Gilmanton Board considers support staff options, discusses handbook

by Beth Kraft

Following a recent resignation in the school’s food service department, the Gilmanton Schools may look to get a little creative to fill the vacancy. Restructuring the district’s custodian and food service staff duties was discussed at the Gilmanton School Board’s monthly meeting, held Tuesday, Jan. 20, as was progress on a support staff handbook.

The Board approved the resignation of food service employee Kim Klevgard, and district administrator Glen Denk suggested looking at reassigning duties among the district’s current custodial and food service staff instead of posting for the position. He said people sometimes question why the district has retained the same number of custodial and food service staff with one less elementary school (Dover).

Going forward, Denk said it might be best to try shuffling some responsibilities around rather than potentially laying off a new person later on. The Board agreed to have Denk come up with a workable solution.

A lengthy discussion also took place regarding handbooks for support staff, as Denk had questions for the Board and was looking for advice on how to proceed with multiple issues.

Revising the language on handbook sections concerning sick leave, vacations, emergency and personal days, and other outdated definitions were discussed.

Board members also suggested that Denk request support staff handbook examples from other school districts to help provide some direction.

Also that night, the Board voted to downsize the number of available open enrollment spaces in grades 1-4. Class sizes in those elementary grades will be capped at 15 students total beginning in 2015-16 to keep the number of students in combined classrooms at the elementary level manageable. The number of open enrollment spaces in 4K, kindergarten and grades 5-12 was kept the same.

Currently the district is averaging about 8.8 students per grade.

School leaders stressed that students previously accepted through open enrollment will still be able to attend in the district even if class sizes were to exceed the new limits.

Purchasing a used school bus for Gilmanton was also a topic of discussion.

Denk said a 2002 Thomas bus will be available after the Mondovi district trades it in towards a new bus. He noted Gilmanton had been looking for a used bus in good shape since last year, but hadn’t found one until now.

The Board gave Denk the go-ahead to pursue purchasing the bus from the bus company working with Mondovi. The estimated cost of the bus is expected to be around $5,000.

In his principal’s report, Kory Rud gauged feedback from the Board after sharing a recent inquiry from Ntec asking if the district would entertain a proposal from the company for broadband Internet service.

Board members questioned if the service would be comparable to and as reliable as the school’s current Internet service package through Wisnet. Cost savings was another topic of concern.

In other business that night, the Board approved the following:

• extend administrative contracts for Glen Denk and Kory Rud through 2015-16

• continue cooperative agreements with Mondovi, Osseo-Fairchild

• continue CESA #10 contracts

• tree removal contract

• gifts of computer cart with electrical outlets; elliptical weight training equipment