Projects move forward, board action plan revision discussed

SWAN VALLEY –Swan Valley School Board covered a lot of ground making several decisions at their Oct. 9 meeting.

The doors and windows have arrived and the Matthew Brothers just received the required permits to remodel the front portal entry to the school. Construction will get underway soon.

Board Chair John Mercer presented the board with a Draft Board Action Plan for 2019-2020. He is still missing a couple of the board evaluation forms so he is waiting to incorporate them.

Mercer said this is the first time the school has had a credentialed, on-site principal for the school in the last two decades. Since they have had the same Board Action Plan for the last five years, he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity with Principal Ralph King’s input to make revisions.

Mercer said that instead of an integrated school, it has run in the past more like a collection of one room schoolhouses. While the teachers talk to each and collaborate with each other, there hasn’t been an integrated curriculum from pre-K through eighth grade that also lines up with the high school.

“What I’m proposing our focus for the next year really becomes on the fundamentals of good education with the notion that if we work on those fundamentals and put that in place, that leads to accomplishment and that accomplishment leads to earned pride and ownership for the school, for the students and teachers,” said Mercer.

The Draft Action Plan maintained the five goal areas. It specifically focused on education and learning and how that works, and put it in a little different framework.

While the board expressed their appreciation and acknowledged the work Mercer put into the draft plan, they would like to go through it next to the old one for comparison and input.

Mercer said the draft plan was to spur thought. He felt a revision was necessary because there were so many things in the old plan that were not followed. He looks forward to going through it more thoroughly as a board. The board took no action on the plan.

The school is still searching for a music teacher. They currently have $15,000 in the budget to hire someone part time. King said the teachers will lead the students for the annual Christmas program.

The board unanimously agreed to hire tech support for the next three months at $1,000 per month to help troubleshoot their hardware and software glitches and get them set up for standardized testing. They will discuss extending the contract in three months.

The board unanimously approved the Staff Handbook that was written by the teachers.

King highly recommended Nikki Harnisch-Parker for a 30 hour per week paraeducator position. She was interviewed by two teachers and King said they were both in agreement for hiring her. The board unanimously approved her hire.

The Parent Teachers Association will be hosting a Harvest Carnival Nov. 1. More details will be coming soon.

The next Swan Valley School board meeting is Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. at the school.