Two more Polson district administrators resign
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POLSON — The big news at the Polson School Board meeting on April 9 was resignations by Linderman Principal Heather Jones and Polson High School Vice Principal Brandon Thurston on April 9. Together with PHS Principal Rob Hankins, that makes four administrators, including Superintendent David Whitesell, who have left the school district.
In other administrative news, Polson Middle School Principal Brian Adams has been studying to receive his counseling degree and needs to do an internship. He asked the board to allow him to do his internship under School District No. 23 school psychologist Cliff Palmer, since some of his duties overlap the internship requirements.
Chair Caryl Cox asked if any of the testing work involved in Adams’ internship could be done outside school hours, but it cannot.
It was an information only item for the trustees, which normally would go to the superintendent for approval. The board agreed to allow Adams to do his internship.
The trustees passed the remainder of the amended elementary and high school personnel report, including the resignations of co-cheer coaches Mica Arellano and Amy Dever.
At the March meeting, the board hired McPherson and Jacobson, L.L.C., to conduct the search for a new superintendent at the March meeting, and representatives William Dean and Barb Dean will attend a special school board meeting on April 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the administration conference room.
In other business, the trustees listened to a presentation by Matt Farrell and Bob Lambert about fixing the PHS roof. The two men represent Progressive Services, a roofing company.
Farrell and Lambert prepared a bid for the worst 5,000 square feet of the roof. They also are endorsed by TCPN, a government service cooperative.
Trustee John Laimbeer said the information was exactly what they asked for, but since then local contractors have told the board to take a step back and bring in a structural engineer or an architect. Specifications would need to be drawn up so local contractors could also bid on the job.
Lambert said the firm works with school districts statewide, taking into account small budgets and drawing up five and 10-year plans so the roofs can be fixed, but only as the schools can afford the repairs.
The square foot price could be multiplied over how much of the roof will be done.
The trustees discussed the issue, some wanting more information, some wanting to proceed quickly, some wanting to repair sections of the roof and some requesting an overall plan of action before anything is done.
Trustee Kelly Bagnell said, “Are we, as a board, looking to just do the patch work or run a building levy to do the whole roof?”
“One thing we can’t afford to do is to talk this thing to death,” trustee Bob Hanson commented.
“We know effectively next to nothing about how we’re using that budget,” trustee Nancy Lindsey contributed. “We need to do our planning work before we contract.”
“I’m all for a short-term fix to get the ball rolling,” Dan Kinyon, School District 23’s maintenance manager said.
"We are going to have to do something before the new school year,” Bagnell added.
Chair Cox asked Laimbeer and Kinyon if a facilities committee could convene and spend a couple of weeks with the questions.
A motion to proceed with Progressive Roofing on alternative two, reroofing of 5,000 square feet of the roof, failed by a vote of four to three.
Chair Cox established a facilities committee to look into the issue.
In other business, Dustin Herbert, the PHS Business Professionals of America advisor, asked the board’s permission for the PHS team to travel to BPA nationals in Chicago. The team qualified for nationals with their website design. The trip will be paid for by fundraising, parental contributions and money from the business education fund, Herbert answered when queried by the board. The motion for permission passed unanimously.
City of Polson Parks Superintendent Karen Sargeant asked the board to take over the school’s recycling program, which began as a joint effort between the city and the schools and involved the schools taking over their recycling efforts eventually.
Schools in the district have been collecting 1,212 pounds of recyclable goods every other week, which “is way over 20 tons (per year) between the city and the schools,” Sargeant said.
“You guys are collecting a lot of stuff.”
Sargeant’s transition proposal included the use of the city’s trailer, bought specifically to haul recycling bins, and training from parks employees.
The weekly process takes two people about two hours to collect the recycling, load the trailer, haul it to the Lake County Transfer Station and unload the goods. On a bi-weekly basis, it’s a four-hour job for two people and requires two trips.
“The whole thing behind (the recycling effort) was to get kids to be better stewards of Montana,” Sargeant said.
A motion to approve the transition plan passed unanimously.
The next monthly board meeting will be held on May 14.
