B-H BOARD APPROVES ADMIN CONTRACTS, TALKS BULLYING POLICY

    At Monday night’s Britton-Hecla Board of Education meeting, community members and staff once again spoke during the open forum.
    Fourth-grade teacher Courtney Paulson shared highlights from her classroom, noting that her students especially enjoyed art and reading.
    Dan Tracy reiterated concerns about the eBook platform Sora.
    B-H English Language Arts teacher Jen Boyko responded to criticisms of Sora, calling them “unfounded” and “completely out of proportion” compared to what actually happens in classrooms and with students readers. She pointed out that several blocked titles contained LGBTQ content in their descriptions, emphasizing, “LGBTQ lives are real lives. Those are people in our building that we love.” Expressing frustration as a teacher, parent, and community member, Boyko argued that removing books reinforces biases and fosters intolerance among students. She suggested a policy to make it more difficult to hide titles and urged individuals to cite sources when making claims about books and situation in general. 
    Jeanne Ahlgren countered that LGBTQ books were not being singled out but that many contained sexually explicit material. However, she agreed that one of the children’s books Boyko mentioned should be unblocked.
    During the regular agenda, policy committee member Heather Landreth provided updates from the committee’s last meeting. She explained that the committee recommends adding language to the district handbook clarifying that if a conflict arises between the handbook and board-adopted policy, the latter takes precedence. This adjustment would allow the board to approve the full handbook before the next school year instead of midyear.
    Regarding policy 6032, which governs the review of library materials, Landreth noted the committee’s proposal to update language to better reflect actual practices. Suggested changes include clarifying that a committee may review materials and specifying that the policy does not apply to external eBook vendors. However, the school will still make reasonable efforts to control access based on age and review books according to policy. These updates will be considered at a future meeting.
    In other policy matters, the board voted to add a line to policy 5054 on bullying, explicitly prohibiting bullying through artificial intelligence. Board member Audrey Schuller voted against the addition, arguing that AI-related bullying was already covered under the existing cyberbullying clause.
    The board also approved the 2025-26 school calendar, with classes beginning Aug. 19 and ending May 15. Graduation is set for May 17, 2026.
    During his report, Superintendent Steve Benson highlighted a bill that recently advanced out of committee, which would require school board elections to be held in June or November. He noted that while the intent is to increase voter turnout by aligning elections with the primary or general election, a November transition could pose challenges if new board members take office midyear.
    In personnel matters, contracts for all admin positions were approved, including superintendent, principals and business manager. The board accepted the resignation of Assistant Business Manager Danelle Elsen.