School Board meets
There were several guests in attendance at the September meeting of the school board regarding interpretation of an extracurricular policy Monday, Sept. 18.
Joni Cain presented a letter to the board and spoke her concerns about the cumulative punishment. She feels the policy is unclear whether the cumulative punishments are for the entire high school career or could be reset each year. Tanner Ross reiterated Cain’s concerns. The policy has a penalty of 14 days for the first offense, 45 days for the second and done out of activities for the third offense.
When the board got to the agenda item about the above policy, superintendent Jon Rehder said they go off the high school athletic code and when he was principal he never looked at the policy. Now that he has looked at the policy, he feels it needs some language added to match the athletic code. He and Matt Elven both said they don’t have an absolute answer. Elven said he looks at the offense and at precedents. The student in question had an offense as a freshman and was suspended for 14 days from activities. He had no offenses as a sophomore or junior and is now serving a 45 day suspension from activities for an offense as a senior.
Board member Gus Hoene asked Rehder and Elven to come back with their recommendations for the policy at the next board meeting.
In other action the board approved the Continuous Improvement Plan for 2023-24, which is a state requirement.
The board also approved switching insurance agents from HUB to Solberg Agency as HUB is no longer an agent for ICRMP and Solberg was recommended by Pepper Harman of HUB.
Policy 3345 was presented with recommended changes. The board voted to approve the policy with those changes.
The board also approved requesting the city of Cottonwood move the city limits line in the football/track and field complex. A person was spinning his vehicle in a portion of the complex behind the announcer stand and the case was thrown out of court because the city limits line cuts through the middle of the football field and the offense was done in the county portion of the field. Therefore the city attorney could not prosecute the offense. The school district will ask the city to annex the portion of the complex all the way to the eastern fence line into the city limits to fix that problem.
A second reading was done of the rest of the proposed policy updates. They will be presented as an action item on next month’s agenda.
Elven reported that Cody Kaschmitter and Trenton Lorentz, with assistance from NICI have prepped and repainted the upper parking lot retaining walls and railings.
He reported there were 194 students in grades 7-12, 3 more than last year at this time.
They currently have over 70 students signed up for dual credits. An LCSC representative was to be at the school on Tuesday, Sept. 19, to go through orientation and registration for those dual credit students.
MAP testing has been going on for the past week and was to be concluded on Monday.
Eric Coffelt will start offering the driving portion of driver’s education this fall for students taking driver’s training through IDLA. Coffelt worked for and received certification over the summer.
There are 29 students out for Knowledge Bowl this year and they had their first competition on Monday, Sept. 18 at Nezperce. They are seeking their fourth straight championship. Darbie Duclos and Emily Cash are this year’s advisers.
Homecoming is this week with activities all week.
The Vitalant blood drive is set for Oct. 12.
Rehder reported the open house was well attended at the Elementary School with only a handful of students’ parents not attending.
ASB elections were held and the winners were pictured in last week’s Chronicle.
iStation testing for K-3 and MAP testing for 4-6 have started. iStation testing will be done during September, January and May. MAP testing is done in September and the end of January.
In his facilities report Rehder reported the insulation was installed last week in the new classroom addition. Roofing was also done last week and siding will be going up this week.
In his superintendent’s report he said he would like to have Rich Bauscher, a former school superintendent in the Boise area, come and do a long range facilities plan. He has been doing this for other districts and would develop a 10-year plan and prioritize things that need to be addressed with school facilities.
They have adopted the HMH Into Reading curriculum for grades 3-5.
There will be a Veteran’s Day program Friday, Nov. 10 at the high school gym.
Enrollment is currently at 430 for grades K-12, which is down 11 from last year but still the second highest number of the past 12 years.
He and Pat Alfrey attended the Idaho School Board Association regional meeting at Lewiston High School on Sept. 14 and took the chance to tour the DeAtley Center there.
The ISBA state conference is set for Nov. 15-17 at Boise.
The board adjourned into an executive session at 8:15 p.m. The next regular meeting of the board will be Monday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.