Trustees Baker and Thiele have been in the forefront of questioning whether the district can meet its obligations to the medical needs of its students while continually reducing the number of hours allotted to the district's school nurses, Robin Correll and Patty Radenbaugh. Donna Currier, Director of SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area) came down from Eureka to offer her expertise on what the law and education codes require of school districts.
At the outset of the session, Thiele identified a chain of accountability and emergency response time as important to the definition of the diligent care referred to in the codes. Baker questioned whether the district had the resources to provide diligent care, to which Thiele responded that they could deal with the budget issues later, after they had defined diligent care. Baker said he didn't think an
Correll and Radenbaugh were on hand to give their informed opinion about the meaning of diligent care. School nurses do assessments of medical needs, train non-medical school staff to administer medications, verify vaccinations and do infectious disease reporting, perform certain tests, give trainings and, perhaps most importantly, do follow-ups.
Currier agreed that follow-up was an important component. When a student fails a health screening, a follow-up is mandated, she said. But as the discussion continued, both Correll and Radenbaugh told the trustees that some special day students were not receiving care and didn't have written assessments of their needs because of cuts already made to school nursing hours. Radenbaugh said that there had been “some incidents at school this year that were of grave concern.” She added that training of non-medical staff was not happening as it had been envisioned and that she did not feel there was sufficient oversight or follow-up.
Transportation Supervisor Donna Anderson was present and said that Radenbaugh and Correll have trained district bus drivers in responding to student health emergencies, but she also acknowledged that there had been no follow-up training.
Superintendent Clif Anderson is proposing to cut the school nurse hours to .35 FTE and to replace the school nurses with an Licensed Vocational Nurse/Instructional Assistant for Special Education students and has suggested at previous meetings that a partnership with Redwoods Rural Health Center and the Southern Humboldt Healthcare District could take up the slack created by the loss of school nurse hours.
When the regular meeting started, trustee Jeff Haas joined the board and the classroom at Redway Elementary School where the meetings are held filled beyond its capacity as teachers, support staff, and parents of students with special health needs came to plead for continued nursing care for their medically fragile students.
Parent Duane Hoffman said that an LVN would not be able to cover the needs of his son, who required ongoing glucose monitoring. He brought a letter from his son's doctor verifying that.
Parent Chivo Fellion said that he appreciated the dilemma created by the diminishing budget, but said they ought to consider the needs of students like his son Joe. He said the same people had been taking care of Joe during his 12 years at school and that he thought such continuity was important to the student because it meant caregivers who understood Joe's needs. Joe's Instructional Assistant, who has a medical background, came to the meeting. She was laid off at the end of the year and has already found a job elsewhere.
Parent Roger Hall said that his daughter needed to be assessed by someone qualified. He said that both he and his wife were very concerned about their daughter's safety. He presented the trustees and Superintendent Anderson with a compliance claim he was filing against the district.
The diligent care issue came up again as the regular meeting neared the end of its long agenda and the trustees were considering adoption of the 2008-2009 District Budget.
Trustee Baker announced at the outset of that discussion that he didn't feel he could vote for the proposed budget because he didn't see how the district could meet its obligations to the medical needs of students with only .35 hours of nursing available. Thiele also expressed concerns about the reduced hours.
In the discussion of the proposed budget the trustees went over familiar ground and made many of the same points they have made in past discussions of providing adequate health care for district students.
”We've heard hours of discussion about the nursing issue,” Trustee Haas said. “This board has to take the bull by the horns and either sign off on the budget or come up with something else. Let's do something and keep moving.”
The trustees had heard from all the district site councils that they placed a high value on maintaining school nurse services, but Trustee Baker noted that administration had not provided them with any alternative plan to the current situation beyond the reduced hours. Trustee Susan Thompson agreed that they were voting for an undefined alternative.
”You've got lot of information but no plan,” teacher Ed Lisheid noted, and the trustees agreed with him. Lisheid proposed a subcommittee to come up with real alternative models to provide health care for students. A Superintendent's Committee that includes Lisheid, Thiele, O'Sullivan and Haas will meet and make a report at the next board meeting.
With that decided, the trustees voted to approve the proposed budget, with Baker and Thiele voting no.
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Issues of safety of a different kind were also raised at the meeting. Randall Locke told the board that he represented a new organization, SoHum Zero Tolerance, Enforcement and Redress. He requested time on the next agenda to address issues of discipline at the high school.
Locke's concerns were echoed by staff present. South Fork secretary Mary Moore gave a litany of extra duties that all staff are being required to take on as other positions are eliminated. Teacher Ian Robinson said that discipline was going to be a problem. He is teaching an 8th grade class that will have 33 students and only 28 seats. He said he would have to place students in the aisles and maintaining discipline in those circumstances would need good staff support, including a campus supervisor and “a system that functions.” He said the current system did not function. He said he had sent students to detention for misbehavior and that sometimes they didn't get there.
”To be honest,” he said, “the system breaks down frequently.”
Ann Constantino said she supported what her co-workers were saying. Teacher Tasha Haller likened the cuts to a machine with broken components.
”When one part breaks down,” she said, “it affects the whole.” She said there will be 48 students in one PE class and that many classes will have between 33 and 36 students in classrooms that weren't built to hold that many. Students will be unsupervised at times. She said the district is running out of people to “pick up the slack” when positions are eliminated.
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Several teachers, aides, and parents at the elementary level expressed concern about split classes of more than 30 students being conducted without the support of Instructional Assistants, most of whom have been laid off.
”Who watches the one grade while the teacher is teaching the other grade?” Linda Ivey asked.
Seventh grade teacher Mindy Contreras said her class of 32 to 35 students will be crowded into one room with no aide.
There will be no librarian at the high school and the library will only be open when teachers take their classes there.
The issue of student discipline and safety will be taken up at the next meeting.
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This meeting, which lasted six hours, covered a wealth of material. The staff of Osprey Learning Center, which had three teachers this year, will be down to 2.5 teachers next year. Teachers Melanie Chausse and Mike Carroll attended a conference of Independent Study teachers and proposed changes in board policies to reflect what they learned, such as allowing IS teachers to work with private schools and home schoolers and using computers to expand the curriculum of IS students. Carroll said that the district could increase its enrollment by expanding Osprey. Distance learning and Independent Study become more attractive as gas prices rise, he said. He said that Salmon Creek School had already expressed an interest in working with the district. He also noted that Osprey has no direct phone line, which makes it difficult for interested parents to contact them.
The two new student trustees attended their first meeting. Zoe Wong-Weissman is an alumna of Whitethorn School and Andrew Young is an alumnus of Redway School.
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Transportation Supervisor Donna Anderson said that her department is looking at a 65% reduction to transportation funding. Two routes will be consolidated, she said, but the district expects to be able to continue to provide transportation.
It was noted that due to the rising cost of fuel, the transportation system funding may encroach on the general fund. In that case, a transportation fee will likely be instituted.
The district will provide transportation to the Reggae Rising festival this year. People Productions is expected to make the final payment on the service the district provided last year in July. Under the agreement for the 2008 event, the district will charge a rate of $7.24 per mile, and require that half of the estimated cost of the service be paid in advance. The balance due is to be received 15 days after the final invoice date and a late penalty of 1.5% will be charged to late payments.
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The district also gave final approval to the sale of the old school building and property on Sprowel Creek Road. Superintendent Anderson said that at some future meeting the trustees will have to make plans for using the money received from the sale, which is still in escrow while the buyer - Artful Children - tries to raise the money to complete the deal.
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Interviews with candidates to assume the job of South Fork principal have been completed, a candidate selected, and negotiations with that candidate are expected to be completed soon.
Superintendent Anderson said that the woodshop at the high school will be “mothballed” to allow the district time to improve the program to HROP standards. He said this will provide more opportunities to students in vocational programs.
The basketball program at Redway is being turned over to community members. The community members who use the program will run it and pay for the insurance needed to cover the participants.
Schools Foundation president Linda Brodersen urged teachers to let the foundation know what they need. The foundation has money to spend, she said. She also spoke in favor of increasing academic counseling services and asked for an update on the locker situation at the high school. Superintendent Anderson said he was working on that.
SHTA president Jackie Carlson said that teachers at Redway will need extra time to prepare for school this year as many of them will be teaching different grades in different classrooms. She said the teachers were worried about being ready for the students.
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The trustees adopted a code of conduct for coaches. Superintendent Anderson said that most of the coaches worked out well but that there had been some problems. He said the code of conduct would be accompanied by a handbook for “walk-on” coaches because athletic teams are representatives of the district and need to project a good image.
A hike in per sport transportation fees was also approved. The fee was $60 per sport, but will now be $75 per sport. That money goes into the Associated Student Body account to help pay the expenses of the sports program.
All the schools in the district have completed their Safe School Plan, which covers all manner of emergencies. Superintendent Anderson gave a nod to former South Fork principal Paula Wyant-Kelso for providing the template used by the district.
The trustees adopted a set of focus goals for the coming year and took further steps along the path of finding a replacement for Superintendent Anderson. They accepted an initial proposal for across-the-board increases for all classified employees “to the maximum revenues available” and passed resolutions honoring Dana Patmore, Tom Olsen, Rex Collinsworth, Patti Burke-Anderson, Anne Dinsmore, Penny Cocking, Suzanne Samberg, and Mary Sanborn, all of whom are retiring after many years of employment in the district.
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