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School Board holds May meeting

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - The Grand Canyon School Board held an uneventful meeting last week. Items discussed included changes to the athletic policy and hiring of two new teachers.

The board reviewed changes recommended for the athletic handbook, including a new fee schedule and participation minimums.

New high school athletic fees will be $50 per sport with a maximum of $250 per family per year. The new fee for middle school will be $30 per year. A refund policy was also added, stating that students were entitled to money back before beginning practice for a sport.

It also sets a locker fee of $15, with $5 of that refundable if the lock is returned in good working order. High school students get priority in locker assignments.

Minimum participation is set as follows - 12 for soccer, seven for volleyball, six each for boys and girls basketball, six for track, five for cross-country, 10 for baseball and 10 for softball.

The board approved a new fee schedule reflecting the handbook changes.

Drug testing

Based on response at last month's forum to discuss a student drug testing policy, Superintendent Sheila Breen recommended they develop a policy with specifics that residents can discuss. She said she will send out a draft in the next two weeks.

"We come up with our own, get it to where we're semi-comfortable with it and then have a big discussion again with people so that we're not talking theory," she said.

In addition to a meeting, Board member Suzette Streit suggested a community survey once they have a draft.

Capital plan

The board approved a request to use a sole source vendor for carpet for the school. The vendor, Gardiner's Interior Finishes of Flagstaff, is offering the district commercial-grade carpeting for $7.35 per square yard for a total of about $28,000. The best quote from two other vendors who combined efforts was $12.02 per square yard for a total of almost $48,000.

"One thing we did with that, we had Andrew get the specs from Gardiner and when we bid that out, we said these are the exact specs so it was apples to apples," School Business Manager Lee Metheny said.

Board member Chuck Wahler asked if there was sufficient funding to install the carpet. Breen said maintenance would be doing it over a period of time.

Bus cameras

Transportation Director Andrew Aldaz said that they were able to use a newly-installed video camera to sort out a situation that erupted on one of the buses.

"I had to go check it out and was confused on the way back," said Head of School Becky Crumbo. "Then I thought, 'I can see it on the recording.' It made it so easy and it would have taken a lot of time to sift through it. I've never had a backup like that."

Board member Al Montoya asked if students were better behaved because of the cameras. Aldaz said that they are until they get used to them.

Finances

Metheny reported that the district will come in at or under budget this year with the possibility of a little surplus carrying forward to next year. The only concern, he said, was that the state legislature is considering taking end-of-year surpluses to help balance the state budget.

"If we find they're really going to do that, we'll encumber it," he said. "I'm not interested in giving them cash."

Breen said that the legislature seems to be looking at carryover amounts of more than 4 percent of their budget and exempting districts that fall under small school provisions, both of which would spare Grand Canyon from having to return money to the state.

Board President Clarinda Vail asked if it would affect all of the district's accounts, including money that has been accumulating in the capital fund for development of the school land in Tusayan. Metheny said the state is eying all district funds.

"We have plenty of stuff to spend money on if we need to encumber it," said Breen.

The board approved payroll vouchers in the amounts of $91,010.07 and $104,317.72. They approved accounts payable vouchers for $24,332.42, $27,111.59, $10,982.89, $5,822.28 and $7,195.91.

AD report

Aldaz reported that conference games have been scheduled for varsity volleyball in the fall. Soccer had also been scheduled but had too many Tuesday games for the growing number of conference schools, such as Williams and Chino Valley, that will move to a four-day school week next year.

He said they got three applications for soccer coaches and will proceed with interviews if they know enough students will be eligible in the fall.

Field test

Breen reported that last year's radiological evaluation of the school sports fields turned up nothing of concern.

"It's kind of nice to have the data to say there isn't a problem, because every time somebody gets sick, it comes back up," she said.

"I've made copies and given it to a few people, too," said Vail.

Breen said summaries of the report are on file at the school office.

Donations

The board voted to accept the following donations for the Odyssey of the Mind team: $100 from Valle Airport, $100 from Valle Travel Stop, $1,000 from the Grand Canyon Lions Club, $1,000 from Red Feather Lodge and another $70 from individual donors.

AIMS

Crumbo reported that 78 percent of the 10th graders passed the AIMS test in reading and 78 percent passed the writing though "they weren't necessarily the same kids," she said. "I don't believe that's ever happened in exactly that proportion before."

The rest of the results will be in in two to three weeks and will go out with report cards and transcripts, she said.

Bond rating

In the first evaluation of its bond rating in a decade, the school district was upgraded from Baa2 to Baa3 by Moody's. This puts them up one step on the lowest level of investment-grade bonds, where the district was assigned because of its small tax base.

According to the report, Tusayan hadn't been hit as hard as other communities by the economic downturn and even though its tax base is small, it's stable. They described the district's debt burden of $1.92 million as "above average" but noted it will be retired in five years.

"We were fortunate, even with judgment bonds and everything else, we still got an upgrade," Metheny said.

Personnel

Elementary teacher Wendy Horner will attend training in Puerto Rico, paid for by International Baccalaureate.

The board accepted the resignation of teacher Sarah Christian, who accepted a job at a Montessori school in Colorado.

They approved Dayton Stone IV as a substitute teacher. They also approved four days of extra duty at the end of this year and eight days next year for Guidance Counselor Elizabeth Davis.

The board also hired two new teachers - Tori Carrasco and Maya Caldwell.


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