By Jolene FarleyRevisions to the high school handbook sparked debate at Monday’s Hills-Beaver Creek school board meeting.Discussion followed the administration’s suggestion to require graduation student speakers to have no alcohol, tobacco and drug violations during their high school years. Some board members didn’t want a mistake made as a freshman to pertain when the student was a senior. "I don’t think we should penalize a student for four years of their life," board member Lois Leuthold said. Superintendent Dave Deragisch said the administration was trying to "get the good role models and the best students.""We’re really looking for the best of the best. We’re looking for the cream of the crop." In the past, the senior class voted for the classmate they wanted to speak at graduation. The requirement was later added that the student must be an honor student. He said all speeches were approved before read at graduation but sometimes things didn’t turn out as planned."What you approve and what they bring up on stage to read … you sweat blood," he said.Deragisch threw out the idea that the board require the student speaker to be a member of the National Honor Society.Board member Gary Esselink jumped in on the issue. Esselink thought students should be held to the highest standards."You know the rules. These are the rules that are there," he said. "We’re setting the standards for those who speak to represent their class."After more debate, board member Ann Boeve made the motion the student speaker be selected from the pool of National Honor Society students. Esselink and Harnack voted against the motion, but it carried by majority.Other changes to the handbook include adding a section on 1998 legislation requiring public schools to establish a chemical abuse pre-assessment team made up of school officials. The team is responsible for addressing reports of chemical use by the students. "These reports shall be made, without exception, by all law enforcement people and teachers. The law enforcement agencies must report to the pre-assessment team any and all chemical use, possession or transfer of alcohol or a controlled substance by student, in writing, within two weeks of the incident," the added section reads. Another change involves increasing the number of credits required to graduate over the course of four years from 25 to 28 credits. All students graduating in 2005 and after will be required to pass three science and three math credits. The eight-period class schedule was laid out in the handbook, with a revised schedule for a two-hour late start. Other changes included listing the towns where activity buses travel, spelling out the rules and penalties for Category I and II extracurricular activities suggested by the Minnesota State High School League and developing rules and penalties for Category III activities.Book-of-the-Week ClubElementary teachers Amy Christensen, Michele Baker, Nicole Fey and Diane VandenHoek attended the meeting to update the board on this year’s Book-of-the-Week Club. "It was just a wonderful opportunity for everybody involved," said Christensen.The program, which had an enrollment of 98 kids (20 from outside of the district) this year, was funded with $16,000 from various sources. Each participant took home about $60 in materials to keep, according to Christensen.Retired Senior Volunteers helped teachers for the day. "I had liked four or five volunteers each week," said VandenHoek. "It was nice to get to know them." The teachers said they saw a lot of excitement about reading and received many nice comments about the school.The board and the teachers hope to offer the program next year even with uncertain funding. "You lose funding sources from one group and sometimes another group steps forward," said Deragisch. Personnel changesThe board accepted a letter of resignation from elementary teacher Amy Christensen. Christensen accepted the kindergarten through eighth-grade combined principal and superintendent position at Lynd.Bus driver John Tilstra is retiring after 26 years with the district. The board voted to hire Doug Boeve to replace Tilstra. Starla Scholten begins duties as cheerleading advisor at the high school this fall.Fuel oil and propane bidsAfter some discussion, the board accepted a firm bid of $.85 per gallon for propane and a variable bid of 6 cents less than posted retail price at the time of delivery (with a current price of 93.9 cents per gallon) for fuel oil from Nobles County Co-op Oil, Worthington.The district used approximately 12,000 gallons of fuel oil and between 33,000 and 34,000 gallons of propane last year, according to Deragisch.
