School calendar & admin renewal contracts get 3-2 votes from board
by Garrick A Moritz, Gazette
The School Board meeting on April 10th was a big one, with two issues coming to a split 3-2 vote. Administrative contracts were renewed despite concerns about future spending even with the opt-out passed, and the board voted to continue the early dismissal on Wednesdays, though there was a proposal to move the end of the day to 2:15 p.m. rather than 1:30 p.m.
The board first addressed the resignation and retirement of long-time GHS Science teacher Bev Howe, thanking her for her service to the district. Elementary teacher Emily Backer submitted her resignation to take a job at another nearby district, and GHS Government teacher Kevin Steckler tendered his resignation from all current teaching assignments. He will, however, continue in his duties as Athletic Director.
School safety a concern
With no old business and no conflicts of interest to discuss, the board then moved to public commentary. Unlike most meetings, they did have someone who wanted to address the board.
Natasha (Halverson) Mendoza, a GHS alum, addressed the board on behalf of her soon-to-be-kindergartener. Her chief concern was about the most recent school shooting incident in Kentucky, and in general her worries about school shootings that have been happening all too frequently nationwide. She was understandably upset and emotional about the topic and wanted to make sure her daughter, who would be starting kindergarten next fall, would be safe in the building.
“Obviously we watch the news as well,” said Board President Shannon Nordstrom. “It’s absolutely horrible, unacceptable and heartbreaking and we take the safety of our students in the building very seriously. We don’t necessarily want to get into the details of our safety plans in an open meeting, but we do have them, and it’s something we take extremely seriously. I’ll let Mr. Johnson elaborate what he can.”
Mr. Johnson did elaborate, noting controlled access on all building doors. Responding to Mendoza’s questions, he said that the school resource officer is a first responder and would respond to any active shooter situation in the building directly.
As a former student of GHS, Mendoza said that she felt she knew the ins and outs of the building fairly well, and anyone with that knowledge could exploit it.
Johnson responded that with the current locking protocols in place, and with the constant camera monitoring and door alarms in place, unknown entry is no longer possible. Concerned about the glass doors, Mendoza pointed out that active shooters destroy regular glass doors with their weapons and simply pass through them.
Nordstrom admitted that none of the school’s glass doors are bulletproof, but that after past school shooting incidents, grant money became available to install the cameras and controlled access door locks.
“Maybe the same thing will happen for school doors,” Nordstrom said. “Also, the fact that our School Resource officer parks his police cruiser in plain view of everyone right in front of the main doors is a huge deterrent to any potential shooter, or so we’ve been told. They know he’s here and from what we’re told about the psychology of these events, that’s a huge potential of stopping incidents before they start.”
Nordstrom and Johnson both invited Mendoza to make a special appointment to tour the building and have many of her concerns talked about in confidence to keep the school safety plans out of the public eye. It’s also worth noting that after the meeting, Kindergarten teacher Jackie Leister spoke with Mendoza about safety concerns and how she operates her daily business.
The next item on the agenda was discussion and passage of the 2023-24 School Calendar. This was the first item of contention.
After Supt. Johnson laid out the calendar as developed by the Calendar committee, which is comprised of several teachers, the athletic director, and administration, the board discussed it at length.
Board member Tana Clark made the argument that the early dismissal on Wednesdays should be changed to 2:15 p.m. rather than 1:30 p.m. She said that while she recognized the merits of the programs being done on Wednesdays to help students succeed, she thought it was too much time devoted to the program. Board member Jodi Gloe agreed, citing complaints she’d received from some parents.
Board member Kari Flanagan, who joined the meeting via phone due to illness, made the motion to approve the calendar as presented and it came down to three "yes" vs. two "no" votes, with Clark and Gloe voting in opposition.
Next, the board considered a recommendation to hire an American Sign Language interpreter to be on staff for the next school year. Salary would come out of the school’s special education budget, and looking at the costs of continuing to hire an interpreter from a private firm- as the school does currently- versus hiring one directly as part of their classified staff, meant the district could save funds. This proposal was greeted with universal approval by the board.
The board then approved appointing an auditor for the fiscal year of 2023 and voted to continue to support the school’s Northern Plains Insurance pool. This pool has been working well for the district over the last several years, with low premiums and good benefits for the school’s staff.
Electric Buses to be purchased
After voting to continue on the South Dakota High School Activities Association for the coming year, Supt. Johnson updated the board on school bussing and the grant program from the Environmental Protection Agency to invest in the purchase of new electric buses for the district.
“This has been a learning process for us all,” said Supt. Johnson. “So, we’re coming before you tonight with two potential proposals for how we want to proceed with this.”
Supt. Johnson said that with the prices as listed, and the models of buses that the committee has settled on, the school would be able to purchase three of these new electric buses and the charging stations to operate them in the existing garage. As of now, the power capacity at the garage is adequate to the school's needs in that regard, but if a fourth or any more electric buses were purchased, more power capacity would be needed.
Johnson brought the board quotes and proposals to go with the existing setup or moving forward with expanding the garage’s power capacity. Though this idea had merit, the board was hesitant on the larger purchase.
“I don’t think we need to do that at this time,” said Clark. “Let’s see what these new buses can do first before we go all in.”
Nordstrom acknowledged the point, saying that the new propane bus was already the pride of the fleet. Keeping one or a few diesel buses in reserve isn’t bad, and ends up diversifying the school’s options, he said.
“Originally when this happened, and this grant opportunity was presented, I admit I was skeptical,” Nordstrom said. “The model and company that make these products sees a lot of use in Canada, and they’re the pride of their fleet up there. Looking into the technology, well it’s come so far and it’s reliable. Reliable in conditions similar or even worse than ours on the roads every day. With the grant money and pricing for the units we want, it’s just too good of an opportunity for the district to pass on. I’m honestly excited to see them in action, so I went from being a skeptic to being very excited about this. It also could save the district a lot of potential money in fuel cost.”
“Well, coming as that does from you, who maybe knows more about vehicles than anyone at this table, that makes me happy to vote for it,” said Gloe.
“Yeah, me too. Sounds like win for Garretson to me,” said Clark.
Wyatt Compton, who will be a new board member this summer, was in attendance and was called on to offer some statistics and specifications about the units, giving the board a favorable opinion on the options. They voted to approve the purchase at the base quote without additional upgrades at the bus barn, aside from the installation of the charging station for said buses.
The Elementary and Middle/High School Principals and Superintendent then both gave their administrative reports to the board.
Elementary Principal & Curriculum Director Katie Hoekman proposed new curriculum for approval by Mr. Johnson with the board's consent.
Supt. Johnson mentioned the South Dakota School Board Administrators Association had sent a letter to the South Dakota Board of Education, unanimously rejecting the new standards proposed.
Since that meeting, this letter, as well as the thousands of public comments against the new standards, were ignored in favor of passing the new Social Studies standards on a 5-2 vote. See a related story by SD Searchlight in this paper. The general opinion that has been expressed by the Garretson School Board is that this is an issue of local control, and that our teachers and staff should choose the curriculum that’s taught to our students in a fact-based education. Any law or mandate that opposes that is counter-intuitive to the goals of the district.
Supt. Johnson then had an update regarding the lighting issues in and around the district’s parking area. He gave full credit to Steve’s Electric for finding the source of the troubles. LED lights had replaced much of their old system, and all the lights had been connected to automatic timers. However, a few of the lights were still on old ballast systems that shut down the lights for safety when they begin to overheat. All the old lights have been marked and noted, and will be replaced by LEDs over the summer.
Supt. Johnson also noted that Mammoth Construction was to begin set-up last weekend to begin work on the athletic complex project, and indeed they have started. Johnson also addressed a concern and confusion the board had about the concrete repairs, and said that yes, that part of the project was part of the base bid. The engineer on the project had listed that as a top priority as the insurance company had made note of it, so that relieved the concerns of several of the board members.
Administrative contracts renewed
The board went into executive session at 7:04 p.m. and was in executive session for two hours. Upon re-convening into public session, they moved to approve the contracts of renewing teaching staff.
However, the renewal of administrator contracts had some debate.
“I’m not in favor of renewing the contracts for plus-one year of the upcoming '23-'24 school year,” Clark said. “This is not because I think that anyone is doing a poor job, or that I don’t value the work our administrators do, I just think that it’s financially irresponsible. The opt-out passed, yes, so we have some breathing room in the general fund, but even with the opt-out there will still be some very lean months and years for the district and I want to see some consistent growth numbers in our district before we make long term commitments.”
This was countered by Kari Flanagan who said, “With the opt-out passing, we need time to let it work and see what happens next. We have a plan and we need to give it time to succeed.”
The renewal of administrative contracts came down to another 3- to- 2 vote, with Clark and Gloe in opposition of renewal.
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The meeting adjourned at 9:08 p.m. While a special meeting was held for further contract negotiations this past Tuesday, the next regular meeting of the Garretson School Board will be on Monday, May 8 at 5:45 p.m. at the Garretson School Library.
