School Board meeting recap

by Cole Arndorfer
 
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The Grain Valley school board met on Thursday, July 20th for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting. This month’s meeting included a report from Superintendent Dr. Brad Welle on exit interviews the district received from employees that will not be returning, approvals of a new community action plan, next year’s school board meeting calendar, and a resolution calling on the state to study the public school funding formula.
 
Welle took a moment during his report to recognize and thank the district’s summer school directors for their hard work and commitment to planning and running summer school this year.
 
“Even the middle schoolers, though they probably wouldn’t admit it,” Welle remarked, “all seemed to be having a fun time. That speaks to the dedication these directors had to making summer school fun for these kids.”
 
Welle then moved into reporting some of the results from exit interview surveys sent out to both certified and non-certified staff that indicated they would not be returning to the district for the upcoming school year.
 
In the district’s findings, they saw that 25 percent of the resignations they received were teachers while the other 75 percent was non-certified staff members. This trend indicates a return back to pre-pandemic numbers for resignations from teaching staff. The district also found that 84.2 percent of resigning teachers would still recommend Grain Valley Schools as a good place to work.
 
Of the non-certified staff resignations the district received, most of those came from paraprofessionals and aides, which are common positions to have a bit of turnover in, according to Welle. The district also saw an uptick in transportation employee resignations but they still expect to have these positions filled and covered before the school year begins.
 
84.6 percent of the non-certified staff surveyed still would recommend Grain Valley Schools as a good place to work.
 
Following this, the board approved the new community engagement plan put forth by Welle following new state legislation on the subject. The goal of this new plan is to provide more ways for the community to engage with the school board. The plan will be looked at each year following feedback and can be amended as needed.
 
The board then was presented with the school board meeting calendar for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Most months, the board will hold two sessions, one workshop and one business meeting. The board approved the calendar but reserved the right to amend it as needed.
 
As the final piece of unfinished business, the board discussed a resolution that would call for a Blue Ribbon commission to study the state’s funding formula for public schools. Welle pointed out that the funding formula has not been changed in a significant amount of time and even if the state studies the formula they may decide to not do anything. The board approved the resolution.
Under new business, the board discussed the recommendation of tweaking the Valley Kids pricing. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Nick Gooch notes that the goal of the Valley Kids program is not to make money, it is merely to break even while providing a much needed service to families in the district. Gooch said that the program had operated at a loss due to the rising costs of supplies and food. The proposed new price would be just enough to cover the deficit and make sure the program is not running at a loss for the upcoming year.
 
Next, the board discussed establishing a new finance committee. This committee would run for the 2023-2024 school year with the ability to be extended as needed. Members of this committee would be parents, community members, and staff, preferably with finance or accounting backgrounds. The board will bring this back at the August workshop for a vote.
 
Welle then raised for discussion the establishment of a facilities planning committee. This committee would audit the strengths and weaknesses of the facilities in the district as well as provide their recommendations on future facilities and benchmarks the district would hit before those were needed.
 
Finally, the board reviewed the staff conflict of interest policy and the board member conflict of interest and financial disclosure policy. The staff conflict of interest policy addresses potential gifts that district employees may be offered. The policy would set a dollar amount that constitutes a “reasonable” gift such as dinner, lunch, tickets to sporting events or concerts, games of golf, among other things. If an employee was offered such a gift, the policy would stipulate that they would need to have a conversation with their direct supervisor before accepting the gift.