The Garretson School Board meeting met at their regularly scheduled time of April 13 at 5:45 p.m., but the meeting was unusual in other ways. Using the internet and the Zoom program, the school board convened digitally. To allow the public access to the meeting it was broadcast live on the school’s dedicated public access channel from Alliance Communications. They also allowed a small number of people access to the school commons to watch the proceedings through the large screen television in the commons that is regularly set to the school’s Alliance channel during ballgames. Only the Gazette reporter took advantage of this.
School board member Tony Martens used an empty classroom in the school, whereas Shannon Nordstrom called in from his offices at Nordstrom’s Automotive, and Ruth Sarar, Kari Flanagan, and Rachel Hanisch called in from home. Each administrator joined the meeting from their respective offices, rather than gathering together in one place.
“I’ve done a lot of calls like this before, and especially in this last month,” said Supt. Guy Johnson. “We’ll all be in little boxes just like the Brady Bunch. Just remember, if you put yourself on mute to unmute before you start talking again.”
Despite his warning, he himself and others in the meeting did this a few times. The live broadcast was not without a few technical hiccups and was far from ideal, but it functioned and everyone could be heard.
Board president Shannon Nordstrom held up a small portrait of the flag to the screen and everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance to start the meeting.
First, they talked through, amended, and then approved the agenda. Revision of employee communicable disease policy guidelines was tabled until regular school resumed and the school nurse returned. Nordstrom requested that item F on the agenda, a discussion on Teaching Staff Contract Recommendations, be added until after the executive session and so they would also amend the executive session listed to be for both personnel and contract negotiations. The board approved.
Matt Schrank Named District Teacher of the Year
Matt has been teaching not only our students, but many adults as well this year."
Superintendent Guy Johnson
The board then recognized Matt Schrank as the Garretson School District teacher of the year.
“Matt has been teaching not only our students, but many adults as well this year,” said Supt. Johnson. “The nominations came in and Matt was simply the clear winner. Not only is he doing fun and exciting things in his classes, with thoughtful engagement with his students, and he and his students doing regular broadcasts on our school’s Alliance channel, but he has taught all of our staff how to use technology in new ways. And if you have a question, Mr. Schrank will answer it, in a timely manner too. I know he’s gotten midnight questions from students and staff and he’s responded. This E-learning transition we’re doing in the midst of this crisis would simply not have been possible without him.”
Next, Jacob Schweitzer, Business Manager gave reports on the 2019 Audit of the school and the food service RFP. The audit went well, the only notation is the “lack of controls” clause which is the same complaint small districts (i.e. the majority of SD Schools) with limited personnel get annually from their auditor. Schweitzer recommended that Quam, Berglin & Post, P.C. be rehired for the next fiscal year for this service and the board did so.
He then spoke about the RFP. Thrive Nutrition Service was closing its school lunch operations as of the end of this school year. After retooling the RFP that the previous school business manager, Emily Bucher, had prepared last year, it was ready for board approval and posting. Obviously, no one was happy that this had come to pass in the way it did, but Schweitzer and Johnson were hopeful the district would get at least three potential bidders for this RFP.
2020-21 School Year Calendar Planned as Normal
Next, they spoke about a school calendar for next year. Supt. Johnson said that he hoped next year would be a normal year, and were going to plan as such. If that changed, they would meet that challenge as it was presented. This calendar included a long Christmas break as well as a four-day weekend spring break as requested by staff and students.
Supt. Johnson also discussed the hiring of temporary summer custodial staff, if possible with the Coronavirus outbreak. Summer cleanup is something they do every year, and he felt it’s just as important if not more so now.
The board voted for the candidate from Brandon to fill the vacant spot on the Associated School Boards of South Dakota executive board. They also renewed the school’s current insurance policies as is. Because of the school’s three-year average of medical expense payouts, premiums for staff will rise between $30-40 per person, depending on the plan selected by that individual from the four available plans.
Senior Capstone Changed to Elective, Adds Internship Opportunity
Next item under discussion was HS curriculum changes. This was to further discuss and ratify the plans that HS/MS Principal Chris Long brought to the board last month. The Senior Experience capstone class would be made into an elective rather than a requirement, while certain requirements that were in the curriculum of said class would be shifted to Mrs. Kelsey Buchholz’s required classes. The new internship program would be optioned as an elective as well. The board did agree to these changes though all agreed that they wanted to keep the senior experience and to see how it could be vitalized along with the addition of this new internship program.
Two polices up for consideration were discussed, Health & Safety and Staff Participation in Political Activities. The first was as advertised and hadn’t been revised in more than 10 years. The second was for on the books regarding staff who might potentially run for public office in an election. This had not been revisited in some time either.
The board approved revisions to the Employee Communicable Diseases, use of Alcohol and Drugs policy. Minor changes only to these, to make them comply with the ASBSD recommendations. The Disease policy was the only one with significant changes, empowering the administrator to form a panel of teachers and employees to determine how long an employee would be excused from work due to illness. These were first readings and they’ll be voted on at the next meeting.
Next the principals and tech coordinator spoke about handbook policy changes. All were very minor, fixing grammatical and typographical mistakes and updating tables of contents. The board will vote on these changes at the next meeting.
State Event Policy for Sports and Activities Amended
Next the school discussed two more policy items, IGD-B Attendance at State Events and DLC-R: Expense Reimbursement. This was the issue that Board Member Tony Martens wanted looked into and amended at the last meeting. He pronounced that he was very satisfied with these changes.
Supt. Johnson said that fairness and consistency was a clear issue in the policy as written. The reimbursement policy was fine, but that the State Events policy was the cause of the consistency issues. He was confident that it was fair to athletes, coaches, statisticians and student managers. The speculation was that this was instituted as a cost saving measure at one time. It’s now been revised so that student managers are recognized for providing aide to coaches in an essential role. He also noted that this policy revision will aid the wrestling, cross country and track programs, as well as for the first time including the soccer program, a huge policy oversight since the soccer program has been a valuable addition to our sports programs for several years now, and wasn’t addressed at all in this policy. This will be voted on at the next meeting.
There were no second readings, so they went on to Administrative reports.
First Supt. Johnson updated the board on legislative news. Senate Bill 188 allows the Secretary of Education to waive the required per student hours for SD Schools in a Declared State of Emergency. So our district, like all others, will apply for a waiver. SB 189 waived all legal requirement for student testing, school drills, etc. Things impossible to do with the school closed and no students in the building but that they are normally required by law to do.
Supt. Johnson said that the legislature did approve a 2% increase in teacher pay this year, but that the lobbyist that works for ASBSD has warned all member schools that likely the Governor will hold a special session of the legislature this summer, expected in June, and they will more than likely consider budget cuts. His assessment is that certain legislators will propose cutting that increase to nothing or even making cuts. Only time will tell.
Senate Bill 174 makes Capital Outlay dollars available to be used for new software or software upgrades or updates, and that’s a potential boon to the district. HB1042 adjusts levels of Special Education dollars, changing it from a 3-year average to a two-year average, a good change especially when considering the revisions to dyslexia qualifications. Supt. Johnson had talked about unfunded mandates in this regard but he hopes this will be a workable solution for the future.
E-Learning Continues, Has Good Response
Supt. Johnson then gave his briefing and had both Elementary Principal Teresa Hulscher and MS/HS Principal Chris Long give their briefings about how the school is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school shutdown.
“When last the board met, we discussed what we would do should the worst happen and we be forced to call off school for the rest of the year,” said Supt. Johnson. “That proved to be the case and we’ve adjusted the majority of our education to an E-Learning format.”
Alliance Communications has provided free internet service to district families who do not otherwise have it, for the duration of this crisis. Now there are regular class meetings happening from 3rd grade on up. In fact, kindergarten through second grade are at very least having weekly classroom meetings. Principal Hulscher has issued school iPads to 10 families, but in many cases, they are able to use home computers or tablets, cell phones or other devices already owned by families to join in online meetings and do online lessons. Also, weekly homework packets are being distributed every Friday. She was proud to report that they had nearly 100 percent distribution, though returns are at about 75 to 80 percent for that homework. Realistically, that’s more than she expected. Children learning in a home environment is different for each and every family, and she recognized that people who work essential jobs sometimes have little time to spend with their children after a day of work. Thankfully the daycare providers are working hard with those students who are still using daycare service to get homework learning done. Grading scale is simply unable to be used this quarter, but teachers are using the homework to track the progress of the students.
All measures to protect staff and students to keep them safe from the coronavirus are being taken, including regular sterilization of surfaces and isolation of the returned homework assignments for 72 hours before being reviewed by the teacher.
Other schools are not even close to that number, and it’s a credit to Mr. Schrank and the work he’s done with our students and staff. We hit the ground running with this right away, and though we’ve had difficulties to be sure, we’ve worked together to overcome them."
Principal Chris Long
Principal Long reported a lot of success from the E-learning program the school has instituted. “Consistency” and “Communication,” he said, were his first watch words, now he says the watchwords are “Realistic” and “Relevancy.” He said that MS & HS students are given between 2-4 hours of homework and assignments per day. Every one of his teachers is crafting E-lessons, video assignments, and class meetings using Zoom. He’s proud to report that assignments completed and received back are at 85%, a number that astounded him.
“Other schools are not even close to that number, and it’s a credit to Mr. Schrank and the work he’s done with our students and staff,” he said. “We hit the ground running with this right away, and though we’ve had difficulties to be sure, we’ve worked together to overcome them.”
He also noted that he and Mr. Schrank will be collaborating to do National Honor Society events, students of the month and other such honorifics both online and broadcast on the public access channel.
“Some people think we’re not busy because the school is out, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Long said. “I’ve forgotten to eat lunch until 1:30, 2 O’clock because there is so much to do everyday.”
Board President Nordstrom said that he admits that doing the iPad program and making all of the technological upgrades at the school was something that could sometimes stretch the school’s budget a little thin, but he wanted to thank the Technology Committee for stretching every dollar of the school’s budget for the last several years because it put the district in a good position for this crisis.
Long, Nordstrom, and Supt. Johnson spoke about how the school has jumped in with both feet to meet this crisis head on, and that the teaching staff has done some serious learning themselves to make it happen. Nordstrom commented about how teacher and AD Kevin Steckler, not a luddite, but certainly no technophile either, “did some inspiring work.”
“My daughter showed me a lesson from Mr. Steckler,” Nordstrom said. “Kevin was giving it his all, and she laughed and smiled while she watched it. Sure she was laughing, but I could tell she was learning too and it was inspiring her. I told her, this is something you’ll remember for your whole life. I’m sure we don’t want to make all these lessons available for the public at large to watch, but if we could get some of them up to show people what’s happening, or even broadcast some on this channel, I think people would really enjoy seeing it.”
Schrank and the other admins said that it would be easy enough to make a highlights reel, that several teachers were doing the same thing and it would be great to showcase that for the community.
Graduation Plans Still in Progress
We’ve got 44 students graduating this year and I’ve heard about 30 different ideas from them, each wanting to do it a certain way.”
Principal Chris Long
As for graduation, what that would entail, or when it could even be scheduled, is still up in the air.
“We’ve got 44 students graduating this year and I’ve heard about 30 different ideas from them, each wanting to do it a certain way,” Long said. “I want to have graduation as much as anyone and I want to do it correctly and safely for everyone. We’ve got time yet, to plan something. This situation is changing week by week. We have time, and we’ll figure something out and as soon as we do, the board and the public will be the first to know. We want to protect the folks in our community, grandparents of our students and our senior citizens who enjoy our ballgames and activities.”
The board had an executive session after these reports for personnel and contract negotiations. After it was over and they were back to broadcasting, they voted to approve the list of teachers recommended for contracts. Supt. Johsnon told the Gazette that, “Their motion allows us to issue contracts to staff we will have returning next year. We do have one staff member to replace - Mrs. Hersom, who announced her retirement last month, but this action has no impact on that.”
