The Garretson School Board had their regular April meeting on April 11.
Unlike the last several meetings it was sparsely attended, with only Jacki Liester (representing the local teachers association), Tana Clark (a school board member elect) and Garrick Moritz (representing this newspaper) in attendance.
There were no public comments so the board moved on to consent agenda items. The only update to this were new fuel quotes from Palisades Oil and Vollan Oil. The board passed the consent agenda as amended.
Board member Rachel Hanisch asked Superintendent Guy Johnson about the driver’s education program.
“Mr. Johnson, is the Driver’s Ed program full this year?” she asked.
“As of today, yes, it is full,” he responded. “Right now, we have a waiting list. We perhaps may be able to accommodate one or two more students in the classroom, but the problem is getting the necessary driving time with our instructor. If Mr. (Michael) Satter is able to give us more days later in the summer that he’s available then perhaps we’ll be able to have a few more students, but as of right now we are full.”
Next the board wanted to recognize two staff members. First was Kevin Steckler, as he was recognized as regional Athletic Director of the year by his peers. Second, they wished to recognize Darcy McGee as the Garretson Teacher of the Year. Mr. Johnson said that she will be the keynote speaker at graduation this May.
Though a few new positions and changed positions were still in negotiation, the majority of staff contracts were ready for approval. The board voted to approve the current pending certified staff contracts.
The board then discussed and approved the use of the facilities by the Orthopedic Institute for their summer programming, which requires an exception to policy KD. The board voted to approve.
Next, the board talked about insurance. The Northern Plains Insurance Pool offerings and premiums are what the school has been using and as business manager Jacob Schweitzer gave his report, he said that he was shocked that there were virtually no changes to the plans offered. Most everything was staying the same from last year’s coverage so he recommended that the board enroll the school in the same plans again this year. The board directed him to do so.
Next, the board was considering the 2022-23 calendar. Supt. Johnson shared with the board the results of the survey they issued concerning the early Wednesday dismissal and its use now for student intervention programming. Originally, the early Wednesday dismissal started as a time for teacher planning and additional building sanitation during the Covid-19 crisis. Now, it has transformed into a time when teachers, administrators and staff can work with a struggling student to address their needs and help them achieve better success at school.
Supt. Johnson said that of the survey’s sent out, only 37 parents responded. The largest complaint about early Wednesday dismissal was finding childcare and the extra cost that incurred because of it.
However, many of the parents, especially parents whose students have directly benefited from the program, responded positively.
He said that the biggest and most common complaint was the early dismissal followed by dismissal for parent teacher conferences and in-services that made for 3 days off for students.
“I totally understand that complaint and we have addressed that problem in this year’s calendar," Johnson said.
The idea would be to spread out parent teacher conferences over the course of two Wednesdays and to schedule teacher in-services for different weeks. The times would be 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. the first Wednesday and 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. or later on the second Wednesday, if necessary, to accommodate guardian work schedules.
“We hesitate to go too late and to interfere with church activities on a Wednesday night, which is why I think we should cap it at 6 p.m.,” said Johnson. “We think that this might alleviate a lot of those pressures for families, but we’re going to try it our first semester and if it doesn’t work we’ll be bringing it back to you folks to revise.”
The board voted to approve the calendar.
The board then voted to join the South Dakota High School Activities Association for 2022-23.
The board had no new first draft policies to review, just informational items looking at the anti-hazing policies and prohibition of corporal punishment policies last reviewed in 2009. The board had a second reading and approved new policies on staff fringe benefits and amending their KD policy to match the already adopted BDDH as of 2019. It should be noted that this policy, entitled Public Participation at Board Meetings, limits the public to making commentary at school board meetings. People who wish to make public commentary at a Garretson School Board meeting must submit a request to speak to the board prior to the meeting, in writing, to be heard. This is unlike both the City of Garretson and Minnehaha County Commissioners meetings, who allow anyone to speak during the public comment portion at their meetings without prior written authorization.
These two policy updates passed unanimously.
Supt. Johnson then went on to his report.
First, Supt. Johnson asked the board how soon they would like to start the process of taking applications to fill out the board seat that will be vacated by Ryan Longhenry, who has withdrawn his petition for the board.
Longhenry wondered why there would not be a special election for his seat. Supt. Johnson responded that because Longhenry had filed a petition to be re-elected, that according the school’s legal counsel, he had the seat until someone else is appointed to fill it. With this in mind, Supt. Johnson said that the school should start the process of seeking applicants to fill the board position sooner rather than later.
“We could start in May, or perhaps even this month of April already,” Johnson said. “We’d put a notice in the local paper and ask for applications for your seat, then you would serve the rest of your term. At the July meeting we would switch over to the new board, and you would start out as a member of that board until we selected your replacement by vote. This gives us time to look at as many applications as are sent in and interview prospective board members for the position. The interviews would be in executive session, but the final vote would be in open session and part of our published agenda at that July meeting.”
The board agreed that the process should start as soon as possible.
On that note, the board agreed to move their July meeting to Monday July 18th to accommodate board President Shannon Nordstrom, who will be traveling for the Auto-Recyclers Association the week before and unable to attend the regularly scheduled meeting on July 11th.
Supt. Johnson reported that there were only 4 weeks left of regular school as of this meeting. Golf and Track events had begun and the year was starting to wind down.
Supt. Johnson was also happy to announce that with the money the Garretson Parent/Teacher Organization had raised, combined with a generous donation from the Prairie Rose Fund, they have the money they need to upgrade the school playground’s equipment. If all goes well, it will be installed before school starts next fall.
“We’re very excited about this, grateful to Prairie Rose and our Parent/Teacher Organization for their hard work,” he said. “I recall when we had the new picnic tables installed not that long ago. They got installed and the next day, the very next day, we had local families coming to our playground for picnics and it was something that made me happy to see. So, they get this new playground equipment up, the kids will be all over it.”
As far as an update with the Prairie Rose Cooperative, the only news is that the Madison School District will be the headquarters location once again.
The board then went into executive session to discuss a personnel issue and for contract negotiations. They were out of executive session at around 8 p.m. and the only item they voted on was to adjourn.
