. h. Discussion Item – Two-year Rolling Calendar. Superintendent Gee commented that in past discussions, a 2-year rolling Calendar has been talked about. He explained. Dallin commented that he thinks it is a great idea. None of the Board members had a problem or issue with doing this. Brigham asked if it will cause an issue because it won’t give the community a chance to be involved in it each year. Superintendent Gee informed that they will still involve the community. He commented that the biggest complaint we heard this year was that it took way too long to get the 2026-2027 Calendar approved and out. Brigham commented that he wants to make sure we aren’t disenfranchising the community. i. Discussion Item – Hiring Policy. Superintendent Gee informed that he has a couple of things he wants to go through with this policy tonight. He informed that he wants to put together some procedures on how to hire Classified and Certified Staff. He then read over the verbiage and explained. He commented that Classified Staff can be hired and begin working prior to Board Approval. He commented that those employees are aware that the position is contingent upon Board Approval, but reiterated that they are allowed to start before that happens. He commented that this hasn’t been an issue with us, but wanted to make sure the Board is aware of this because it is in Board Policy. Superintendent Gee continued to read through the verbiage. Brigham asked what the interpretation of preferential treatment is. Discussion occurred. Superintendent Gee informed that Certified Staff Contracts are not valid or official until they are signed by the Employee, Superintendent and Board Chair. He then continued to read through the verbiage. He informed that one of the sentences is really redundant. He explained. He commented that when Administration begins a hiring process they are going to screen down candidates, especially if there is a large number of applicant’s. He commented that it is completely appropriate for the Administration to screen down the candidates. He then moved on to the hiring committee and explained. He informed that he has never hired anyone without a committee. Brigham asked Board Chair Hansen what he thinks about his because he is the one who knows this. Brigham then gave his opinion. Discussion occurred. Superintendent Gee commented that there are more highlighted areas he’d like to go over. He read through those and explained. Board Chair Hansen suggested that this discussion continue later in the regular meeting. j. Discussion Item – Class Size and Open Enrollment. Superintendent Gee brought up a spreadsheet of all of the data. He informed that Dr. Teske has also put some information together that is going to be prudent to this discussion. He informed that he will present that in the Regular Meeting. Superintendent Gee informed that the Board is who set these capacity limits. He explained. He informed that next year we will have a big 8th grade class and 10th grade class. Darby asked if those number include the Swan Valley students. Superintendent Gee informed in 10th grade, yes. 8th grade no, because the Swan Valley students do not attend Ririe until 9th grade typically. Brief discussion occurred. 6:58 pm – Being 6:58 pm, Board Chair Hansen entertained a motion to adjourn the Work Meeting. Dallin so moved. Darby seconded; passed unanimously. Reviewed & Approved: June 18, 2026 Board Chair: Mike Hansen Board Clerk: Kristi Hamilton
Text is extracted by machine from the official file linked on each page; the official file is the record. Sentinel Media, LLC.