BOARD HEARS GRIEVANCES

(CAMERON)  A discussion on improving moral concluded a 3-hour long regular session of the Cameron School Board last night.  Trustee Michael Watkins opened the discussion asking how the district could monitor and improve moral among the staff.   When Board President Gene Vaculin asked what the board could do, teacher Karen Jerrard told the board that teachers just want to be tuned in and listened to.  She said communication was the big problem.  Another suggestion to utilize the district’s technology by setting up a message board for making suggestions and ideas.  Vaculin told the group of about 30 that teachers should get together and come up with some suggestions for the board to consider. 

The discussion preceded a closed session in which Trustees heard level III grievances filed against two top administrators by 3 Ben Milam Elementary School Kindergarten teachers.  Level III grievances were jointly filed by kindergarten teachers Brenda Dirba, Linda Dohnalik and Tammy Zarosky regarding Assistant Superintendent Phil Hall.  Ms. Dirba has also filed a level III grievance regarding Superintendent Maxie Morgan.  Attorneys for both the School District and Ms. Dirba met with the board in the closed session last night.  After more than 5 hours in a closed session, the board reconvened at 4:15 this morning.   Following the closed session this morning, the board voted to support Superintendent Maxie Morgan’s decisions of the Level II grievance.  Board President Gene Vaculin.  (Audio) Grievances goes first to level one which is the principal. That is then appealed to Level II which is taking the problem to the Superintendent.  Level III then comes to the school board.  As for the joint grievance against Hall, Vaculin said the board again upheld the administration’s decision. (Audio) Vaculin said a growth plan outlines job descriptions, issues and solutions to the issues. 

During an open forum prior to the meeting, three people signed up to speak.  Sherri Korsmo, a Cameron ISD parent, expressed her support for the teachers.  (Audio) 

Pam Green said she wanted answers to 3 questions, Why does the district have a $500,000 shortfall in the budget, why is the ADA down, and whey are programs that benefit the kids being cut yet there are no administrative cuts.  The open forum is designed for the board to listen, but not respond.

In other business, the board approved the summer recreation program anticipating about 150 kids.  106 attended the opening day Monday, 120 are registered, and 30 more applications were sent out.

The board approved 1 bill over $25,000 to EBCO Commercial for $691,344 for construction costs associated with the new High School.

The dress code and code of conduct discussion took up more than an hour of last night’s meeting.  Tony Lafferty presented proposed revisions from the District Committee.  Key revisions include no hair picks or combs, and sideburns are not to be worn below the ear lobe.  No flip flops for safety measures due to the construction.  No hats, head coverings and head bands on campus and not worn during school hours or at indoor school events.

Girls will be required to wear collared or neck type shirts with sleeves to address the problem of too much skin showing.  And all shirts must cover mid drifts in any position.  Ms. Lafferty said the committee concluded that “we don’t want to see underwear, we just want to have class”.    Other suggested revisions included allowing boys to wear small studded ear rings, and hair must be off the collar but could be in a pony tail.  Boys will be clean shaven.  No shorts will be allowed.  However pants below the knees will be allowed.  And all dresses must be knee length or longer with no slits above the knees.  There were exceptions to some of the revisions for Pre K thru 5^th grade students.  The board will further study the proposed revisions.

Lafferty also presented suggestions for the Student Code of Conduct.  She said Cameron ISD is currently one of only 8 districts in the state that does not use the TASB model for the code of conduct and suggested using the model.  One suggestion the committee made was to allow students to use cell phones after late night school functions, to notify parents.  Currently the board has a policy in place prohibiting cell phones at school or any function. 

The board heard a presentation from Steele Cooley on a new VOIP phone system for the district.  The total cost is $295,000 however could partially funded by an E-Rate grant.  The issue was tabled for further study by the board.

Trustees approved a policy review by TASB and the publishing of the district’s policies on-line. 

And the board agreed to bi-annual evaluations of the superintendent and will conduct a workshop on June 24^th to review and make changes to the evaluation procedure.

The board set a budget workshop for June 17^th at 7 p.m.

Trustees also tabled hiring a resource or district officer for further study, and asked High School Principal Clint MacMahon to do research on the issue and present a report at the next meeting.