SALEM TOWNSHIP – School board members met Thursday for the first time since voters approved SAD 58’s $9.5 million budget in a referendum Tuesday night.
Superintendent Quenten Clark said Tuesday afternoon if the budget passed, “summer vacation” can start for him. But, though school ended Thursday for students, it was business as usual during the evening school board meeting, although the whir of fans and sunlight streaming into the library after 8 o’clock served as a reminder it’s summer.
“Graduation happened,” Clark said. “It seemed like a good event. Nobody fainted – there were reasonable temperatures in the gym.”
Most of the talk focused on plans for the next school year – from an executive session on an expelled student’s reapplication, to a meeting with a newly hired teacher, to a discussion on oil heat for next winter and a vote accepting a high school governance policy.
The governance policy, pitched by Mt. Abram High School teacher Barry London, will allow for collaborative decision making between administration, teachers, and students. Clark and the school board agreed to the charter, though Clark admonished London to remember that “This is not a democracy,” and “I am a ruthless dictator.” The school board and district administrators have the final say on all matters, he said.
But Mt. Abram Principal Jeanne Tucker said she thinks the charter will be good for her students. “Instead of the kids waiting all year for one opportunity for the board to hear what they want,” they’ll be able to discuss their ideas and concerns with faculty and staff regularly, she said. So will teachers.
About 15 people attended the meeting, in addition to the board. A few were the parents of incoming kindergartners. They said they were there “to separate fact from fiction” on things like “class size, special education, (and) students being shifted from district to district.”
“There’s been a lot of talk and a lot of confusion … about what next year looks like for the kindergarten,” one woman said.
Clark said that, even though the numbers of incoming kindergartners have decreased drastically in recent years, kindergartens will be open in all four elementary schools. Fifteen students will be in the Stratton class, while “we have 19” in Phillips, and 18 in Strong. Only five Kingfield children are entering the Kingfield class, so five students from Freeman Township will go to Kingfield for kindergarten instead of Strong to help balance the class, Clark said.
Board member Alan Morse reminded parents that, “We really can’t project” what class size will be in June. The board will know more after school starts in the fall, he said.
Comments are no longer available on this story