Garretson School Board talks quorum vote policies and hires an investigator

by Garrick Moritz, Gazette

            The Garretson School Board met in regular session on Sept. 11, 2023. The meeting was fairly standard with new policy items as the biggest discussion, though after their executive session the board did approve unanimously to hire an investigator to look into a personnel matter.

            The meeting got started at 6 p.m. The first item of import was in the consent agenda and were amendments to the contracts of two teachers as they both had completed new education credentials and therefore were entitled to a bump in pay. Kelsey Buchholz completed her doctorate degree and Lauren Stoterau completed her masters of education as of the end of summer. Supt. Guy Johnson and the board applauded these teachers for their work and the board voted for their salary increases.

            Next was discussion and approval of the 2024 budget. This item has been part of the agenda calendar since the July meeting, and Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer did a brief review, stating he was willing to field any further questions the board had. They did not, and voted to approve the pending budget document.

            They likewise approved the supplemental budgetary document for the final year end bookkeeping modifications for the 2023 school year and the 2022 Audit report.

            A lot of productive conversations happened at the school board training special session they had on August 29th, as several new policy changes would be happening for the school as a result of that meeting.

            First, they discovered that there was no policy or regulation set on the board’s quorum or decision-making process. As an example, if there are only 3 of the 5 members present at a meeting, are votes of 2-1 valid for passing a piece by their legislative body? Or, does a policy item need to have 3 votes (a majority) in order to be valid? These are very valid questions. Also, they needed to codify how votes are taken, by voice, roll call or paper votes, and what the circumstances for each should be. This exists nowhere in school board policy.

            Supt. Johnson said that Associated School Boards of South Dakota guidelines do exist on these points, but he wanted the school board to weigh in on how they felt the policy should be drafted. The school board members were unanimous that for transparency and accountability no item should pass without 3 members voting for it, so if the board only had three members at the table for any given meeting, all three would need to vote aye for the measure to pass.

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