The Houston School Board had its regularly scheduled meeting on October 18, 2016. The meeting, which commenced at 6:02 p.m., saw in attendance Board Members Kelleher, Stilin, Evenson, Krage, Carlson, and Wilson along with School Superintendent Abraham. In the audience were several members of the elementary and high school staff, along with High School Principal Todd Lundberg. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, the board approved the agenda and four new contracts for personnel at the Minnesota Virtual Academy, along with one increased contract and five hiring memos.
The public comment period of the meeting began with Ryan Gatzlaff, the high school business teacher, who presented a letter signed by 28 of the high school staff. It praised the conduct of the administration in dealing with the October 10 instance of terroristic threats that took place at the high school. Following Mr. Gatzlaff, Lisa Schutte spoke for the elementary school with a similar letter with 20 signatures from elementary staff. Both letters praised Superintendent Abraham by name for her response to the crisis, specifically mentioning the email Abraham sent to all staff members the night after the threats apprising them of the situation. Immediately after the letters were read and applause was heard, Superintendent Abraham declared the successful handling of the threat of violence toward the school “a team effort.”
During the discussion portion of the meeting, the board first looked to bring back the position of drama club advisor for the high school. According to Superintendent Abraham, there has been a large increase in interest and demand for a drama club. The issue will be on the agenda for the November 1 meeting as Old Business to be looked over again by the board. Secondly, the board looked at the idea of a technology steering committee. This would be a district committee and not a board subcommittee, and would meet anywhere from monthly to quarterly. Board Member Carlson wanted to ensure that this steering committee would include people with a passion for the district tech plan, as the Houston District does not have district-exclusive IT personnel. The board will look at this issue again at their next meeting.
Next, the board looked at establishing a preschool taskforce. Superintendent Abraham is looking to make the program more cost-effective for the district, and mentioned the possibility of an additional $2,550 in scholarship money. Abraham stressed the necessity of involving the teachers in the process as well to ensure a proper allocation of money and funding. The board decided to revisit this issue at a later date in the hopes that the taskforce can put together hard numbers to be ruled on.
Following that discussion, the board took a look at a recap from the facility committee meeting. According to Board Member Wilson, the “punch list” is close to being closed out as they go through the facilities issues one by one. Included in this list were bids for the removal of a house and garage near the preschool building, repairs and future upgrades to the preschool basement due to water damage, a new hard drive for the external high school camera system, and a new notification system for the elementary school. At the request of the local Girl Scouts, the facilities committee examined the issue of whether or not the school should consider flooding the practice football field for use as an ice skating rink. Lastly, the committee looked into the process for renaming the high school football field, but it was ruled that because Houston has no district policy on renaming, they would have to gather information from other districts before making a decision.
Additional items were on the agenda for the facilities committee, but there was not enough time in their meeting to address them all before the board meeting.
The board moved on to old business, and approved three policies upon their second reading. Policy 512 dealt with school sponsored student publications, Policy 531 with the Pledge of Allegiance, and Policy 533 with wellness. All of these policies can be viewed at the school district’s website. New business included the matter of an expulsion recommendation for the rest of the school year for the student responsible for the threat of violence to the school on October 10. Superintendent Abraham made it clear that all necessary legal steps had been taken, and that the student would be banned from all school activities. The student is allowed to seek education in other districts. The board passed the recommendation, which will be incontestable as the student’s parents waived their right to a public hearing.
The board finished up the meeting with a few announcements: Election Day is November 8, and a K-12 government relations representative will be visiting the school on October 25 at around 11 a.m. The dates of the MSBA Leadership Conference have been announced as January 12-13, 2017. All other information is TBA. Superintendent Abraham announced that the elementary school would be celebrating Red Ribbon Week from October 24-28, featuring dress-up days during the week in place of the traditional Halloween Party. Following the events of October 10, it was decided that there would not be a Halloween party, and dress-up options such as face paint and masks will not be allowed due to the stress surrounding the recent threats. It was decided by the district that the emotional and psychological safety of the students could not be secured if they had their traditional Halloween party, as some of the children are now, according to Abraham, “absolutely petrified of anything that looks remotely like a clown.”
The meeting concluded at 6:59 p.m., after a motion to adjourn was made and seconded.
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