The Garretson School board held their regular monthly meeting on May 13. The main topics of this meeting were when to set the new date for the end of the school year and what company to award the contract for the Request for Proposals that the school sent out to any/all interested parties.
The board first reviewed their consent agenda which included the payment of current bills, approval of financial reports, and fuel quotes. Before review, Board President Nordstrom asked that teacher Kelly Block be added to the list of resignations in the consent agenda.
Included in that consent agenda were resignations of Stacey Beckman as head volleyball coach with no stipulations and Jodi Gloe also resigned from her post as all school play director with the stipulation that she recruit someone else to take up the duties.
It should be noted here that S. Beckman is the wife of Nathan Beckman, who was temporarily suspended this past year, with no official reason stated to the public as to why.
No statements have been made publicly, but it could likely be inferred that N. Beckman will also not be returning as head basketball coach next year, so the school will likely need to fill vacancies in both positions.
Having no old business or conflict of interest discussion the board moved on to the Pride Award.
The board honored school librarian, Tiffany Radford. At the last school board meeting she gave a demonstration about the Maker’s Space program, which she had spearheaded in addition to her normal duties as librarian. Palisades Oil has contributed financially to this program, with Blue Dragon Fill-ups, giving a portion of their fuel sales to this project every first Wednesday of the month. With this money, and a Maker’s Space grant, Radford has purchased robots, tablet computers, and hosted classes on programing code for both self-made video games, building blocks and Lego model making.
“It’s just so much fun to be a part of, to watch these kids let their imaginations guide them,” Radford said. “They have an idea and they use the tools to make that idea real. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is.” Elementary principal Teresa Johnson spoke up and was (continued on Part 2 - Online subscription required)
