Stillwater School District Receives Video Cameras, Approves Teacher Contracts and Discusses 'Flipped' Program

The Stillwater Area School board recognized 3M during Thursday’s board meeting for donating 200 portable video cameras for the students to use in the classrooms. The students can record  a video and project the video on the wall right from the camera.

The cameras are valued at more than $60,000.

“This is one way our partners are supporting us to meet our needs,” School Board Chair George Dierberger said.

Teacher Contracts Settled

The board approved the 2011-2013 contracts for St. Croix Educational Association and Stillwater Principals’ Association, as well as a terms and conditions of employment.

Settlements were reached with the district’s more than 550 teachers, as well as with central office administrators and school principals.

The district’s four remaining unsettled contracts are expected to come before the board in November.

“We’ve partnered with our employees to put measures in place to control spending both now and into the future,” said Corey Lunn, superintendent. “The settlements are reflective of the economic and funding challenges facing our district and our communities. I am appreciative of our employees’ willingness to work with us within these settlements to protect resources for our students.”

Here’s a breakdown of the contract settlements: 

St. Croix Valley Education Association (SCEA)

• All employees will continue to pay a portion of insurance premiums. The district’s contribution toward insurance premiums decreases in the first year of the contract.
• Changes were made to encourage more employees to switch to a high-deductible insurance plans.
• A “soft” salary freeze is in place during the two-year contract. This means teachers receive steps and lanes, such as increased compensation for obtaining college credits. In addition, both the district and individual teachers are required to increase contributions to the state’s teacher retirement program by half a percent due to a new state mandate.  A corresponding half percent increase was made to the salary schedule to accommodate this change. The effect of this change is no net increase in salaries for employees.

Central Office Administrators and Principals

• All employees will continue to pay a portion of insurance premiums. As with teachers, changes were made to encourage enrollment in the high deductible VEBA insurance plan.
• A salary freeze is in place during the entire two year contract, which means no increases in salary and no movement within the salary schedule.
• In lieu of automatic pay raises, administrators and principals are eligible to receive performance pay by accomplishing group and individual performance goals.

“The community continues to ask about employee salaries and benefits, and we felt we owed it to our taxpayers as well as our employees to be open and transparent about the settlements prior to the levy vote,” Dierberger said. “These contracts demonstrate our commitment to working with our employees to become more efficient so we can focus our resources on meeting the needs of our students during these difficult economic times.”

'Flipped'

The Flipped Classroom program is a new pilot program that teaches math “flipped.”

Six fifth-grade classrooms in five elementary schools in the district are in the program which started in September. , Lake Elmo, , Withrow and elementary schools are currently in the program until January.

The students watch teacher instructional videos at home and they work on their worksheets in the classroom. So instead of learning the lesson in the classroom and struggling to complete homework assignments with frustrated parents, students can work on the assignments in class where the teacher can help them work through it.

The short mini lessons are 10- to 15-minute videos. The student can watch the video at their own pace at home. After the video, students take a three- to five-question quiz to see if they understand the material. The students get immediate feedback from their quiz results.

The teachers can monitor all the students progress with a program called Moodle. Teachers can track who logs on to complete their lesson; how long each student spends logged in and how many times each student watches the video.

When students return to school the next day, the teachers review the highlights from the video and they work on math problems related to the previous night’s lesson.

Students work together to solve the math problems, with the advanced students helping those students that are struggling with the lesson, Denise Cote, a Stonebridge elementary teacher said. She projects the day’s lesson worksheet on the board and works with students to complete the assignment.

The Flipped program follows the same curriculum and pacing calendar as the regular math classrooms in the district.

“All students learn differently,” Cote said.

A traditional classroom is fine for the average student but it puts the above and below average students at a disadvantage, said Amy Jones, the district's curriculum specialist.

Presenters told the board the program is not about technology, but rather personalized learning.

“The board is giddy for what you are doing, Dierberger said.

Special Meeting Called for Nov. 11

Thursday’s meeting was the last school board meeting before the levy election on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The board will hold a special meeting after the election on Friday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. at to discuss the election results.