The February 20, 2014 School District 166 School Board meeting took place as scheduled a few hours ahead of the latest impending snowstorm. A reminder was made that there will be school on Friday, April 11 if school is closed due to weather the next day on Friday, February 21. As expected, school was closed the following day.
Open lunch policy
The debate of whether or not to keep the school’s open lunch policy that allows juniors and seniors to leave the campus during lunch break continues. Sophomore Sean MacDonell spoke during the community comments portion of the meeting in favor of keeping the policy in place.
MacDonell stated that some of the negative comments made by others the past couple of weeks do not really speak for all of the student body. He stressed that “We can be the responsible students you expect us to be.”
Principal Adam Nelson brought up the idea of offering open campus during lunch one or two days a week as a reward to students. One concern that he has about ending the policy altogether is that it is already difficult for all the students to make it through the lunch line and have time for lunch during the 30-minute break. He gave the example of a student who already had to wait in line for 13 minutes before even getting his lunch. By adding an additional 40 students to the lunch line it may compound the problem further.
Board Member Sissy Lunde suggested the possibility of staggering lunch times but Nelson said that was not really feasible.
Superintendent, Beth Schwarz informed the board that the ISD 166 attorney said that in his opinion there are more reasons to close the campus than to leave it open, however there are arguments on both sides. He cited several examples including that the outcome from lawsuits is unpredictable. Board member Ed Bolstad again stated that this is being considered mainly because of possible safety concerns for the students.
Board member Deb White added that, “Our children are the lifeblood of our community.”
The earliest that a final vote will take place on this issue will be in April. The board continues to invite anyone wishing to comment on this to contact them.
Swearing in of new board member
The board welcomed Leslie Ann Sullivan as the newly appointed member to fill the vacancy created when Mary Sanders resigned her position. Sullivan, who stated that she has been a principal at two other schools in the past, took the oath of office early in the meeting. The board is once again made up of five members.
Principals’ report
Principal Adam Nelson spoke of a curriculum change that may involve more collaboration between the business classes and the technical classes. With the expansion of the Industrial Arts shop and the re-doing of the Mac lab with PCs, his hope is to create a link between the two in order to give students more real world experience in product design and production. The intention is to also offer courses supplying enough college credits that students may be able to graduate from high school with an associate of arts degree with majors such as welding, production manufacturing and others.
He also would like to add a business intern program in addition to the current work release program the last hour of the school day. The intern program would allow for actual Advanced Placement (AP) college credits unlike the work release program. Schwarz added that almost all colleges recognize AP across the country.
Principal Gwen Carmen reported that February is “I Love to Read” month. The elementary school is having a “Reading Olympics” where all students are keeping track of how many minutes they read outside of school. If the school achieves over 100,000 minutes, Carmen along with other staff will participate in a pie-eating contest. The reason for the pie-eating contest is because students are taught to use P-I-E when they read to look for the author’s purpose. Is the author writing to persuade, inform or entertain?
She also updated the board on the mural project that is being proposed for the side of Johnson’s Grocery Store in Grand Marais. The project will include cooperation between the district’s fourth grades and high school art students. The tentative timeline for installation is June 2014 and will be funded by community donations and grants.
Superintendent Beth Schwarz gave a presentation of the superintendent’s facebook page. The page currently has 436 members. She stated that she does go through a screening process before allowing new people to join the page and also outlined her process for removing posts that may be disrespectful or out of line. Her first step with a post that she feels is inappropriate is to remove the post and send a private message to the poster reminding them to be respectful and factual. If the inappropriate behavior continues her next step is to contact the poster and the poster’s parents if it was a student and inform them that they will be blocked from the page if the behavior continues. Schwarz explained that most posts are helpful and informative and do benefit the community at large. Board member Sissy Lunde does feel that the page is valuable in some aspects but also sees it as a stage for some people to grandstand and wants to re-evaluate it. She asserted, “I’m almost to the point of taking it down.”
In other news:
. Schwarz presented the board members with certificates for National School Board Recognition Week and a cake, which was enjoyed by all present.
. Board Member White mentioned that the Community Collaboration Team, which currently consists of just her and Peter James continues to look for additional members. The Oversight Team is also looking for members.
. A discussion of the chain of command during the absence of the superintendent took place. Schwarz will be out on vacation March 3 through March 10. It was advised that the principals would fill in for her as necessary. The district’s attorney will also be informed when she is absent so that he does realize that Principal Nelson will be the main point of contact when she is gone.
. Recording Secretary Erika Ternes presented a breakdown of the winter standardized test scores for kindergarten through seventh grade and ninth grade. The eighth grade was involved in other testing and not included in the statistics. The evaluation shows the improvement from the fall to winter periods for mathematics and reading. While the vast majority of classes did show improvement in line with the national averages, there were a few areas of concern that have been brought to the attention of the individual teachers.
. A decision on the 2014-2015 calendar was postponed until the next meeting. Even though the district has scheduled more than enough instructional hours, the issue of the school only scheduling 160 student days versus the 165 minimum as required by the state still exists. Schwarz informed the board that the district’s attorney stated that he does not believe there would be any financial consequences for the district. Board member Jeanne Anderson quipped, “Would he be willing to give us a letter to that effect?”
Schwarz also said that the attorney suggested continuing to work with legislators to address our unique needs in Cook County.
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