Seeley Lake Elementary School Board
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Elementary School Board unanimously approved revisions to their School Reopening Plan revision during their monthly meeting Monday, Aug. 16. In addition they also unanimously approved the student handbook and reviewed the 2022 fiscal year budget.
Superintendent Josh Gibbs said many of the changes in the reopening plan resulted from how they adapted at the end of the last school year. Since it was passed in May, masks will be optional unless the Board votes to mandate them or they develop some sort of metric. Face coverings will be required while students are riding school buses since they are considered public transportation.
Gibbs said they removed the Center for Disease Control from a list of agencies that the school would “adhere to the guidelines and directives of” because, while they would consider their proposals as recommendations, they would not follow them entirely.
According to Gibbs, they will be starting the school year in Phase 3, the most “normal” status which will allow visitors, on-site learning and no restrictions on extracurricular activities. The school will not conduct temperature checks unless they revert back to Phase 2.
SLE will continue to offer remote learning. The online learning option will switch to Edgenuity, a self-paced program, instead of learning through a live stream. Gibbs believes this will be a better learning experience for remote students.
In new business, District Clerk Heather Mincey presented the 2022 FY budget. She said one of the key aspects was that even though the school district ran a levy earlier this year, they will only ask for 79.74 district mill levies compared to 84.76 last year. She said this is mostly because the school’s taxable value increased.
The total budget is $1.927 million with $1.442 million going towards the General Fund, $119,948.12 in the Building Reserve and $180,000 going towards retirement.
The School Board also unanimously approved this year’s student handbook. According to Gibbs, not much had changed aside from wording adjustments and updates to the student dress code and academic eligibility.
SLE still intends to extend their school days by six minutes in order to make the school calendar more flexible. These extra days would allow students to leave early so teachers can receive additional training.
During his report, Gibbs gave updates on the school’s summer programs which included their Outdoor Club, summer food program, and math and English enrichment courses. The Outdoor Club had at least 40 registered participants with 20-30 kids showing up most days. He also said the enrichment programs saw more consistent turnout throughout the summer than he was expecting.
Mincey said the highest single-day turnout they had for the lunch program was 132. The lowest was 110. Going forward it will be called the Seamless Summer Option.
Gibbs also announced that they have gotten around seven surveillance cameras up and running outside the school.
He sent out an online survey a week ago asking for community input on what the school should do with ESSER funding. The school must recognize one to three funding goals. He said some of his priorities would be learning materials for students, staff training and facility updates. So far around 25 responses have echoed his ideas.
“It’s a good time where you can use some of that money to do some projects that if we were to do it we’d have [to put out] some type of levy,” he said.
SLE’s website is currently being redesigned and will come with a mobile application. The functions will be ADA compliant.
Gibbs said the funding of the Comprehensive School and Community Treatment (CSCT) program, a school-based behavioral health service for children with Serious Emotional Disturbance, will be adjusted for October. This makes it so that the school may have to help fund additional aspects of the program.
Gibbs said they have scheduled their volleyball and football games for the season. Each team will have around 10 games. SLE will host camps the week before school Monday through Thursday. Schedules will be posted on Facebook.
For coach hires, the Board unanimously approved hiring Brett Haines and Bradley Miller for football and Chelsea Cahoon and Sandee Cahoon for volleyball. For a classified hire, they unanimously approved hiring Cari Mocko for a paraprofessional position.
In other business the Board unanimously approved:
• The Denning, Downey and Associates audit contract
• Appointing Gibbs onto the MAEC Joint Advisory Board
During a special meeting Monday, Aug. 23, the School Board unanimously approved its agreement with the Seeley Lake Organization of Teachers. The union agreed to the terms in June. At the meeting they also approved the classified and non-certified staff salary matrix with a three percent base increase.
Gibbs also announced that transitional kindergarten teacher Laura Devins secured the school a $5,000 grant for a preschool program. It will be offered to three-year-olds on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for an hour and a half.
The SLE School Board’s next meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20.
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