Powder River Examiner -

The Broadus School Board Trustees met for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday evening, with all members in attendance except for Danny Johnson and Rob Jones.

The board watched a pre-recorded video presentation made by Teacher Libby Nisley, regarding a calendar proposal. Nisley was not in attendance due to managing students at State BPA. In the proposal, Nisley and a group of teachers had presented a variety of calendar ideas to other staff members, with the most popular schedule presented to the board. One idea in the calendar was the inclusion of a 15-20 minute home room at the beginning of each school day, where an assigned teacher for each class would take attendance and be available to help students from all classes if they needed help in their assigned subject.

The home room would also be accompanied by a reduction in study halls made available to students, with the thought that the home room would serve as study hall time instead of a specific period dedicated to study hall throughout the week.

Another change presented in the proposed calendar was an increase of time in the school day, with students beginning their day at 8:05 or 8:10 AM, as opposed to the current 8:20 (depending on age), and then ending their day at 3:30 PM, as opposed to the current time of 3:20.

The goal with the lengthened day was to allow more flexibility in scheduling of school days, essentially taking days off when a majority of students would be gone anyway, such as during tournaments. With the current schedule a large number of students tend to be gone on days when Broadus is playing at tournaments. With an increase in the time spent in school per day with the new calendar, the thought was students would receive the same amount of classroom instruction, even with a decrease in the amount of days.

Other goals Nisley laid out with the proposed calendar included the fore-mentioned home room, a reduction in the amount of days students would be making long trips into school by a small amount, and the potential for staff recruitment with the additional days off.

Nisley went over potential downsides she could see to the new calendar, including modifications to bus contracts, which are often made with five year bids in mind and might need re-negotiation. Modifications in pay for classified staff could also be an issue, as well as fewer days in the classroom for students with problems at home who might do better in a structured school environment.

The board discussed the matter, with Trustee Emmons noting that the calendar proposal was a part of negotiations with the teachers’ union in regards to their upcoming contract. Trustee Zimmer was not in favor of the home room idea, and that notion was echoed by other members of the board, with comments of whether 15-20 minutes would allow students time to actually get any work done, or if it would simply be a waste of time. Additionally, teachers who might be in high demand could be overwhelmed with students seeking their help during the short home room period.

Superintendent Hansen noted that teacher absences were averaging 8 days per teacher over the first 100 days of school during this school year. Those absences included personal and sick days as well as school sponsored activities.

The board did not vote on the matter, leaving any potential changes for a future meeting.

The first item on the agenda for votes was hirings and resignations. The board accepted the resignation of Shauna Schaffer, Title 1 teacher, while accepting a number of hirings.

Those hirings include Erin Switzer as JH/HS Art Teacher and Monica Smith as Elementary Teacher, Ty Robinson as Activity Bus Driver, Elliott Barnhart as a Volunteer Track Coach, and the discretion of the Superintendent in hiring a potential Assistant Track Coach.

Additionally, the Board plans on hiring Brooke Billing as JH/HS Math Teacher and Ashley Emmons as an Elementary Teacher at the April board meeting. These hirings were delayed due to relations with those two candidates with members of the School Board, and the legalities of requiring public posting of any such relationships at least two weeks before decisions are made. The members of the board related to those candidates will refrain from voting on those matters at the April meeting.

Next on the agenda were bus bids for the Ashland and East Powderville routes. Board Chair Zimmer opened the bids, one of which was received for the Ashland route, from current route operator John Robinson. Two bids were received on the East Powderville route, one from Ty Robinson and one from current route operator John Blain.

The bid from John Robinson for the Ashland route was for five years, at 180 days of driving, at a cost of $3.624 per mile, which pencils out to $120,026.88 per year.

Ty Robinson’s bid was for five years, at 180 days of driving, at $2.93 per mile, which comes out to $67,507.20 per year.

Blain’s bid was for five years with 180 days of driving at $3.22 per miles, totaling $74,200.

After a pregnant silence of at least fifteen minutes which felt more like an hour, Superintendent Hansen noted that he had figured on bids of at least 20% increase over the previous contracts from five years ago due to fuel costs and added insurance costs. John Robinson’s bid was reported by board members as 32% higher than his previous contract, while Blain’s was indicated as being closer to the 20% increase estimate.

Another factor in bids was the potential for a change in the number of school days, such as the updated calendar or a change to four-day school weeks. These changes which would limit the number of days driven by the drivers. Bids reflected the potential for a change in days, where a pro-rated amount of the daily rate would be paid, but since the schedule changes are still an unknown, contractors must bid the routes as if they are driving every day, because for the time being they are still on a full schedule.

Trustee Mader commented that there was something to be said for going with a contractor would had shown loyalty in driving, with Hansen replying that though he agreed, the legal language states that the board is obligated to take the responsible bid.

Any motion to accept or decline the contracts was tabled until next month’s meeting.

The board went on to accept 5th grade participation in junior high sports, with some discussion taking place on whether participation should be based on numbers of kids participating already in the older grades, whether the decision should be made on an individual sport basis, or whether a blanket policy of all sports allowing participation.

This was much the same issue with 8th grade participation at the high school level several years ago, with complications arising regardless of which decision was made. If one of the former choices were made, the board would have to make decisions based on participation numbers for every sport, every year. If a blanket policy was enacted, problems could arise when a large number of young players were now pulled up, flooding the training sessions with inexperienced athletes, which could mean less playing time and training issues for coaches. If the matter was left to individual coaches depending on numbers of participants and the coaches’ thoughts, parents could become upset when “last years’ class was pulled up, so why not my kid”.

Trustee Mader commented that all Class C schools in our area allow 5th grade participation.

A motion was ultimately made to allow the participation of 5th graders at the JH level in all sports for the 2022-23 school year as a trial run. After this period a decision may be made if changes need to be implemented to the policy.

The board voted to consider a trustee election, as well as using ESSER funds to offset a mill election. ESSR funds are federal dollars from the CARES Act awarded to schools to address the impacts of the COVID-19 virus, and were used in this year’s budget to cover shortages, also offsetting the need for a local mill levy election.