HUMBOLDT Last month, USD 258 board of education president Kevin Heisler suggested that the relationship between school board members and the districts teachers might be strengthened if board members set aside at least one day per year to visit the districts buildings while classes were in session. On Monday, the board voted unanimously to adopt Heislers proposal.
In the interim, however, 10 teachers were asked to weigh in on the idea. The reactions, said Superintendent of Schools Kay Lewis, were split. A handful of the warier teachers believed that the approach could work as long as board members werent intending to use the visit as an opportunity to evaluate teacher performance. Because thats not your job, said Lewis, thats an administrators job.
But the board didnt need any convincing on that point: their intention is merely to observe and to visit with only those teachers who want to participate. Plus, board members will announce the date of their visit well in advance.
Blown money
On Thursday, two unlucky Humboldt coaches traveled to Kansas City for a coaches clinic. Before setting out, the coaches received $180 in cash from the districts athletic fund an amount intended to cover the pairs daily expenses.
At some point during their travels, however, the coaches lost the $180. According to Superintendent Lewis, the coaches suspect that when they exited the car to scrape ice from the vehicles windows, the loose cash was picked up by a crosswind, whisked through the open door, and scattered across the landscape.
And so, on Monday, Lewis presented the board with three choices: 1) Do they forgive the mistake entirely and proceed to reimburse the coaches for any out-of-pocket expenses the two coaches incurred after the money vanished?; 2) Do they allow the coaches to reimburse the district out of the teams fundraising account?; or 3) Do they demand that the teachers reimburse the lost cash from their own pockets?
At the superintendents urging though here, too, the board didnt require much urging the board chose the third option, to have the coaches pay back the district. Lewis expressed sympathy for the coaches gaffe but worried that if the board were to forgive the mistake, it would only serve to engender an environment of moral hazard that the district would have to contend with well into the future. Once you allow this to happen, said Lewis, if we go ahead and pay for the receipts after we gave them the $180 and they lost it, youve set a precedent. … My recommended motion would be that the teachers pay back the $180 out of their own pockets, minus the receipts of what they spent [subsequent to losing the money].
The board agreed, 6-0.
USD 258 joined Allen County and the City of Humboldt in voting to renew Humboldts Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. The three-year interlocal agreement provides tax refunds to any property owner who makes at least $3,000 worth of improvements to residential housing or at least $5,000 in improvements to commercial or industrial buildings.
The district agreed to hear first-phase proposals for potential building improvements from Gibson Mancini Carmichael & Nelson Architects (Garden City), DCS Services (Wichita), and Landmark Architects (Hutchinson) at a special meeting on March 7 at 6 p.m. At this point in time, said Superintendent Lewis, were just looking at our facilities to see what the needs are, and after that we would have to make a decision on how [to move forward].
