by Jaye Sudar
GARDNER- The RE-1 school board held their meeting in conjunction with Gardner School′s Open House. From 5:30pm until 6:30pm, the public was invited to view various activities the students had been working on over the first quarter of the school year. There were slide shows about the trip to Mission Wolf, dioramas explaining concepts from Lord of the Flies, poetry, maps of Europe, Native American Artwork and tons of Falcon Hero Awards. People were treated to snacks and conversations as they moved from room to room enjoying the evening.
The board was treated to a spaghetti dinner by the Gardner kitchen staff. After dinner, general business included approval of eight board policies, additions to the custodian, bus driver′s, and substitute lists, extra duty assignments and approval of a USDA grant application. Contracts for the Targeted Districts Improvement Partnership (TDIP) were discussed and conditionally approved based upon fine tuning by the district′s lawyers. These contracts are with Edison Learning, CASB and McRel, which are the vendors helping the district navigate through the three year rehabilitation process. The position of Business Manager involved a lengthy discussion. One promising interviewee was not willing to relocate at this time for the salary available. The board may hire an interim business manager and advertise at a later time in hopes of a better pool of candidates. They will be holding a special board meeting on November 4th, at 7pm to further discuss the position and possible courses of action available to the board.
The board approved a resolution in regards to Proposition 101 and Amendments 60 & 61. The board took a stand whereby they ask the voting public to investigate, be informed and vote responsibly. They were very concerned that the public understand the far reaching actions if 60, 61 & 101 become law.A full copy of the resolution is availble in the District office.
The board stated that there will be a TDIP meeting open to the public on November 4th from 4:30pm to 6:30pm at Peakview school. This meeting is about the future of the district. Randy Black from CASB was at the meeting as part of the continued interaction that CASB will be having through the TDIP process. He was very impressed by Gardner school. Randy gave the board some positive comments about their meeting and how he felt the board was working through this process. He said that they were working hard to become a Best For Kids (BFK) district. Randy was impressed by the audience participation as well and felt that it boded well for future improvement in the district.
