Trustees approve levies for May ballot
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POLSON — The Polson School Board of Trustees voted to propose a building reserve levy and a technical levy at its meeting on March 14.
Both levies are for the elementary and high school and will be on the May 3 ballot.
Yearly, the building reserve levy would be $200,000 at the elementary level and $100,000 at the high school level for five years. The technical levy, a permissive (permanent) levy, would pull $133,000 per year for the elementary schools and $67,000 for the high school district.
Before the vote for the levies, Carl Elliott, Doug Crosby, Ceth Eslick, other members of the technology committee and maintenance supervisor Dan Kinyon presented information about technology and the school facilities.
The group reported the school district’s network is old since it was installed in 1999.
“It’s like having a really fantastic stereo system,” Elliott said, “with an eight-track tape player.”
To refresh Cherry Valley’s technology, it would take about $9,000 per year for five years plus an additional $4,000 per year to update the teachers’ laptops.
Crosby said he’d like to replace the 20-computer mobile lab with iPads since touchpads work well for the little guys.
Refresh means computers are passed on until they absolutely would not work.
To refresh Linderman’s computers it would take $22,000 to $23,000 per year for five years and the Polson Middle School would need $32,000 per year for five years. The science labs at Polson High School need new computers because they are working with almost 10-year-old machines. The upgrade would cost $12,000 plus refreshing five teacher’s laptops and additional funds for Microsoft and Adobe software renewals.
Kinyon said he visits each building in the district each spring and determines the greatest need and “usually that’s what we address.”
One maintenance issue is the all weather track at the Polson Sports Complex, installed in 2002. Three years ago, Kinyon said, it needed “a minor patch and spray job” for $48,000, which has not been addressed.
“We have facility issues,” superintendent David Whitesell said, “that we have been bandaiding from our general fund. What we have, our folks have done a good job with, but it’s not appropriate … for facilities and technology.”
In other business:
• Teacher Keryl Lozar and school nurse Millie Nesladek explained the flossing-pik program the two have instituted at Linderman School.
• Mathematics teacher Polly Dupuis gave a synopsis of her half-year sabbatical.
• Polson Classified Education Association chair Adam Burke asked to begin negotiations for the 2012-2013 school year.
• Middle school teacher Deanna McElwee proposed to work part time next year.
• Preliminary information was dispersed on the 2012-2013 budget.
No action was taken on any of these items. However, the board approved the claims for February.
So far the district has received 13 applicants for the high school assistant principal job. Applicants will be screened and interviews will be held during the last week in March if all goes according to plan.
The April meeting was rescheduled for April 18 at 5:30 p.m.
