by Garrick Moritz, Garretson Gazette
The Garretson School board met in regular session on Monday, Feb. 8. Major topics of discussion were plans for a new tax opt out public meeting and election and the expansion of the driver’s education program for this school year, and the process of purchasing new busses for the district.
As the meeting got underway, there were no public comments as no one from the public save the newspaper editor attended the meeting. Shannon Nordstrom took a moment to read a letter sent by Sharon Kringen addressed to the board. She said that she would like a regular announcer at the sporting events that are broadcast on the Alliance channel. Everyone agreed that it would be good to have one, and wondered if this couldn’t become a student project.
An item from their regular consent agenda business was pulled out for brief discussion. Normally the school budgets for 3 student teacher positions from our local universities to fill, and Supt. Guy Johnson noted that all those slots have applications already and that he expects more, so he told the board to expect a budgetary increase for that in the coming weeks. He said the school used to budget for at least a half dozen such positions, but that many would go vacant so they set the number lower to 3, and since have had no problem filling that quota every year. This year, Johnson said that they would probably be hiring one or two more such spots.
The next topic under discussion was the Driver’s Education program for this year. Because of COVID-19 closure of schools this past year, there was no Driver’s Ed classes held at Garretson. Because of that, there is a backlog of students wanting to take these courses. With the high level of interest in these classes, Supt. Johnson said that the district realistically must host two sessions. Coordinating with the regular Driver’s Ed instructor, these classes with be hosted both in March and in June. Normally the classes are held in late May, but our regular instructor has coaching commitment this May, as well as other Drivers Ed course commitments in other districts, since they are all in a similar situation as our district.
Supt. Johnson also made a case for raising the tuition of these classes to $235 for Garretson district students and $285 for non-GHS students, which would put the cost much closer to break even for the district.
Next, the board discussed the purchasing of the two new busses in order to take advantage of the Diesel Emission Reduction Act, which can provide up to a 35% cost reimbursement if a school buys a new bus with the reduced emissions diesel engines or the new propane fueled busses.
The consensus of the board, administration and head bus driver Tim Nelson is to go for the new propane fueled busses. Right now, there are two types being manufactured by the Blue Bird and Thomas companies. The board could go one of two ways with these purchases; they could use the established state bid, or they could generate specifications and send the bids out themselves. Supt. Johnson said that if they bid their own specifications, creating their own custom orders, it’s likely the companies will bid these newly manufactured busses at a better price.
Board President Nordstrom, being the automotive expert that he is, said that he is good with either company and either design, but does have a slight favorite.
“Both companies build from the ground up, and I think both would be great for our district. Getting into the weeds a little bit, I like that Thomas for its solid engine design and especially the Allison transmission case. The Blue Bird will use a Ford Transmission case, and there is nothing wrong with that, as it’s used in vehicles across the country, but we might get a little more longevity out of the Thomas using an Allison so I might like that one a little better. I will say that I’d be happy and confident to purchase either one for service for out district, so let’s see what we get on a bid.”
The Supt. then gave his administrative report to the board. First, he mentioned the One Act Play and their advancement to the State Contest in Rapid City this year. Though he did not yet have final results, he said that everything went well, the students made a good accounting of themselves, and that he eagerly awaited final results. Those results came in the next day and were extremely positive with five students getting superior acting awards and the school’s play winning top honors!
Supt Johnson next gave a legislative update. At this time, most of the bills that the district might have opposed had been killed. One bill he mentioned was Senate Bill 177, which had been pushed from the Governor’s office. He said that the Associated School Boards was opposing this measure on the grounds that it takes local control out of the hands of school boards.
Next Supt. Johnson talked about the District’s tax Opt-Out. The Opt-Out measure that passed in 2016 expires this year. The Supt. and Business Manager, Jacob Schweitzer, would like to move forward with another, smaller opt out starting this year.
Supt. Johnson said that there are two paths forward. First, the board could pass a new resolution tonight, have a special public meeting in the coming weeks and meet all the obligations required by statute to have the special election coinciding with the upcoming city/school elections scheduled in mid-April. He said it might be a scramble to get everything ready, but that he was confident that he and Schweitzer could do it. However, he also said they could make discussion and passage of the resolution part of next month’s regular business meeting, schedule a large public meeting, and have a special election for the Opt-Out in May. This would give everyone more time.
The board consensus was not to rush things. They agreed to have the initial vote in the March meeting, a large public meeting and presentation about the Opt-Out and then have a special election afterwards in May.
“We’ve made some decent headway I think,” said Nordstrom. “We didn’t overspend, and we did what we said we were going to do, and didn’t opt-out for the full amount unless we needed to. The community at large has made discernable progress to the goals we need to reach to make the school more economically viable, and we have increased enrollment substantially. But we’re not done, we have more work to do and we’ll need more time and flexibility to do it. We won’t be asking for as much with the next Opt-Out measure. I think the slow, measured way is the way we want to go, give time for people to look at the information themselves and make an informed decision. Let’s not rush it, just to get in on the earlier election ballot. Though that might be convenient, it doesn’t mean it’s what we should do. I wouldn’t want to pass an opt out resolution without a big public meeting and presentation first, or at least as big as we can have it with COVID being what it is.”
They have scheduled the initial vote for their March meeting.
The next item the Supt. wanted to discuss was the potential sale of the baseball field to the city. No definitive progress had been made on that front, but Johnson said that everyone is negotiating in good faith.
There was a brief update from Board Member Ruth Sarar on the Prairie Lakes Cooperative, some adjustment to staff hours for members and our school counselors getting ready to attend their national conference virtually.
The board had an executive session to talk about a personnel matter.
