Board approves sale of surplus property

Seeley Lake Elementary School Board

SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board unanimously approved a resolution allowing the public sale of the school’s surplus property during their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, July 19. They also approved new teachers, discussed curriculum upgrades and planned for next year.

The extra supplies being offered to the public included file cabinets, TV monitors, computer monitors, tables and chairs. For a full list see the classifieds in this week’s Pathfinder. The items will be distributed in the form of a silent auction Tuesday, Aug. 3 which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at SLE. The top bidders can then pick up their items from the school the next day by paying with check or cash.

During his report, Superintendent Josh Gibbs announced that they still have one open position in special education to fill for next year.

He said at the next meeting, the board will discuss extending the school day by five minutes next year. According to Gibbs, in Montana the maximum number of contact hours teachers can have with students is 28. Currently they have 27.5. By extending the days by five minutes, it would give the school “a couple of extra days to play with” in terms of offering teachers extra time for training.

Gibbs said they received the results of the school’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) report cards. Because of COVID-19 and the waivers that came with ESSA’s testing, this year’s report card does not show a comparison for SLE to the rest of the state.

What the report card did provide is the school’s per pupil spending, which is about $14,417.14 compared to the state’s average of $12,000. According to Gibbs, this could be for a number of reasons including the school’s lower student to teacher ratio as well as all of the federal, state and local funding the school receives. He said one district he looked at showed that they were $10,000 above the state average.

Gibbs also announced the results of their STAR tests which monitor student progress in the form of three tests throughout the school year. The results are measured on how much of an improvement a class is seeing in accordance with a nine-month school year.

In math, all of the classes, on average, showed an improvement by one grade level. Reading saw noticeably less improvement so Gibbs said that it was something that they should watch.

Gibbs said in the near future he would start formalizing the School Improvement Plan by linking documents together and making it generally presentable for members of the public. In August, he plans to have the document reviewed by the school board. In the plan, the school adopted a new math curriculum. They expect to update their science and social studies curriculum as well.

He also announced that the school’s new security cameras are wired and will soon be functioning.

During public comment, Trustee Kathy Teague brought attention to the issue of deer getting stuck in the school’s chain link fence.

“Over the [24] years [of] living [here], I have watched deer charge the fence and get stuck,” she said. “I even watched one charge so hard, it broke its neck and died. I had to call somebody to come and take it away.”

The board discussed potential solutions including installing a vehicle-sized gate on the northwest corner or replacing a section of fence with a pole to create better wildlife traffic flow.

Board member Ryan Dunster pointed out that retailers like Walmart and Target have started seeing outages of certain school supplies. He suggested that they provide a list of required school supplies for this school year. He estimates that the school would receive around $500 from the Fourth of July Duck Race that would go towards school supplies. In a follow-up with Duck Race coordinator Cristine Matheny, she said there will be closer to $1,000 available for supplies and other needs. Gibbs said he would post the school supplies list on SLE’s Facebook page.

During correspondence, the board read off a few thank you letters they received from staff following last month’s announcement of a $1,500 stipend for all full-time SLE employees. Secretary Suzie Teafoe wrote in her letter that she was “overjoyed and shocked” at the amount of the check.

“I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you,” she wrote. “I feel so blessed to work at SLE and for the board that cares so deeply for the staff and students.”

In other business the board unanimously approved:

• Hiring fifth grade teacher Jona Bartlett and paraprofessional Bradley Miller. 

• Out-of-district student attendance agreements including three students would be transferring out of the District while one would be transferring in.

• Transferring $7,185.18 from the school’s general fund to the compensated absence fund for the 2021 fiscal year. This fund is intended for paying non-teaching staff’s accrued hours when they leave.

SLE School Board’s next meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16.

 

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