The Winslow Unified School District governing board met last Thursday and started with the election of their officers for the upcoming year. Outgoing board president Marilee Ervien said, “I would like to thank this board, staff of Winslow Unified School District, students and community for all of their hard work this last year. I am proud to be a small part of the accomplishments that have been made.”
She then nominated board member Sharon Greenwood to take her place as president. The nomination was seconded by Clerk Joey Hartnett and approved unanimously by the board in the absence of board member Al Leonard. Greenwood said, “I love this town and I love the students, many of them I know personally. I am a worker, so I’m not always perfect but I will work hard so bear with me and thank you for letting me serve.”
Greenwood nominated Joey Hartnett as her Vice President and approval was made unanimously. Ervien was elected as clerk. The newly elected governing board officers will serve until January of 2019.
The board also approved keeping the meeting schedule at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month in the meeting room at 800 N. Apache.
Also on the agenda was a motion to form a budget committee. Hartnett said, “The reason we want to do this is to get more ideas from the stakeholders and I think we have a good team to do that.” He explained that the members of the committee would be educators from each Winslow school, administrators and two board members. “Roughly 15 or 16 members,” Hartnett said, “and because we can only have two board members there I will go and maybe one more.”
Ervien volunteered for the second board member position. Member Dodie Montoya suggested Business Manager Shirley Lomeli for a spot on the committee, because of her experience in the financial aspects of the district.
During the call to the public, Lomeli spoke and shared her thoughts that Superintendent Cyndie Mattox also be a member of the committee. “There hasn’t been a whole lot of discussion on who will be on the budget committee. I would ask that the board put Mrs. Mattox on the committee. Ultimately what decisions are made and put into place, our Superintendent becomes accountable for the actions of the final outcome. She has to continue to answer to staff, to the board, to the Arizona Department of Education, to our auditors, there are so many that she is accountable to. The board is only asking for suggestions, it’s a committee. People should not feel threatened by anyone else’s presence there, whoever they are.” At press time, information on who will populate the budget committee was not available.
In other business, the governing board:
* Adopted a change in the policy regarding support staff fingerprinting. Previously, the district paid for certified teachers to be fingerprinted, but not support staff. The policy change requires all employees to pay for their own fingerprint clearance.
* Approved the hiring of Clarence Billy as a bus driver, and accepted the resignation of Susan Fuller, a part time aide at Jefferson Elementary.
* Accepted the following donations: $76.48 and $59.05 from Southwest Karma from Sonic Night; $493.20 from Box Tops for Education to Bonnie Brennan Elementary; $432.60 from Box Tops for Education to Jefferson Elementary; and $396.20 from Box Tops for Education to Washington Elementary.
* Approved out of state travel for one employee to Salt Lake City, Utah, to attend the Rocky Mountain Athletic Trainers Association annual clinical symposium on April 12-15. Funds for the trip will be provided by a Career Technical Education grant from the US Department of Education.
* Approved the district financial report for the month of December. Lomeli explained that the district was at 41 percent of its budget, with 50 percent of the school year having lapsed. “We are doing good, we are fine.”
The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board will be 6 p.m. Feb. 22 in the meeting room at the district office located at 800 N. Apache.
