School board hires coaches, athletic director, hears options for ag shop/gym

At the February 25 meeting of the Odessa School Board, approval was granted for a non-continuing contract for kindergarten teacher Jill Larson to serve as a remediation teacher on Fridays for the remainder of the school year.

Approved for spring sports were Jeff Nelson as the new football head coach; Larry Weber as head baseball coach; Tommy Galloway as assistant baseball coach; Travis Schuh as head track and field coach and Maria Schuh as assistant coach; Mike Greenwood of Harrington as golf coach; Rachel Roberts of Harrington as tennis coach; Mike Cronrath of Harrington as head junior high track coach and Lanae Carper of Odessa as assistant coach; Tyson Linstrum as head junior-high baseball coach and Lamar Larmer as assistant coach (both of Harrington).

Superintendent’s report

Superintendent Suellen White said a hiring committee consisting of board members, elementary and high school teachers and classified staff had unanimously selected Jamie Nelson, currently serving her first year as an interim hire, as the school principal for next year. The board approved her contract.

Also approved were overnight travel for the FBLA chapter members to attend the state conference April 14-17 and an update to the school policy on harassment, intimidation and bullying.

Dr. Mike Dunn of Educational Services District 101 in Spokane, acting as a consultant in the search for a new school superintendent for Odessa, requested a meeting to plan interviews with candidates. The meeting will be an executive session of the board and is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m.

White reported she met recently with 4th Congressional District Congressman Dan Newhouse to present her views on rural education.

Hiring of new staff members for next year will begin soon. The special education position and agriculture education teacher positions will open in early March.

Principal’s report

Principal Jamie Nelson reported on various activities going on at school.

* Lindsy Starkel, school librarian, conducted a successful Scholastic Book Fair, bringing in over $1,000 for new library books.

* The next data collection for the health/physical activity grant will take place March 9-16, so students will be wearing pedometers and tracking what they eat during the week.

* The annual school musical is entitled “Westward Whoa” and performances are planned for March 19 and 20 for the general public beginning at 6 p.m.

* Music instructor Craig Holman is director of the Bi-county honor band this year, so practices will be held in Odessa, followed by a performance at the INB performing arts center in Spokane on March 16.

* The Bi-county academic challenge will be held in Wilbur March 12.

* Required state assessments will begin in mid-March and continue through May.

* Junior high and high school boys basketball is through for the season, and the girls’ basketball team was to play in the first regional round of the state tournament February 27.

* An active shooter drill was conducted at school February 25. Nelson said it went very well despite a few communication glitches discovered among different agencies and within the school. One of the purposes of the drill is to discover areas where improvement is needed. Odessa Police, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Odessa’s Public Works staff, the Odessa Fire Department, Odessa EMTs and Odessa Memorial Hospital all participated in the drill.

Legislative report

White said she and board members Marcus Horak and Heather Valverde will attend a legislative conference in Olympia March 1 and 2.

White said more than 2,200 legislative bills have been introduced this session, with most dying by not making it out of committee prior to the deadline. White said the most important issue facing the legislature is how to comply with a court order to provide full funding for education. She hoped part of the allocation would increase employee compensation, as school employees have not seen an increase in pay in several years.

Several measures deal with refining current law. One is the Becca Bill, which addresses truancy. Another deals with the requirement that students not meeting standards in third grade be subject to a series of consequences. Since schools will not receive test scores from the state in time to comply before school is out, the current requirement is moot until the legislature revises it.

Happily for schools both large and small, a bill has passed out of committee allowing teachers who retire before age 65 to be hired to substitute teach, coach and do contract work in schools. With many districts struggling to find substitute teachers, the change will be welcome.

Facilities report

Facilities director Justin Parr said he will evaluate the cost of installing a new reader board sign so that a recommendation can be made to the board at the next meeting. He reported that work has begun on the baseball fields and track, getting them ready for the start of spring sports.

Enrollment has increased another 1.5 students to 215.5 full-time equivalent students, 25.5 more than budgeted. The amount in the general fund reserve is $588,767.

The board adopted the 2015-2016 academic calendar with school beginning August 26 and ending June 10. There will be no school the Friday before Fest, a five-day Thanksgiving break and a full two weeks off for the winter break. Four mandatory professional days for the instructional staff (no school for students) and two snow days are also built into the calendar.

The board approved a new staff position for a half-time counselor.

The board also approved Bruce Todd as Athletic Director for the O-H athletic cooperative next year with no assistant director. Todd will be paid $7,500 for the position, and $2,000 will be made available to hire game supervisors when Todd cannot be present.

Ned Warnick of Design West Architects in Spokane presented three options for an idea proposed initially by board chair Ed Deife. The idea was to reconfigure the multipurpose room, which is too small for regulation high school basketball games and therefore precludes Odessa from hosting post-season tournaments, and move the ag shop into that space. A committee of school staff, community members and school board members have determined that the ag shop needs replacing. Deife proposed moving the ag shop into the school proper, then building an additional regulation-size gym that could accommodate tournaments.

Warnick told the board that he was at first very excited by the idea, but when early cost estimates came in, he realized the project was going to cost more than anticipated. The least expensive proposal was to build B auxiliary gym on stilts above the staff parking lot north of the current gym. This would preserve current parking and keep everything except the athletic fields on one campus.

The other options explored building a new gym and parking lot either on land the district would have to purchase south of the existing school grounds or at Finney Field. He added that the multipurpose room’s location was not optimum as an ag shop because it does not have a convenient entry point for bringing in projects and materials. It also did not provide a good location for a greenhouse, since the only access point is on the north side of the building. The initial cost estimate for the first option was $4,283,078 after state matching funds were taken into account.

The matter was tabled for now, but White said she thought that the district could likely save up the necessary funds over three to five years (if the state legislature complies with state law and adequately funds public schools) by lowering the general operations levy and dedicating the capital projects levy dollars to the project.

The board declared bus #5 as surplus, and it will be put up for bid.

The next board meeting will be March 25 with a workshop at 6:30 and the regular meeting at 7 p.m. in the high school library.