Sorry this is so late getting written. The first matter of business was talking about the resignation of Tamara Jolley as a first grade teacher and the retirement of Carol Barbre. Valerie Bame will teach 1st grade. She has been teaching in Burley. Becky Thane will be back again to teach secondary math, and Bob Lambert was hired to teach 9th and 10th grade English. There still is a need to hire teachers for the 1st and 5th grades. The district will also need to hire a special education teacher. I assume the new hires will be made soon. Thanks to all the teachers who left the district and welcome to those joining the district.
We then had a discussion about replacing the elementary boiler. Administration has talked to several companies about how to go foreword. Many ideas were given. The estimated cost to replace the boiler is anywhere from $130,000 to $150,000, far more than the estimate that was done before the supplemental levy. The levy money will only cover $70,000 of the cost. Another problem is, even at this high estimate it doesn't include air conditioning. At this cost estimate we couldn't afford air conditioning. The air conditioning would add another $8,000 to $10,000 per unit, and this amount wouldn't include electrical upgrades that would be needed. As you might guess this was very disappointing to hear. I know the boiler is very old and needs replaced pretty soon, although it seems to still be working okay for now, one major goal in replacing it was to add air conditioning. After a long discussion and patron input, it was decided to go to an engineer who designs air systems for buildings like this and pay to have them give us their recommendations. This is a big investment and we need to have all the correct information we can get to be able to make the right decision. Because of this delay in being able to proceed with bids, it's likely now that the heating system won't be replaced until next year.
We then had a discussion about some concerns brought to the administration by the cheerleaders. Mr. Gee presented us a procedure recommendation for determining how many athletes can travel to state in each sport, and what costs the district pays for. Making sure only the students who qualify to participate in the state tournaments travel on the bus is part of the plan. By doing this it provides room for six cheerleaders to travel with them. The transportation recommendations also apply to district tournaments. When traveling to state basketball and football, the recommendation was to provide three rooms, two for cheerleaders and one to the advisor.
Cheerleaders will not travel to regular season away games. There has been some concern about how to many cheerleaders should stand along the sidelines during basketball games. This past year there were 15 cheerleaders, next year there will be 21. The recommendation was for there to be 6 at one time. They can all perform during the normal breaks, but more than 6 on the floor at a time was thought to be a problem. All the cheerleaders can perform at their state competition.
There was a lot of comments from cheerleaders and some parents. One question was if parents could take the cheerleaders to some away games so they can cheer at them. The cheerleaders would really like to cheer at some regular season away games. This is against policy for athletics and would apply to the cheerleaders too. All athletes have to travel by bus for safety reasons. If something were to happen to a student athlete traveling to away games in any other way than by bus the district could be held liable. This is the
policy at other schools too. There were questions about taking an extra bus to some away games so students and cheerleaders could travel and cheer. Mr. Gee said it costs about $1,500 to take a bus almost anywhere. The district can't afford to provide an extra bus. There was talk about providing an activity bus and have students pay the cost. I guess this was tried once last year but not enough students signed up, so it didn't happen. There was also requests made to let more cheerleaders stand along the court than just six. I wondered if they need to have a limit to the number of cheerleaders. The way varsity cheerleaders are chosen was mentioned. There will be 17 of them, so that makes it harder to decide which six can travel to state.
It seemed to me like we were being asked to make decisions that really should be left up to the coach, athletic director, and administration. I mentioned this and encouraged them to work this out, we as a board shouldn't micromanage this issue. I said the program has to stay within budget, beyond that everyone else needs to talk further to decide if anything needs changed from what was presented to us. I appreciate the cheerleaders and I'm glad their program is going well.
Mr. Tubbs talked about the budget again, but he didn't have much new information. Next month we will have the budget meeting, so we should know a lot more then.
We talked over some policy updates and then went into executive session. I think that pretty well covers it. I thought the graduation went well. The graduating class was 67 students. My class, many years ago was 68. I for one am glad our district stays about the same. I'm sure glad I'm not on a board like District 93 and have all their growth issues. Hard to believe another school year is over. Good luck to all the graduating seniors. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks, Brian
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