Board approves PCEA contract
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POLSON — The Polson School Board ratified a tentative agreement with the Polson Classified Education Association at the special board meeting March 27 by a vote of 4-2.
But the vote didn’t come easily.
Although she didn’t oppose the PCEA’s proposed contract, trustee Kelly Bagnell said the community needed to discuss what happens with the impact aid money, which would fund the PCEA contract. Impact aid money comes to the Polson School District since large parts of the district are Indian land and federal land, both of which are exempt from local property taxes. The amount has averaged more than $175,000 per year for the past four years, according to Adam Burke, PCEA president.
“Are we going to keep growing this pot of money, or can we feed some of that money back into salaries?” Bagnell asked.
“I’m asking for $25,000. You put $75,000 in for steps and lanes for teachers ... I’m asking for less than the cost of one teacher — that’s $410 a person and $20 out of insurance,” Burke said, describing the union’s request.
From a small raise for the district’s classified staff, the board moved on to consider rehiring of non-tenured administrative personnel. After a motion to approve the personnel report was amended to consider hiring non-tenured administrative staff at the April board meeting, board members and audience members had comments and questions.
Since Polson High School Principal Rob Hankins has submitted his resignation, the only other non-tenured administrators are Heather Jones, principal at Linderman Elementary School, and Brandon Thurston, vice principal at Polson High School.
Trustee Nancy Lindsey said one reason for the delay of a decision was the expected return of the school district climate survey data next week.
“The climate survey, unless I’m interpreting it wrong, is not an evaluation tool,” trustee Brian Havlovick said.
Agreeing that the climate survey is not an evaluation tool, Chair Caryl Cox said it will round out a picture of the schools along with other information from various sources and will not be used in isolation.
“There’s been an awful lot of talk about a climate survey,” Havlovick said. “The motion on top of mine doesn’t do much for the climate right now.”
Interim superintendent Bill Appleton opposed the climate survey as any part of an evaluation for personnel. He said when staff discussed the climate survey, they questioned what it was for, and it was never stated it was for evaluation.
“It’s beyond reason to stall this whole thing,” Appleton added.
Linderman staff members Karen Reeves, Fran Wilson, Darcie Laud, Malika Cunningham, Jane Taylor and Lucinda Wadsworth all spoke in favor of their principal and other Linderman staff present.
Linderman special education teacher Brenda Asencio said, “Heather is the best principal we’ve had ... She is one woman who will have my back every day and makes the students feel safe, comfortable and loved at that school.”
Asking fellow trustees to support Jones, trustee John Laimbeer said it’s pretty obvious Jones came to the district at a tough time. (Former Principal Steve York left in the middle of the previous year, and Interim Principal Cheri Stobie also chose work in another district.) For the last three weeks or so, the board has learned what’s going on.
“The question is, ‘what can we do,’” Laimbeer asked, mentioning in-school suspension and mentors as two solutions.
“This is about the school and if the children are doing well,” Lindsey added, “not about every individual administrator.”
Bagnell said she’s had probably four times as many calls with negative comments about Jones but noted that those people were not at the meeting because they fear retribution if she stays.
“Linderman School is very divided,” Bagnell said. “There’s a horrible climate over there. We can’t ignore that. Is that the right leader in that school?”
“The division within the building is a simple mirror of this board for the last nine or 10 months,” Trustee Bob Hanson said. “The board has been dysfunctional and still is.”
The board passed the amendment to move the non-tenured administrators to the April board meeting and approved the rehire of the tenured administrators and the classified staff. They also approved the hiring of McPherson and Jacobsen, a Nebraska firm, to search for a superintendent, although Lindsey felt the district had enough expertise in-house to conduct a search.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be April 9. A slate of candidates will have filed for trustee positions, also.
