Attorney to develop improvement plan
POLSON — After over an hour of discussion by the Polson School Board over Superintendent David Whitesell’s strengths and weaknesses on Wednesday, Jan. 18, the trustees passed a motion (5-3) to have attorney Michael Dahlem prepare, for board consideration, a plan for superintendent job performance improvement, including a timeline and consequences for failure to comply.
The special meeting gave trustees an opportunity to present what they viewed as areas in which Whitesell has done well and areas they believe he needs to improve.
After each trustee spoke their piece, Whitesell was given the floor to address the board’s comments and touched on what has been done since he took over, where he’d like to go from here and the strained relationship between him and some members of the board.
“If I offended you personally, I apologize and would love to believe that would be reciprocated,” Whitesell said. “It’s a two-way street and I would love for us to get back on the same track.”
The board will consider Mr. Dahlem’s plan for superintendent job performance improvement at the February board meeting.
At a special board meeting on Monday, Jan. 23, representatives from the board met with faculty of Cherry Valley Elementary to engage in a dialogue regarding the concerns and potential solutions of how to deal with flexibility issues in the district.
No action was taken at the meeting, but the major concerns discussed were how to deal with the number of incoming students, both in-district and out-of-district, especially when it comes to those who either have siblings in the system already or have parents who work at the schools. Right now, there is no guarantee that kindergarten students coming in will go to the same school as their parents who are employed with the schools or the same school as their currently-enrolled siblings.
Whitesell suggested increasing sections in schools as one possible solution.
“I hate to see us get stuck in this paradigm where we only have six sections,” Whitesell said. “Where is it written that we should only have six sections ... I think you need to be able to allow for growth.”
Trustee Brian Havlovick also proposed a new facility as a way to cope with the increasing numbers.
“The longer-term plan is going to have to be facility,” Havlovick said. “There’s no other answer. It’d be nice if K-4 was all in one place rather than half here, half there.”