Polson trustee resigns, board hires sole counsel
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POLSON — Continuing the recent tradition of long meetings, the Polson School Board of Trustees’ Feb. 13 meeting went on until 10 p.m. but began with a surprise: Trustee Theresa Taylor tendered her resignation.
Among other things, her letter of resignation said, “Agenda items tonight, along with recent actions taken by some of the Trustees have placed me in a position where I feel the board is compromised in its ability to function.”
The school board has 60 days to appoint someone to take Taylor’s spot, but the replacement would only be until the school board election on May 8. The board has not decided what to do since the election is so close.
In other business, Polson High School Band Director Rich Sawyer and senior band student Clay Frissell approached the board about a Seattle trip for senior band members over spring break. Senator Max Baucus also invited the band to appear in the 2013 National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C., and members will need to start fundraising for that trip.
The school climate committee recommended a company to conduct the survey of employees of School District 23 on what’s good and bad about their particular building, the district, what could improve, etc., according to Tamara Fisher, district gifted and talented teacher and committee member. The trustees approved a motion to provide time for employees to complete the climate survey on the next PIR day or early out.
In a finance committee report, Trustee Nancy Lindsey presented information on revenue streams, claims, payroll, county, state and federal funding to explain a cash situation in June of 2011 when the district feared it could not meet its payroll on time. Committee members were JoAnn Bowers, Bob DiGiallonardo, Lynn Witts, Terry Callahan, Cesar Hernandez, Trustee Bob Ricketts, Chair Caryl Cox and Lindsey.
Teachers get their summer checks on June 10, and the school district had not yet received the large Lake County check for May property taxes. Lake County officials called to say the check was ready on June 10.
The committee’s preliminary recommendations were that the district hire qualified professionals to deal with investments, estimate reserve levels and find software to handle the district’s accounts. Also the committee wanted an audit and a read-only way for employees of the district to access the district’s financial data.
Pam Owen, business manager and district clerk, said she had just one comment.
“I did run the bank statement ... On the morning of June 10, (the school district) had $192,550.15 in the hole and at the end of the day we had $1,274,740. We did not know we were going to have the county’s money positively until it arrived on (June 10).”
Superintendent David Whitesell said administration had tried to be proactive by preparing people and contacted the head of the Polson Education Association to apprise him of the fact payroll might be late.
Jon Petersen, PEA president, commented that the teachers would have appreciated knowing when the tax money arrived.
At Whitesell’s request, Sandy Weaver, who worked with the Lake County investment pool, explained how the pool works.
”Every entity in the county — school districts, irrigation districts, fire districts — are all pooled together in one lump sum. Everybody has access to their funds at any time,” Weaver said.
During discussion, Whitesell asked why client/server-based software was needed when information on the district’s finances is available at the district office.
Lindsey pointed out that it took her six months to get some documents.
“You’ve asked, and every piece of paper you’ve asked for, I’ve gotten,” Owen said.
No action was taken.
Athletic Director Scott Wilson read three goals staff developed at the Jan. 4 PIR day. They are: 1. We are committed to ensuring that all students will achieve at their highest potential both socially and academically. 2. We are committed to the recruitment, development, retention and recognition of a high performing and diverse personnel. 3. We are committed to building strong partnership with family, business, community and government entities at the classroom, building and district level.
The next step, Wilson explained, would be go to the public in a newsletter to PHS and Polson Middle School parents and ask them to complete a survey.
Working with school and administrative teams, PHS Principal Rob Hankins is leading a team applying for a Graduation Matters grant from the Phyllis Washington Foundation. The grant, for up to $10,000, would be used to help reduce dropout rates.
On an agenda item regarding county-district relations, Chair Cox described the issue.
“In brief, the superintendent made some allegations that the county treasurer was engaging in illegal practices. That allegation made its way to the county commissioners; they were not happy. They wrote a letter to Mr. Whitesell ... they asked for an apology,” she said.
Cox said Whitesell responded and basically reiterated his allegations. According to Cox, Whitesell also suggested she told the Montana School Board Association they could not respond to the commissioners.
“What I said was I felt this was a board issue. If Whitesell wants to have the MSBA write a letter, I think the board needs to understand what they intend to write.”
Cox said Whitesell wrote her a letter and made several allegations about her.
“He alleged that I had violated the open meeting laws and overstepped my authority as board chair, and those are the primary allegations,” she said.
Trustee Lindsey moved that attorney Michael Dahlem evaluate the letter from the superintendent to the chair as to its legality, and the board voted 5-2 to pass the motion.
The board vote was 3-3 on a motion to make Dahlem the sole legal counsel for the board, with the exception of special education cases, which would go to Kaleva Law Firm. Trustee Lindsey made this motion to cut legal costs.
A plan of improvement for Whitesell passed 4-2 even though there were complaints of no timeline and no measurable goals. Whitesell’s improvement will be evaluated on a monthly basis.
In other business, the board passed the board code of ethics, Board Policy 1011, and planned to draft language for the gun-free schools policy, Board Policy 3050.
The next school board meeting will be March 19.
