It was a packed agenda for Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board on April 12, with several items needing board approval.
Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) Superintendent Matt Weber presented the board with a quick update. NAVIT provides high school students in 11 host school districts the opportunity to participate in career and technical education programs. SUSD is one of those school districts.
Weber said, “The main reason we exist is for two reasons. The first is to bring a funding stream right here to Snowflake Unified School District to help pay for your career and technical education programs at Snowflake High School. The other reason is we provide some additional career tech and ed programs through Northland Pioneer College.” Currently 528 students participate in these programs at SHS. Weber was happy to report that for the 2018 fiscal year funding was up to approximately $232,000. Compare that to an all-time low in 2013 of approximately $175,000.
The board was then treated to an update by the SHS Student Council. President Melany Flake, Vice President Macey Stewart, Secretary Mandy Stewart, Treasurer Abbie Solomon and Spirit Leader Macady Mortenson updated the board and those in attendance with how things have been this school year.
Aside from things like pep assemblies, homecoming and blood drives, the council was most excited about the recent No Labels Needed movement.
No Labels Needed is a student driven movement that began back in December and although the student council was not involved in the creation of the program they jumped on board very quickly. “The goodness that has come from this student driven movement has changed the culture of our school and I feel like it is starting to change our community,” said Melaney.
The dream for the movement is to create a school environment where students, teachers and parents are inspired to really know and care for each other. They want school to be somewhere people are excited to be because “Something good is always happening,” said Melaney. The student council then showed a brief video of sports events, assemblies and other events from the school year so far. A teary eyed SHS Principal Larry Titus said, “My hat’s off to this student council and the way they work and the things they have done. We are going to miss them.”
In other business, SUSD Business Manager Mark Ollerton presented renewals for both the food services contract and the student bus transportation contract. Both of those were approved but board member Carole Palmer expressed that the district should consider getting their own buses and operate its own transportation rather than contract it out.
The board also approved the creation of a new bank account that would serve as a clearing account for all debit or credit card transactions. “We would zero out that account every month. It opens the door for clear concise accounting,” said Ollerton.
Ollerton then presented the board with a change to the pay period for district employees. “There was a law passed about a year ago that says you must get your paycheck within seven days of the end of the pay period,” said Ollerton. This change is to follow that law and to ensure employees are paid in a timelier fashion. Currently it can sometimes take three and a half weeks for an employee to get their first paycheck. The pay period change was approved, and Wednesday will now be the end of the pay period instead of Saturday.
The next regularly scheduled SUSD Governing Board meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 5, at the SUSD conference room, located at 682 School Bus Lane in Snowflake.
