At the August 20 Chatfield School Board Meeting all board members were present, along with Superintendent Harris, Lorri Lowrey, administrative assistant; and Business Manager Karyl Lyon. No board members had reports to give. Superintendent Harris first welcomed the new elementary principal, Shane McBroom to the school district. He stated that they were very happy to have him on board. Shane had previously been the elementary principal in St. Charles. Under construction updates, school is still on track to open as scheduled but there will be some areas that will need to be finished in early September. One project that is being held up is the front entry because of a miscalculation of the grade coming from the building. The architect will be on site next Tuesday to review this concern and work on a solution. The pay equity report that was not in compliance in March has now been approved by the state with the updated job classifications. Mr. Harris thanked Karyl Lyon for the assistance and guidance in this process. There were two annual readings of district policies and first and second readings of policies that Harris addressed. Jerry Chase reiterated that all staff be especially aware of policy 524 Internet Acceptable Use and Safety Policy.
Principal Randy Paulson gave an update for changes this year in the high school. Ninth and tenth grade physical education and health classes will be combined to allow for better scheduling with a two-year curriculum. Since students in grades nine through 12 will eat lunch at the same time this year, they will have a seventh period flex time of 25 minutes that will allow for meetings and learning opportunities. The Middle School Core Team (English, math, science and social studies) will meet with the seventh graders for three hours in the morning and the eighth graders for three hours in the afternoon. The schedule will vary from day to day depending on the curriculum that is being taught and the project based learning activities. Students taking the Engineering Design/Drafting class during second semester will get three credits from the Southeast Technical College in Winona. Another CIS (College in the Schools) class, CIS Anatomy and Physiology II, will allow students to earn four college credits. Two new courses being offered are Statistics, and Games and Sports; an elective physical education class.
Three consent items were removed and added to new business: approval of the elementary and high school student handbooks, approval of the elementary and high school staff handbooks and the hiring of varsity softball coach, Jerry Chase. Consent items approved were the meeting minutes of July 16, and special meeting August 6. Also approved was the posting of notice for snow removal quotes. The following new hires were approved: Haley Brackett, preschool teacher; and Rachel Schieffelbein, preschool assistant. The job posting for junior high football coach was also approved.
Under new business, the Truth in Taxation Hearing set for December 17, 2018 at 7 p.m. was approved along with the Resolution Calling the School District General Election. This will begin the election process for school board. Of the four people who have filed, three are incumbents: Matt McMahon, Lanny Isensee, and Scott Backer. Dorothy Billmeier has also filed.
The items removed from the consent agenda were then addressed. Board member, Scott Backer stated that he had not been able to read through the student and staff handbooks because he had just received them that morning. He said he didn’t feel comfortable voting on acceptance of them without looking them over. It was decided that in order to provide time for reviewing, the handbooks would be put on the September agenda for approval. Lanny Isensee had concerns about approving Jerry Chase for varsity girls softball coach because he felt it was the mixing of labor and management. Amy Jeffers and Katy Priebe felt it was clouding the duties of each and wearing two hats at once. Priebe stated that in a small town you need to have clarity and transparency to make sure it’s clear to the public. Matt McMahon and Scott Backer discussed the need to look at hiring the best candidate for the position. It was clarified by Superintendent Harris that the MSBA (Minnesota School Board Association) allows board members to be employed by the school district if the salary is not more than $8,000. He also suggested that the issue be tabled and they could have a work session facilitated by MSBA to help the board with the issue and vote on it at the September board meeting. Jerry Chase said that would be too late as he needs to start the planning for the position. McMahon noted that the same issue had come up two years ago and no board policy was ever written to eliminate the problem and that the board again is being reactive because they don’t have a policy. After much discussion the motion to approve Jerry Chase as the varsity softball coach was made and seconded and the vote was three against the approval, two for the approval and one abstention. The motion failed. After more discussion, another motion was made and seconded to approve Chase as the softball coach, pending his resignation from the board on January 1, 2019. This was approved with five votes for the motion and one abstention.
A reminder that the school board meetings are at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the high school and that summer office hours are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned.
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