Mendenhall Appointed to Board Vacancy; New Website Coming
The Board of the Council School District met on last Tuesday night the 18th. Board Chair Steve Ryals, Earl Henderson and Julie Pate were present. Bob Grossen was stuck in McCall due to the highway closure.
Meredith Fisher commented during the public comment period. She stated that she thought the recent public meetings that the district has been having are informative and helpful and she hopes they continue. (The next meeting is planned for April 14th.)
Ryals reported that the next community meeting for the district will be on April 14th. A board workshop will be held on April 1. Teacher negotiations are coming up and he stated these are public meetings.
Before Ryals moved on to staff reports he mentioned that he only got his board packet of information about an hour before the meeting, instead of Friday. This doesn’t allow him enough time to read the information and follow up on things.
Pat Griffin presented a proposed new website for the school district. There would be an app as well. The hope is that this investment will help improve communication between the district staff and parents. The board approved this expense. Lumberjack Day will be held on May 1st at the school.
Lastly, with maintenance Ryals would like to see the greenhouse completed within two weeks. There is no formal contract in place for this work.
Kyle Johnson presented a petition to the board signed by 114 local individuals expressing concern about the discipline at the school and proposing a revised discipline policy. He stated that it is crucial to enforce current policy and that he believes action is needed to save the school district, not just communication.
Generally, this proposal makes students subject to discipline earlier than in current policy. It makes things more strict and requires less offenses before discipline kicks in. It also removes school administration discretion to evade the bare minimum discipline.
After Johnson presented the petition and gave his position, Ryals responded: “To imply that the board doesn’t know what they are doing, I take that personally. If you don’t like the job the board is doing, there is a thing called recall. You can recall any of us. Most of us probably would be happy to be recalled with all that has been going on in the last year.”
Ryals continued ‘As far as disciplinary things, we know there is a problem. We do. The problem I feel starts at home, it doesn’t start with the administration. If we had parents who would do their job we wouldn’t have any of this.’
Ryals went on to critique points of the proposed policy, particularly that it removes discretion from school administration in discipline with possibly unique situations and circumstances.
The conversation went back and forth for several minutes with Johnson arguing for the school to enforce current discipline policy, and to work on this proposal while board members argued that these issues start at home. Which Johnson doesn’t disagree with, he would like to see discipline at the school managed properly so as not to disrupt other students’ education.
Ryals ended the conversation with thanking Kyle and reassuring him that this will not be ignored, but that things will take a while.
The district is considering adding a Vice-Principal position at the elementary school. Ryals believes the administration is overworked and this new position could relieve some of this pressure. He brought this up to communicate that it is something they are thinking through and working on.
The board held a public interview for the Trustee Vacancy in Zone 3. Only Lynn Mendenhall had submitted his name for consideration. He has 5 children in the district, has taught previously in the district and is the assistant coach for the cross country team. When asked why he wants this job he responded ‘I don’t. ...I wanted to make sure that someone that cared about the students and the welfare of this school and helping the staff and helping the teachers was in that seat. ...We’re facing some big issues and I want to make sure that we have someone who will try to help.’ He was approved by the board and will be sworn in at the next meeting.
The second reading of policy series 1000, with changes, was motioned and approved. They also approved a 2-night overnight trip for the seniors.
The board then went into executive session for about two hours.
After returning from executive session they accepted the resignation of one teacher and one support staff member.
The board then went through the first reading of the 3000 series policies. (These are always available at csd13.org). Ryals is concerned about open enrollment potentially costing the district money, especially if a student has an IEP.
After going through these policies with some proposed changes, the meeting was adjourned.
