By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Tiger Media Network
Three action items had a split vote during Monday’s USD 489 Board of Education meeting.
The first item was a Preventative Maintenance Agreement with Glassman Corporation. The $86,934 a year would cover maintenance and service costs for HVAC equipment in the district for five years.
“As we look at this, understanding how important it is to stay on top of it, we would like to enter a preventative maintenance agreement,” Superintendent Ron Wilson said.
This agreement includes scheduled inspections of equipment and 24/7 monitoring of the system, giving the district priority emergency services during evenings, weekends and holidays with no additional charges for those times. The district would also receive discounted equipment and labor rates.
“We have a lot of units and a lot of equipment and this is something we feel like would be well worth the dollars,” Wilson said.
Buildings and Ground Director Rusty Lindsay agreed with Wilson, saying the new HVAC units in the schools are much more complicated than they used to be.
“You basically have to be trained to work on them and it requires a higher knowledge set than most of us have that have grown up in the maintenance world,” Lindsay said.
Board member Derek Yarmer said the agreement should have been offered to companies besides Glassman.
“I think that other local companies deserve a shot,” Yarmer said.
Wilson said Glassman has installed all the district equipment and provided maintenance and giving the agreement to them is a way to value that partnership and the work they have done for the district over the years.
“I just don’t know if I have enough information,” board member Allen Park said. “This is something brand new, we’ve got people on staff that should be able to do a lot of this. I would like more information about it.”
The agreement was passed in a 4-2-1 vote with Yarmer and Park voting against and board member Jayme Goetz abstaining due to conflict of interest.
The next action item reviewed the school calendars for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years. In the past, school calendars were only approved one year at a time, but with upcoming construction due to the passing of the school bond, Wilson said it was important to have dates set further in advance to plan construction.
At the last board meeting, Donald Tillman spoke out against monthly in-service days being added to the calendar this school year. Instead of early release days, which the district previously had, teachers now have a whole in-service day every month. Tillman said this extra day causes staffing issues at his company, Great Plains Dermatology because staff members have to take days off to watch their children.
“Please rethink this harmful policy. Please find ways to conduct planning periods within the school hours so that you don’t negatively impact working families and struggling businesses,” Tillman said.
Tillman spoke again at this meeting to remind the board of his concerns.
When reviewing the calendars, Wilson told the board that in-service days are part of teacher negotiations and changing them would require re-negotiating with teachers.
Goetz was a teacher at the high school before joining the board and said that full in-service days are better than the early release days, even though total instructional minutes for the school year decrease slightly with the transition to in-service days.
“When we did early release days, the quality of instruction was not always great because you were so rushed to get through it,” Goetz said.
Yarmer asked why the September in-services were not on Labor Day because that could help families who already have time off for Labor Day. Currently, teachers have Labor Day off and holidays are part of negotiations.
“Seems like a bad agreement,” Yarmer said.
Board member Ken Brooks said that as a single parent, he preferred full days off rather than half-days because half-days required him to go and pick up all the kids from schools, whereas with full days, the kids were home. He also said that when talking with other parents on the issue, everyone favors full days.
Yarmer was still unconvinced and felt the calendar should be re-negotiated so the in-service days would fall on days the students were already out of school.
“When I have to do professional development, they don’t shut down the hospital,” Yarmer said. “I do it on my own time.”
Park asked for agendas for each in-service to be provided as well as data to prove that in-service days lead to student success and are not a waste of time.
O’Loughlin Teacher Sonya Herl voiced support for the in-service days.
“I feel like I’ve learned more this year; it’s my 37th year, and I’ve learned more when I meet in the afternoon with my other colleagues,” Herl said.
The calendars were passed 5-2 with Park and Yarmer voting against.
The last action item covered policy changes recommended by the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB).
One particular policy that stood out to board members referred to releasing students during emergency situations. The district’s legal counsel said the district could face liability issues if they released children during emergency situations, even if their parents requested their release.
“I don’t think you give up your parental rights between 8 and 3,” Yarmer said.
Board member Ruth Ruder said that in the case of a school shooting, having hundreds of parents trying to get their child out of the building could hinder law enforcement.
“We have to have faith in our district. We have to have faith in our principals and our administration of what is best for our child,” Ruder said.
The policies were approved 5-2, with board members Curt Vajnar and Yarmer voting against.
Other items from the meeting:
- The board heard a presentation about the Mental Health Intervention Teams program
- An audit report from Adams Brown was reviewed
- A bid from Morgan Brothers Construction for $135,000 for the replacement of the Wilson Elementary Parking was unanimously approved
The next board meeting will be February 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Toepfer Board Room.