MEEKER | The Meeker School District Board of Education held its regular meeting last week at the district office, with all board members in attendance.
The board approved the agenda without changes and moved quickly into committee reports. The Meeker Education Foundation met in early July and awarded multiple grants. The District Accountability Committee will hold its first meeting Sept. 4, while the District Leadership Team and Employee Council are set to meet later in September.
High School Principal Amy Chinn noted this year’s freshman class is the last large class expected in the near future. She also praised staff for their resilience during the recent fire, especially Kathleen Kelley.
“Staffing and students all were fine, we had different levels of impact. Certainly Kathleen Kelley was very impacted by the fire. She was a trooper all through preservice — she did a great job keeping everybody centered,” Chinn said.
Chinn outlined the school’s new cell phone policy, which restricts phone use during class but allows access during lunch, passing periods, and before and after school.
“That would be in classes, it can’t be seen — so not on the desk, not in your pocket, because that’s distracting too,” she said. “It can be in your backpack, or a lot of teachers have cell phone cages, or they call them vacation spots.”
Students face escalating consequences if caught using phones in class. The first violation requires the phone to be left in the office for the day; the second requires a parent to retrieve it after the day; and the third results in loss of phone privileges for a semester.
“We are allowing cell phones during passing periods, at lunch, before and after school,” Chinn added. “I did tell them they can see how many Snapchats they can get in four minutes — after that they have to put it away. We had zero violations today.”
Board member Heather Sauls said she supported the approach. “I really appreciate kind of like a common sense approach,” Sauls said. “I like the philosophy of teaching kids how to live with this technology and modernization. I think it’s a great policy.”
Superintendent Chris Selle also weighed in. “A complete ban isn’t something we can enforce either,” Selle said. “Not only does it help the kid learn how to manage their technology appropriately, but it’s something that we can enforce.”
New elementary principal Shana Holliday reported a smooth start to the year. “Everybody showed up and worked hard during pre-service week,” Holliday said. “We had zero kids out because of fire problems, which was fantastic to get started with everybody there.”
Barone Middle School Principal Dr. Atwell, also new to the district, joked that it was her first time in 36 years she had to wear a jacket to work. “One of the concerns for middle school is whether or not you’ll remember your schedule and if the teacher and kids will like you, and it turns out the principal’s not the only one that feels that way,” Atwell said. “We had a great day, and last week was my first time meeting the staff. We spent a lot of our time focusing on our collective commitments toward safety and culture.”
Selle reported current enrollment at 631 students as of Aug. 14, slightly above the 621.5 students the district budgeted for, though he cautioned that number may drop as withdrawals are finalized.
“We don’t necessarily always know who’s not going to show up,” Selle said. “My guess is that number will drop a little bit, but we have some buffer before we hit that point of where we build our budget.”
On finances, the district ended the fiscal year with revenues $271,000 above budget and expenditures $355,000 below budget, creating a positive variance of $627,000. The fund balance now stands at about $4.84 million, pending audit.
“We should be okay for this year. I don’t know what’s going to happen after this year,” Selle said, citing uncertainty around state revenues and the “Healthy Meals for All” program.
He also addressed the special legislative session that began Aug. 21, saying he does not expect major impacts on district funding.
“I would argue that we have a revenue issue, whether it’s tax income or some limitations that TABOR puts on our state revenues. I also argue that we have an expenditure problem, we’re spending money on programs that we can’t really afford, with the current political state in Colorado that’s not necessarily a very popular message, so I don’t know if any of that will change anytime soon,” Selle said.
The board also discussed the November school board election. Four seats are up for election, and as of the meeting, only the four incumbents had pulled petitions. If no additional candidates file by the Aug. 29 deadline, the election could be canceled, saving the district significant costs. A short special meeting on Sept. 2 may be required to formalize the cancellation.
The board adjourned after setting its next meeting for a Sept. 8 work session.
