Supt. Johnson did point out that participation in these exercises is not mandatory for any student, and if they chose not to participate they would be protected under the auspices of free speech under the constitution, but he felt such an instance was unlikely in the extreme because the tradition of patriotism is very strong in this district with many families having both active and retired servicemen and with the school having a direct next-door neighbor in American Legion Post #23, noting that they are very active in the community and school events.
Moving on to second readings of policy updates, the board passed revised documentation on qualifications for teachers, paraprofessionals, deleted the food service staff job description from school policy, approved new wording on staff comprehensive plans, and sick leave and vacation policies for support staff.
Supt. Johnson then gave the board a report on initial student numbers for the year. He said that the results were mixed. He said that several students and families have left the district, but that 18 new students were coming in which resulted in a slight gain. Official numbers last year were 483, and this year we are projected at 488 students overall.
“It’s a little bit of a numbers shuffle, we lost some in middle school, but we gained a few in high school, kindergarten and in elementary,” he said. “We’ll have some bigger classes in our elementary this year, and we’ll have less complaints from our middle school teachers about the overlarge class sizes that we had last year.”
Next, Supt. Johnson reported about building preparations for the start of school. He mentioned the school’s air coolant system, specifically the chiller that requires either extensive repairs or replacement. He said that they’ve been able to eek out the life of the unit just long enough to get it through this season of hot weather, and that the board should be able to let out bids for it in the next budget, when both the school’s finances and the market price should be at best advantage.
He also discussed with the board to what use they should put the newly acquired land as per their exchange deal with the Blue Dragon Academy. The building that was once the Dragonland Daycare has been moved off site and at the time they were waiting only on dry conditions to fill the dirt. This was discussion only so no votes were cast, but they did outline three possibilities for the zone in question, as per board discussion and public suggestion. First is to smooth out the area and concrete it over for additional parking lot space. Second is to make the new zone into an additional park and playground area for the school. Third is to erect a storage area, since the school can always use more storage space.
The board had an executive session regarding personnel at the end of the meeting.
