MORE POLICY TALK FOR B-H BOARD

    The Britton-Hecla Board of Education held their September meeting this past Wednesday. Much of the time was again spent dealing with district policies. In last month’s meeting, the board adopted a new policy book that included close to 200 policies. Now they are going back and making changes to select policies as needed. 
    Several policies were discussed. Some of the changes suggested by board member and policy committee member Heather Landreth were very minor, such as correcting spelling, while some changes were substantial. 
    The policy on open enrollment regarding class capacity was discussed. It states that the student to teacher ratio can’t exceed 24 students as a result of open enrollment. However, there are currently 25 students in the fifth grade class. The board discussed how to deal with the matter while providing the district flexibility and being cost effective. They are obligated to provide free appropriate public education to any child living in the district but have a say when it comes to enrolling students through open enrollment. 
    Elementary Principal Kyla Richter also explained to the board that each class and their needs are different when it comes to how many students a teacher can handle. Landreth was tasked to speak to KSB, the law firm who provided the policies and the district’s legal representation, about how to best change the policy. 
    The class rank policy was also discussed. The suggested change to the policy took out “valedictorian and salutatorian” when mentioning senior awards. Board member Audrey Schuller noted she would like to see those kept in place. Superintendent Steve Benson said that the district has not given those awards for a number of years and instead classifies different levels of honors. High School Principal Carrie James added that she likes the current honors designations and said it would be very difficult to pick the top two students with many high achievers. 
    There were also some questions as to the proper procedure to bring up changes to previously adopted policies. Schuller asked, “Are we going to allow time to go through these systematically,” when she was told that a change she wanted to discuss shouldn’t be brought up as it wasn’t on the agenda. It was noted that she should bring suggestions to the board president to put on the agenda or bring it up with the policy committee.
    First readings were held for several other policies including those about Complaint Procedure, Operation of School Business Office, Law Enforcement Unit, Restrictions on Employees, Grievance Procedure, Locker Room Supervision, Early Graduation, and Activity Trips. 
    To review these policies and proposed changes, go to https://www.britton.k12.sd.us/documents/board-of-education/board-policies/policies-under-review/687720. The policy changes will undergo a second reading at the next meeting and then presumably be adopted. 
    Benson asked the board to adopt changes to policy 3038: Possession of Firearms by District Patrons right away. The policy now reads “It is the official policy of the school district that no firearms are allowed on school property. Anyone found in possession of a firearm on school property will be considered a trespasser, and the District will contact law enforcement to have the person removed.” The policy supersedes a law approved in the legislature earlier this year that would allow those with enhanced permits to carry a concealed weapon in schools under certain circumstances. SEE THIS POLICY: https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/2037/BHSD/4829038/3038_Possession_of_Firearms_by_District_Patrons.pdf
In other board business, a couple of staffing matters were handled. Angela Grupe was approved as a varsity assistant volleyball coach and Emma Bennett and Claire Bremmon were approved for junior high volleyball coach positions. 
    The board talked about the possibility of putting an ATM in the arena lobby. Board member Josh Hawkinson had been approached by a company out of Fargo about this. The school would get a dollar from every transaction. Hawkinson said neither of the local banks were interested in providing an ATM. The board directed him to have the company send the school a contract for consideration. Open enrollment applications for two Sisseton district students, a fourth and ninth grader, were denied due to lack of capacity and staffing. 
    In their principals’ reports, Richter and James went over various activities and events. They noted that enrollment was slightly down. As of last week, there were 392 K-12 students on campus and 79 students at the colony schools.
    In the superintendent report, Benson followed up on the issue of the public having access to the district’s library catalog which was added to the library policy last month. It was discovered that the computer server would have to be updated to allow this. The district’s tech coordinator is looking into updating the server or moving to a cloud-based system. 
    Benson encouraged the board to educate themselves about Initiated Measure 28 that is included in the upcoming general election. This measure would eliminate the tax on consumables. The superintendent added that the potential lost state revenue is a concern for public education as education is the government’s number one expense. 
The next board meeting will be Tuesday, October 15.