Powder River Examiner -

The Powder River County Elementary and High School Board met on Monday, August 13th for their monthly meeting; a portion of the meeting discussed the school budget.

The first item on the agenda was whether or not to allow 8th grade girls to play on the high school team. Savvy readers may recall that last year, a decision was made to allow 8th graders to play on high school teams, which is allowed by Montana High School Association rules in sports such as basketball and volleyball. A decision on whether to play 8th graders at the high school level is approved ahead of the season, for each sport, as numbers will fluctuate year to year, and the needs are different for different sports.

Gordon Archer, Head High School Volleyball Coach, was on hand during the meeting. The High School team currently has 10 players out, and Archer’s view was that a select number of 8th graders should be brought up. He included several reasons for his idea. 1. Without the 8th graders, there wouldn’t be enough players for a JV team. 2. In order to properly practice and scrimmage, a full team is needed on each side of the net – on years where there are more high schoolers out, this is no problem, but due to small class sizes in the High School there simply aren’t enough players out this year.

The downside to bringing up 8th graders is that due to the season schedule, those players won’t be able to play a junior high season – the seasons run congruently, and MHSA rules only allow athletes to play one or the other. Thus 8th graders brought up would miss out on a JH season, though with 26 volleyball players out in Junior High, the JH team would still have full teams.

Archer’s idea was to have a select number of the more mature 8th graders, around four players, to move up and play for the Junior Varsity. Last year in basketball, the policy was to pull the entire 8th grade team, and not a select few, as would be the case here.

Archer’s argument for only bringing a percentage of the 8th graders up to HS level was that in junior high, there is a wide gap in skill levels and maturity, and if all players went up, a great deal of time would be spent teaching some of the players the basics of the game, which would take away from the Coach’s time to spend with the rest of the JV and Varsity, working on their more advanced skills.

The Board spoke on this topic for some time, with some worried that parents would see the selection of some athletes as playing favoritism.

Archer noted that he would make the decision on who to bring up by consulting with Melissa Billing, the Junior High Volleyball Coach, and they would base the decision on whether an individual could handle the pressure, positions needed on the JV team, and what both coaches observed last year and over the summer with individual skills.

Board Member Amanda Zimmer brought up the idea of a skills test to determine who would go up to play JV. Archer replied that a skills test “Doesn’t test maturity”.

Zimmer made a motion to allow 8th grade participation in volleyball for the 2018 season, bringing players up at the discretion of the 8th grade coach. Dan Johnson seconded the motion, the motion was then voted on and passed unanimously.

Next up were resignations and hirings. The Board approved the resignations of Phill Nelson as Assistant Janitor and Speech & Drama Coach, Jenny Nelson as Cheerleader Coach, and Ricarda Hanson as Study Hall Teacher.

Hirings made at the meeting were: Assistant Volleyball Coach, Melissa Billing; Assistant Football Coach, Jerry Coulter; HS Track Coach, Jerry Coulter; and HS Golf Coaches, Head Coach Chad Gatlin, along with assistant coaches Rick Gatlin and Julie Russell. The Board then approved the Certified Staff Handbook for the school, which included a few changes, such as an update to how teachers will notify parents if their child is at risk of flunking a class.

The final item on the agenda was approval of the budget for the 2018-19 school year. Superintendent Jim Hansen went over the numbers, mentioning that the amount of the budget paid by local taxpayers will actually be down from last year. The reason for this is that the taxable valuation for the county dropped, which meant a decrease in mil value. What all that means on paper is that the district tax requirements for the Elementary School, that is, the amount of the budget paid for by local taxpayers, went from $740,194.35 last year, to $676,644.05 in the 18-19 year, a drop of 63,550 dollars. In the High School, the numbers went from $662,225.73, to $619,530.43, a drop of 42,695.30 dollars.

The budget was then approved by the Board for the 2018-19 school year.

Hansen also described the Westby-Grenora vs Kaycee, Wyoming football game, which will take place in Broadus on August 25th. The two teams are 6 Man Football powerhouses, and the coaches planned a game against each other, with Broadus being in the middle. The teams are paying for officials, the ambulance, and custodial staff, and Broadus will sell concessions for the game.

The next meeting of the Board will take place on September 10.