The Winslow School District Governing Board approved issuing contracts and work agreements for most of its previously approved personnel March 16. The contracts for administrators will be on the agenda of the next board meeting.
The board also approved the hiring of Jolyn Nebeker as district part-time substitute bus driver, Michael Lenz as high needs special education aide at Winslow High School and Gene “Rusty” Robertson as assistant track coach at WHS. Justin Hartman and Jeff Hartman were approved as volunteer wrestling coaches at WHS.
Resignations were approved for Marianne Richardson as special education teacher at Washington School effective May 26, and Sarah Smithson as student advisor at WHS effective June 10. Retirement and return to work was approved for Carol Gilliam, a kindergarten teacher at Bonnie Brennan School, effective May 26.
During board member comments, Marian Scheid informed everyone about an e-mail received by Watson from Chuck Essigs of Arizona Association of School Business Officials (AASBO) regarding the state budget proposal. One of the items proposed is that districts must charge tuition for full-day kindergarten equal to the state funding formula amount. Scheid said that in our district this would be about $2,000 per student, and would be very bad for our district, the students and their families. She urged everyone to write the state representatives and let them know if they are not in favor of this. Shirley Lomeli has a link to contact the representatives, and she invited people to call her for the information.
Superintendent Doug Watson addressed the board regarding the Youth Behavior Risk Survey to be given to WHS students. This survey has been given in the past and is useful for the district and the county health department to direct some educational plans. Watson asked High School Principal Chris Gilmore to provide further information.
Gilmore distributed a handout regarding Safe and Supportive Schools Grants. The Arizona Department of Education was granted $5,874,815, of which WHS will be given $71,428 for each of four years.
The grant will be used to survey students, parents and staff, analyze the data regarding the climate and culture of the school, and plan ways to make a safer school. The handout included copies of the student survey, the parent survey and the staff survey. Gilmore reviewed the sources of the questions on the survey, which have been approved by the Centers for Disease Control as valid questions to assess risk. Some of the questions are of a personal nature, but the students will not be identified by name and there is a form for parents to opt their student(s) out of the survey if they wish to do so. The survey will be given in April by a representative from ADE and the data will be analyzed by ADE.
In other action, the board:
*Accepted donations of $300 for the WHS Hoop Club from an anonymous donor and $101 for Washington School from Arizona Restaurant Systems Inc. for Sonic Night.
* Approved the district technology plan.
* Authorized a letter of declaration to request renewal of the district’s line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank, as directed by the Navajo County Treasurer’s Office.
* Held the first reading of proposed changes to Governing Board Policy JFB-Open Enrollment and the corresponding regulation and exhibit. These proposed changes will add some specific language relating to capacity limit determination and application procedures, and will slightly redesign the application form.
Watson explained to the board that the proposed changes to the policy will change the procedure to determine whether capacity is available for any particular special needs student. Currently, capacity determination is based on numbers of students. If the board adopts the proposed changes, in the future, the needs of each special needs student will be individually assessed with regard to regular classrooms, special needs classrooms and special programs. Parents must provide a copy of the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or 504 Plan as part of the application procedure.
Watson distributed a flow chart explaining the proposed new procedure, and said that the new procedure is a little more complicated, but manageable.
The board examined the documents and noted that the sentence, “Failure to do so will result in a determination that the application is incomplete,” needs to be added to the application form under Item 2 on Page 3. Watson said that this would be done prior to the second reading, which may be in two or three meetings, as Arizona School Boards Association and attorneys are reviewing the proposed changes. He expects no further changes to be recommended.
