The RE-1 Valley School Board is looking for qualified candidates to run for four open seats in the Nov. 2 election. At a special meeting Monday afternoon, the board approved elections officials and entering into an intergovernmental agreement with Logan County to hold a coordinated election.
Nomination petitions are now available for those wishing to run to fill seats in District 1, currently held by board president Dennis Kaan; District 2, held by vice president Ronda Monheiser; District 5, held by Riste Capps; and District 6, held by Debora Japp.
To be eligible to run, you must have been an eligible voter and lived in one of the open director districts for at least 12 consecutive months prior to the election.
Those wishing to run for a seat can get a nomination petition form from Lakesha Hershfeldt, administrative assistant to the board and superintendent, at Hagen Administration Center. Nomination petitions must be returned by Friday, Aug. 27.
At Monday’s board meeting there was some discussion about who should be appointed as the district’s election official. A motion was made and seconded to approve Superintendent Shila Adolf as RE-1’s election official, but Monheiser had a concern about that.
“I’m just used to being the designated official, but more than happy to let someone else do that,” Adolf said, adding that “there’s no way for me to tamper with the election.”
While the election official is responsible for determining if there are sufficient valid signatures for a candidate, Capps explained that election volunteers assist the Logan County Clerk and Recorder’s office with doing the actual counting of the election ballots and that process is overseen by the county clerk.
“Anybody that has any questions or if you think there’s any kind of impropriety going on, take it up with the county clerk,” she said.
Monheiser pointed out that Adolf already has a lot of work to do and asked if there was anyone else that could be designated as the election official. Kaan noted that the board’s previous secretary, Kelly Jo Harlow, was the election official in years past, so they could designate Hershfeldt. Adolf said the only reason she didn’t ask Hershfeldt to do it is because she is new, but noted Hershfeldt has been trained and is really doing most of the work under her guidance.
“I just think that with everything that with everything that went on last spring, I think we as a board need to make an effort to rebuilt trust and transparency and I know that you are extremely busy Shila,” Monheiser said.
The board ultimately agreed to amend the original motion and approved a new motion to designate both Adolf and Hershfeldt as the district’s co-election officials.
In other business, during the public comment portion of the meeting, the board heard parent concerns about when the district is going to decide whether masking will be required in school this fall and the policy changes that have occurred in recent months.
“I don’t know how long you guys are going to wait to let everybody know what your plan is for masking or non-masking. I know there’s a lot of families, a lot of parents, waiting to make the decision about whether they’re going to send their kids to school or not due to mask mandates. We’re not very far away from school and nothing has been put out there yet. So, if the school board and superintendent want to keep saying transparency, transparency, I suggest you guys start having transparency, giving people a little bit of notice, a little bit of time to make decisions,” Donelle Harms said.
The first day of school for sixth through 12th grade is Wednesday, Aug. 18. Kindergarten through fifth grade will do literacy testing on Aug. 18 and 19 and their first day of school will be Aug. 20.
Harms also told the board she doesn’t believe that it’s right that they are changing policy and not posting what the changes are or reading the policy during meetings. Harms shared that she was part of a town council and every policy they changed was read by the council in a public meeting.
Another parent, Amanda Morgan agreed, pointing out that “it looks like there has been a lot of policy change” and asked if the board would be willing to give the policy changes out loud and if there will be reports regarding policy changes.
As is general practice, the board did not respond to any of the comments.
Later in the meeting, the board approved policy CBD, superintendent’s contract, and CBD-E, superintendent’s contract exhibit for first reading. Adolf explained that policy CBD was just brought up-to-date and the exhibit isn’t actually her contract, but just an example of a recommended normal operating contract for a superintendent.
Monheiser shared that at a Colorado Association of School Boards meeting in 2019 she attended workshops geared toward finding a new superintendent and they advised school boards not to put an exhibit such as the one the board was considering into board policy.
“The big push was that you keep your policies as streamlined and clean as possible and that you would always be able to go to HR if you wanted to look at the contract, but it wouldn’t actually be part of your policies,” she said, adding that they said if an exhibit is included for that position it should be included for other positions as well.
Adolf asked if it was a CASB presenter at the meeting, because the policy and exhibit recommendation she presented to the board came from CASB. Monheiser believed it was a CASB presenter.
“The reason you do that as an exhibit is you want to be as in line as possible with your current policies so that you don’t negotiate outside of policy,” Adolf said.
She told the board she would talk to CASB legal counsel about it.
Monheiser told her fellow board members she would like to approve CBD on first reading at that time and allow more time for research on CBD-E, because that exhibit, which is six pages long, was not given to the board until Sunday afternoon.
Jennifer Ogley pointed out they could approve both on first reading and then if any changes are needed consider those when they do the second reading of the policy and exhibit.
Ultimately the board voted 6-1 to approve both, with Monheiser voting no and Jill Brownell absent.
The board also approved a list of new staff contracts and was introduced to Bill Shafer, a new student achievement coach for the district. He will be working at Caliche School, Sterling High School and Middle School and possibly Campbell and Ayres Elementary.
“It’s a position that, it’s going to be evolving a little bit, but I’m here to help the marginalized groups, as well as any student, whether they’re a gifted kid, just to make sure that all kids have someone that is looking out for them,” he said. “Excited to be here.”
Adolf noted that the district has to spend a certain portion of its COVID-19 relief funding on mental health, so they will be using it on student achievement coaches and with some funding coming from Logan County they hope to be able to hire two additional coaches.
