by Garrick Moritz, Gazette
The Garretson School Board met in regular session on Jan. 9, 2023. The main topics of conversation were the pipeline and the potential of a 4-day school week while talking around a potential opt out.
The School Board did not talk about a potential Opt-Out Vote, as board member Kari Flanagan wasn’t present, and Board President Shannon Nordstrom said he wanted all hands on deck for discussion or votes on the issue. Since that time, the board has set a special meeting for Wednesday, Jan. 25th at 6:30 p.m.
The board started the meeting with the pledge and added the resignation of Dennis Northrup to the consent agenda as a last-minute change at the start of the meeting.
In the Public Comments section, Beverly Nelson addressed the Garretson School Board. Nelson belongs to a coalition of local landowners opposing the proposed CO2 carbon sequestration pipelines that have been proposed by Navigator and Summit Carbon Solutions. Much of the information she presented has already been published in detail in this newspaper in multiple articles.
In brief, she argued that landowners oppose these pipelines because out of state companies are attempting to trample their rights as landowners. She also said the safety regulations for such pipelines are non-existent, though hopefully there might be stricter national regulations put in place by 2024. This means that Navigator and Summit Carbon are going to try to scramble to get these unsafe pipelines put in place before, according to Nelson. She continued, stating these out of state interests, funded by large oil companies and oil conglomerates, want to take advantage of carbon credit tax incentives to the tune of billions of dollars while using eminent domain to grab the land they want for these pipelines with little, or no compensation paid to the landowners.
This, combined with the huge risk for the health and safety of the people who live along the routes of these proposed pipelines, has motivated Nelson and her group to oppose these pipelines at every turn. Nelson told the board that many of these people are generational landowners and said landowners and families belong to the Garretson School District, so these issues will directly affect the district.
From a health and safety perspective, a leak in one of these pipelines could have a wide and devastating effect, and even require school evacuations. She cited a leak in Mississippi in 2020 that hospitalized 45 people. Nelson felt strongly that the board should oppose these pipelines for the safety of the district.
Board President Nordstrom thanked Nelson for her comments, and said that he was aware of the issue, but only marginally, and certainly wanted to learn more. Anything that would impact the safety of the students and staff of the district and the district's citizens is something the board most certainly should be very aware of.
The board had no new business and went onto policy reviews and revisions. The board had a first reading on revisions to the expense reimbursement policy and passed the anti-bullying policy amendments that bring the districts into full compliance with state regulation.
The Administration reports were the next item, and it was a big topic of discussion.
As a cost-saving measure, the board had asked Supt. Guy Johnson to dig into the nuts and bolts of what a 4-day school week would look like for Garretson. Supt. Johnson presented his findings in a detailed report.
In summary, he felt like the 4-day week would not be a good fit for the district. For starters, it would not save the district very much money: $30,000 per year or less. The jobs that would be affected most by a 4-day week would be the lowest-paid employees of the district- custodial, bussing and teachers’ assistants. Most likely, he said, that would result in staffing losses that would be difficult for, if not crippling to, the district.
“To me, it just doesn’t make sense that the lowest paid of our employees should take a pay cut that won’t even come close to making up the difference of our budgetary shortfalls,” Johnson said.
He said that according to the state education department data he looked at, the initial grades and attendance shot upward in a 4-day week. However, after the novelty period wore off, grades and attendance tended to decline.
He also noted that in a 4-day week, students tended to actually get less sleep and he didn’t feel that was conducive to good education either. As a final point, Johnson felt that it would be extremely problematic for the at-risk, special needs, and poorest members of the Garretson student body to cut the 5-day-week program. The most disenfranchised students of the district would bear the cost of a 4-day week in their overall health and well-being in education.
"There are so many of our students that rely on us, our staff and our teachers are the most stable adult influence they have in their lives," Johnson said. "It is sad, but very true. This would take away a whole day of that stability."
Overall, he felt it just wasn’t a good fit for the district.
Board member Tana Clark did like the idea of the 4-day week, but recognized it wasn’t enough, as was, to justify it as a cost saving measure to avert an opt out. She said that she was very worried that an opt out vote would fail. Supt. Johnson said that he very much shared those fears.
Board member Jodi Gloe said that she felt the board had done their due diligence in researching this idea, and that’s what she wanted done before a serious conversation about an opt out vote.
Supt. Johnson said that if the board directed him to look into more detail of what a 4-day week would look like in Garretson, he would happily do so, but at this time he felt the idea would not be a good fit for the district. Board President Nordstrom said that he felt this was adequate for now, and if there was a mandate from the district’s constituency then the board could have that conversation.
Elementary Principal Katie Hoekman gave her report to the board, telling them about the upcoming Tour of Kindness program and the PTO Spelling Bee. Middle School/High School Principal Chris McGregor also talked about the Tour of Kindness program.
Supt. Johnson then talked about the district snow days. So far, the district has missed four scheduled days, but because of a mistake in the calendar (as previously mentioned in this newspaper), they had at least one snow day built in. So far, missed days will be added to the rear of the calendar if it becomes a problem. Depending on the weather, the board may or may not need to revisit this issue.
Johnson also noted that the legislative session was beginning and that he and President Nordstrom, as their Associated School Boards of SD Representative, would be keeping the board appraised of pending legislation that would affect education and the district as the session progressed.
The board did hold an executive session from 7:04 p.m. to 10:37 p.m. to discuss a personnel matter.
The board delayed talking about a potential opt out discussion and vote until all board members are present, and after an initial date of Jan. 19th was ruled out because of conflicts, a special meeting date of Wednesday, Jan. 25th at 6:30 p.m. was selected.
The next regular meeting of the Garretson School Board will be on Monday, February 13 at 5:45 p.m. at the school's library.
