The Bermudian Springs school board approved last-minute details during its meeting on Tuesday evening as the board prepared for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
The board held a caucus meeting on Monday followed by a regular meeting on Tuesday evening. It spent a significant amount of its time Monday discussing upcoming policy changes.
According to Superintendent Shane Hotchkiss, the board’s legal counsel, Stock and Leader, as well as the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), recommended that the district consolidate its board policies.
Currently, district policies 300, 400 and 500 relate to professional staff, support staff, and administrators, respectively. Hotchkiss worked with PSBA to consolidate the policies into ones with more global language, taking the opportunity to update old policies during the process.
Stock and Leader are still reviewing the revised policies, which Hotchkiss presented to the board in a shared Google folder.
Initially, Hotchkiss proposed that the board complete a first reading in August, then a second reading and adoption in September, allowing the adoption process to go quickly. Outdated policies would be retired once the new ones were in place.
Board member Jennifer Goldhahn suggested spreading the policies out over a longer time period to review them more carefully. Hotchkiss committed to bringing a handful of short policies to the board for a first reading in September, at which point the board can decide which to review for a first reading in October.
The policy review prompted the board to discuss its guidelines for avoiding nepotism.
The policy Hotchkiss pulled up during the meeting stated: “No person shall be employed who is related to any member of the board, as defined in law, unless such person receives the affirmative vote of a majority of all members of the board other than the member related to the applicant, who shall not vote.”
Goldhahn pointed to the current board policies 303 and 404, which read similarly. At the end, policy 404 adds: “The policy of the board shall be that spouses of board members and district administrators shall not be employed in the Bermudian Springs School District.”
Policy 404 was adopted March 14, 2006 and last revised on Jan. 13, 2015.
Board members debated how to interpret the policies, particularly in the case where a teacher is employed prior to their spouse joining the board. Hotchkiss further said decisions about whether a school board candidate is eligible to run – including in cases where their relative or spouse may be employed in the same district – falls under the authority of election law rather than that of the school district. He also noted that employees cannot be terminated for having a spouse on the board.
During the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, the board also approved a new document, School Board Policy 805.2, which outlines policies for school security.
Hotchkiss reminded the board that the policy will not go into effect until the board approves it during a second reading in September. The administration will then be able to bring in an armed school security officer into the district.
Curriculum council, committee
The board ironed out details surrounding its new curriculum committee. The committee was formed this year to allow board members who requested it have a closer look into the curriculum development process.
Goldhahn and board treasurer Ruth Griffie currently serve on the curriculum committee. Initially, Goldhahn and Griffie had expressed interest in joining the district’s curriculum council but ultimately instead formed the new committee.
Providing clarity for the committee’s role, Hotchkiss said it can serve as an information “conduit” to streamline curriculum details to the board.
Goldhahn and Griffie will meet with Shannon Myers, the district’s assistant superintendent. Goldhahn and Griffie will hear what curriculum plans and updates Myers plans to present to the entire school board. Goldhahn and Griffie will ask questions and suggest areas the board may need more clarification on.
Josh Korb, the district’s assistant superintendent, will also be offered the opportunity to meet with the curriculum council, according to Myers.
Personnel
On Tuesday, the board accepted several resignations and approved the hiring of multiple staff members.
Two extracurricular contracts were also approved. Wendy Cutright was hired as the junior high head cross country coach and Douglas Speelman was hired as the varsity assistant football coach. Ten teacher mentors were also approved, each with a stipend of $400.
During the caucus meeting on Monday evening, Hotchkiss had alerted the board about incorrect job listings posted to the popular job posting website Indeed.
The district posts job listings through a tool on its website but Indeed has pulled the data and generated salary estimates that do not match the actual salaries offered for the position, according to Hotchkiss.
This has caused confusion when interested applicants have read the job listings with faulty salary estimates.
“For us, we had like eight positions and they were all wrong,” Hotchkiss said.
While the district has requested that the listings be removed from Indeed to reduce confusion, some were still posted at the time of the meeting, according to Hotchkiss.
During the time for public comment on Tuesday, one parent, Amy Leatherman, reflected on the time her children have enjoyed in the school district. Leatherman also encouraged teachers to make time for themselves during the busy school year.
The board will hold its next caucus meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11.
The next regular meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Both meetings will be held in the administration building board room and live-streamed on the district’s YouTube channel.
Imari Scarbrough is a freelance journalist. She was a staff newspaper reporter for five years before becoming a freelancer in 2017. She has written on crime, environmental issues, severe weather events, local and regional government and more.
You can visit her website at ImariJournal.com.