Hamaker Sworn in as New Board Member; New SRO Hired
The Council School Board held a special meeting at 5:00 p.m. and their regular meeting at 6:00 p.m. on August 19.
The special meeting was held to interview Jennifer Hamaker for Council School District Trustee for Zone 2. This seat was vacated when Julie Pate resigned. Hamaker was the only individual to declare her candidacy for this seat and she was appointed to the seat by the board in the regular meeting. Hamaker will serve for the remainder of the term, which is the end of the year. Hamaker will have to declare her candidacy for this seat and be elected this fall, to continue serving after December.
The board’s regular meeting was attended by all board members, with the exception of Bob Grossen. District Business Clerk Mindy Ivey, interim Superintendent Brian Joyce and elementary principal Leo Fontana were present.
No public comment was given in the time normally allotted for this at the beginning of the meeting.
Board chair Steve Ryals discussed the new School Resource Officer, Chris Carlisle. This position is funded by a grant for the next 3 years. Carlisle is hired and the grant money is received, but the respective attorneys are ironing out details in a memorandum of understanding between Council School District, the county and the Meadows Valley School district, where Carlisle will spend half his time. Ryals also mentioned that they still have not received any snow removal bids. The concrete work will be completed soon.
The time to develop the strategic plan is approaching and the board discussed who will be in that working group.
Joyce reported that they are fully staffed and that there are a lot of new faces. He also reported improvements to the districts security systems in the form of additional cameras and more vape sensors.
The district is continuing its integration of PBIS - Positive Behavior Interventions and Support. Joyce expects to spend a lot of time the first day of school introducing the program and communicating expectations to students.
Joyce also mentioned localized pathways, a program that the state is encouraging districts to create alternate pathways to graduation. Joyce stressed that this is a newer initiative from the state level and there isn’t a lot of information on it yet. However, Joyce did say that so far this seems to be in line with his thinking of exploring other ways to get students to graduate and to be more flexible.
The state is also discussing future readiness projects, which would replace the current senior projects and move to a more experiential based program, whether it is work or service based. There will be more information to come on this as well.
Council Computers offered to have one of their staff onsite first thing in the morning to help with technical issues, as this seems to be when most of these issues arise. This would add more hours to the current contract. This increased cost was discussed and the board approved it for a 2 month test period.
CES Principal Leo Fontana reported that they have 152 students enrolled.
At the end of the meeting they approved the hiring of Melissa Dahl as a full time aide.
