Within a span of nine months and between the hours of roughly 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., the Cook County Schools health service office receives about 5,000 visits from students. That’s over 30 visits a day. The students’ problems range from minor illness and injury to chronic health problems needing daily monitoring and medication and occasionally, more severe injuries.
On August 1, 2013, School Nurse Kay Borud, RN, gave the school board a yearend report. She said she does everything from giving shots to diabetic kids to putting Band-Aids on paper cuts.
Her office conducts routine hearing and vision screening and reports to the state on immunizations. “We continue to have better vaccination rates than the state average,” she wrote in a memo to the board.
Borud said she sometimes sees kids displaying symptoms of emotional distress. “The health service is not adequately staffed [or] trained to deal with mental health issues,” she wrote, “but many students feel safe in this space and/or have mental health issues that are manifesting as physical problems. I have dealt with several mental health incidents.”
“The big success [in health services] was that we got a hold of the lice issue,” Borud said. “We previously struggled with multiple lice outbreaks in the elementary school,” she wrote in her memo. A new policy requires a follow-up check before students who have been diagnosed with lice return to classes. They are sent back home if a live louse is located. “This was enough to reduce the incidents of untreated lice to almost nothing,” Borud wrote.
Borud said she stays very busy. Besides dealing with dropins by both students and staff with concerns about students, she administers medications to students and is involved in individual health plans for students with issues such as severe allergies, diabetes, and asthma.
Some students are very tired at school. Middle school boys who are exhausted after lunch often get sent to the health services office, Borud said, but because she is the only health provider on staff, she decided she can no longer take kids who need a nap.
“I love my job very much and I thank you for the opportunity to serve in this capacity,” Borud said.
Crossing guard changes
Upon the recommendation of the Safe Routes to School Committee, Principal Gwen Carman recommended reducing the number of crossing guard locations.
Instead of having guards at the top of First Avenue East and the top of Broadway, two guards will be posted at the intersection of Fifth Street and First Avenue West – the entrance nearest to the Eagle Doors where students and visitors now enter the school.
The school board had no problem with this plan.
YMCA user agreement
Superintendent Schwarz told the school board that she and YMCA Cook County Branch Executive Director Emily Marshall are working together on a user agreement between the school district and the YMCA that is fair to both. She said the agreement will outline the school’s use of YMCA space. In exchange for use of the space, the school will provide custodial services.
Schwarz said the county picked up the entire cost of the security doors leading from the Sawtooth gym hallway to the rest of the elementary school. The locker room off the gym is being finished this summer so that sufficient locker space will be available when school resumes and games against other schools start up.
School board member Ed Bolstad recommended that the user agreement include “catchall” statements that would cover how ambiguities or conflicts— things not specifically outlined in the agreement—would be handled. “Plan for what you don’t think will happen,” he said, “because it probably will.” The board directed Schwarz to put more detail into the agreement in regard to handling disputes.
Handbooks and expectations
The board approved a handbook of expectations for secondary faculty written by new 6-12 principal Adam Nelson. It is a supplement to the teacher’s union contract and the district employee handbook. It covers things such as keeping information current on the school website, maintaining respectful and timely communication with parents, attendance at faculty meetings, and posting daily lesson plans and syllabi.
At the start of the school year, faculty is expected to “build quality relationships with students, …establish communication with students and parents, …[and] build trust and a sense of community in the classroom.” The expectations state, “Be visible before school, during school, and after school as much as possible. This allows you to meet and greet students on a daily basis and help build quality relationships with them.”
Board member Sissy Lunde said she thinks teachers sometimes need to be more careful about self-disclosing information about their personal lives to students. “I think we need to say something about how your personal life should not be brought into the classroom,” she said.
The board discussed possible exceptions, such as if a teacher wanted to tell students about a new puppy, saying that the issue of self-disclosure might be covered by general expectations regarding professionalism.
The board also approved a discipline and respect policy for middle and high school students. It outlines six levels of disciplinary action.
The first level is for “inappropriate language, horse play, dress code violations, classroom disruption, public displays of affections, bullying, [and] unexcused tardies.” Consequences range from written notice and parent notification for a first offense to detention for a second offense and out of school suspension for a third offense.
Level 2 infractions include falsifying notes, throwing snowballs and water balloons, lying to staff, and exhibition driving. Level 3 includes possession of tobacco and bullying. Level 4 includes reckless driving, initiating a fight, and possessing weapons, including small pocketknives and pins. Level 5 includes burglary and intentional physical harm.
Level 6 infractions include possession or use of weapons such as guns and sharp objects with blades longer than 2.5 inches, terroristic threats, intent to sell illegal drugs, aggravated assault, and possession of explosives, including firecrackers and smoke bombs. Expulsion is the consequence for the first offense.
School board member Lunde said kids overhear what parents and staff say about others. “We need to emulate this good behavior,” she said of the document’s statements about respecting others.
“You really have to be respectful in order to earn respect,” school board member Jeanne Anderson said. “Our students watch all of us.”
Calendar
The board approved the 2013-14 school calendar that was prepared earlier in the year.
The calendar includes 160 school days, fewer than the 165 days required by a state statute that was just enacted in the last legislative session. Superintendent Schwarz said she received a letter from the Commissioner of Education saying that the school is in violation of statute, but the state will impose no consequences for the violation.
Once again, school will start after Labor Day – on September 3 – and be done by the end of May.
Taconite funds
Fifteen superintendents charged with coming to a consensus on extra funding for districts involved in the taconite industry met and came to an agreement on how much each district would receive. Cook County will receive $1 million for infrastructure improvements. Superintendent Schwarz said she was satisfied with the way the funding was allotted.
“The legislature was very wise in saying all of you get it or none of you get it,” board member Ed Bolstad said.
Summer improvements
Improvements are being made to the elementary playground this summer. Numerous safety upgrades are being done with $10,000 from Northeast Service Cooperative. Other improvements will be made thanks to funding from the Sawtooth Elementary Student Council.
Superintendent Beth Schwarz reported that she expected most of the planned renovations in the high school to be done before the middle of the month, but the new lockers would not be in until August 12. She said that some teachers had been in the school getting their rooms ready for fall.
Personnel
Daniel Ditmanson, a CCHS graduate who volunteered regularly at the school last year and who is working on a bachelor’s degree in teaching, was selected to be this year’s Minnesota Reading Corps literacy tutor, a 20-hour-a-week position funded by the Minnesota Reading Corps.
Bluefin Bay Executive Chef David Grimsley was hired to teach culinary arts one period a day. The school will work with the Minnesota Department of Education to help him obtain a “community expert” teaching license.
Superintendent Schwarz said she interviewed four great candidates for the job. Grimsley is “an upbeat, energetic kind of guy,” she said, with an “intuitive” understanding of how to work with kids.
Back to school
A back-to-school orientation and open house will be held from 4-7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 29. Middle and high school students will have an opportunity to walk through their seven-period school day with five-minute classes, and Superintendent Schwarz, Middle/High School Principal Adam Nelson, and PreK-5 Principal Gwen Carman will hold a panel discussion in the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
The cost of school lunch will go up 20 cents this year, and milk will cost 60 cents instead of 45 cents.
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