Polson school board welcomes new members

POLSON — Three new Polson School Board members and one current one were sworn in after the May 8 election at the May school board meeting on Monday, May 14.

John Kelly, Andrew Learn and Michael Leadercharge took their places alongside Bob Ricketts, Nancy Lindsey, John Laimbeer, Kelly Bagnell and re-elected Chairwoman Caryl Cox on Monday evening and the new board had its hands full.

After Cox and Laimbeer were named chair and co-chair, respectively, Laimbeer presented eight major projects on the docket for the district, what the estimated cost of each would be and ideas on ways to fund the projects.

The tasks included the first two sections of the high school roof in the worst condition, the remainder of the roof and possible mold and asbestos issues stemming from the leaky roof, as well as other projects unrelated to the roof.

The board members focused on assessing the damage and developing specs so that repairs that take place in the building can be bid on and the board can find funding where it can to make the necessary fixes.

“We want to make sure of everything inside so when we go out to bid, it’s apples to apples and not apples to oranges,” trustee Kelly Bagnell said.

In other matters, the board and community engaged in dialogue regarding staff projections for the 2012-2013 school year, before the board voted 7-0 to add three elementary and one-and-a-half Special Ed teachers. With the incoming kindergarten, first and fifth grade classes seeing considerable rises over those classes for 2011-2012, solutions were sought to meet accreditation standards.

“Take a look at our numbers as we move up and these are really difficult choices,” Cherry Valley Elementary principal Elaine Meeks said.

“I can think of few things that are more important than having appropriate class sizes in those first three years,” trustee Nancy Lindsey added. “Most of our failure happens in those first three years and accumulates as they go through.”

The three open positions, rather than specifying grades, gives the district the flexibility to move the teachers as needed.

Laimbeer raised concerns that, as important as it is to limit class size, you can’t keep adding people without cutting elsewhere.

“You have to take from somewhere to keep giving,” Laimbeer said.

But because of the vitality of having more positions with the large incoming classes, it was a virtual necessity for the board to pass the motion.

“If we open the positions, we have committed ourselves to finding the funding from other places in the budget,” Lindsey said.

Also at the meeting, Polson schools music teacher Chris Bumgarner handed out and read a letter to the board, expressing his disappointment with the lack of vision and purpose, specifically for music students, from school leadership and the school board. Bumgarner has tried reaching out to administrators for several problems with music curriculum, including having a fifth-grade general music class, but not a sixth-grade one, but to no avail. In his letter to the board, he urged its members to focus on curriculum over convenience and schedules.

“With new board members, it’s time to move forward, have some vision and plan for a healthier school environment to promote the best education for our kids,” Bumgarner said.

Because Bumgarner was not placed on the agenda, no action could be taken on some of his solutions to the issues, but Cox said that she would further review the letter, meaning there is a chance Bumgarner could be on a future agenda.