Crowd demands full-time ag teacher for Odessa school district

The June 24 meeting of the Odessa School Board was one of the larger such meetings ever held, with supporters of the school’s ag program clamoring for an expanded, more robust program with a full-time ag teacher.

Superintendent Suellen White, attending her final meeting in that role (she is retiring and the new superintendent Dan Read takes over July 1), described the current state of the district’s Agriculture Education Program. She told the board and those present that she understands the importance of the ag program to the community.

After the previous ag instructor left for another position in August of 2014, the district was not able to hire a certified ag teacher so close to the start of school. The state superintendent’s office advised the district to try to find someone willing to become conditionally certified while the search continued for a certified teacher. Students had been requesting hands-on shop/mechanics classes, so the district looked for someone with this background and found an experienced, conditionally certified agriculture teacher whose background was industrial arts. The classes offered were those requested by the students, and were well attended.

However, the teacher will not be returning this fall, so the district began looking once again for an ag teacher in April. The administration made some organizational changes so it could offer a nearly full-time (.8 FTE) position with the option for the instructor to develop the class into a full-time position.

The district had several inquiries but received only one application. The district offered the job to the applicant and were turned down. A teacher shortage has been developing over the past couple of years and it is becoming more difficult for smaller districts to attract new graduates.The state office said many ag positions in the state were going unfilled. Even if Odessa were to offer a full-time teaching job, it will be very difficult to compete with salaries of $80,000 offered in other parts of the state.

The administration worked to develop a contingency plan. White and Principal Jamie Nelson met with several businesses to discuss work-based learning opportunities for some of our students. Work-based learning in ag-related fields would be counted as an ag class, and students in these placements would be able to be in the extra-curricular FFA program.

Planning also began for a conditionally approved ag teacher to teach the required 8th/9th-grade intro-to-ag class and one or two more classes depending on knowledge and skill level. Having more than one teacher is also possible, White said, if there is enough interest.

The board then heard public comment from the 39 Odessa residents who attended the meeting. Many different concerns were expressed about the proposed plan for work-based learning, including student safety, acceptance by customers in those businesses offering the work-based program and levels of supervision offered. Most advocated having a traditional certified ag teacher and urged board members to offer a motion for a full-time ag teacher position. The board acquiesced and voted to seek a full time ag education teacher.

White pointed out again that there was not enough student interest or flexibility in the schedule to make six ag classes available, meaning that the full-time teacher would be paid to teach whatever could be worked out but would be idle for certain periods of the day. White said the full-time position would be advertised as soon as possible. White also emphasized the importance of continuing to develop a contingency plan in case an ag teacher is not found.

There were some very real undercurrents of disaffection among some members of the crowd. Some expressed disappointment at a perceived lack of support for the ag program, an accusation forcefully denied by the administration. As White ends her tenure in Odessa and moves into full retirement, she hands over to Dan Read a challenging situation.

Board decisions

The board approved the resignation (retirement) of Keith Kolterman as Transportation Supervisor as of August 31, 2015. The board approved the hiring of the following coaches: Jeff Nelson, head HS football; Justin Zeibel, assistant HS Football; Mark DeWulf, volunteer HS football; Lanae Carper, head HS volleyball; LaRee Kuchenbuch, assistant HS volleyball; Suzie Deife, head JH volleyball; Lamar Larmer, assistant JH football and Ellen Holman, HS fall cheer squad.

The board approved the 2015-2016 school nursing contract with the Lincoln County Health Department, as well as policies including service animals in schools, district relationship with law enforcement and other government agencies, staff safety, infection control program and nutrition and physical fitness.

Principal’s report

Nelson told the board about end-of-school activities and summer sports activities. She attended the Making Math Reasoning Explicit conference along with teachers Ellen Holman and Larry Weber, saying she was proud of the leadership roles the Odessa teachers had taken on with their peers and how well respected they were by the program organizers. This is the third and final year of this grant-based program.

n Final activities this school year included the May 29 St. John track meet that Odessa’s third- through sixth-graders participated in for the first time. Jeff Nelson organized the event and Tim Larson went along as assistant and chaperone.

n Music students in fifth grade through high school held their spring concert June 2 in the multipurpose room. The Jr./Sr. High School band also played at Silverwood June 4.

n Larry Weber organized the annual junior-high fishing trip June 4. Kids came back with stories and fish.

n Julie Wehr organized the first annual STEM Expo for sixth- and seventh-grade students who worked in groups to create a hypothesis and put together an experiment. They dressed up, created signs and gathered materials for their experiments and set them up in the multipurpose room. Students throughout the school to came through to learn about the experiment from the sixth-/seventh-graders.

n A retirement party was held June 9 for Suellen White and special ed coordinator Jeanie Read.

n FBLA students prepared for their trip to the National Leadership Conference in Chicago June 26-July 3, where 21 Odessa students will compete. As their final fund-raising effort before the conference, the FBLA students and parents catered the Odessa High School Alumni Banquet held June 20.

n Sports camps were held for football (in Harrington and Odessa June 8-11 and will be repeated July 6-8), volleyball (June 8-11) and basketball (in Soap Lake June 22-26).

Superintendent’s report

White reported a finding of inadequate internal control over Associated Student Body activities, putting public funds at risk, in the most recent fiscal audit of the school district. The auditor reported that an analysis of expected revenue, post-event reconciliation of receipts to expected profits based on items sold and inventory and a completed profit analysis were lacking.

The administration responded that it disagreed with the finding and showed the methods and practices used to maximize profits and to provide accountability. Some current practices will be refined based on the auditor’s request. Normally, such a finding is issued after a practice has been brought to the district’s attention in a previous audit. Since these concerns had never been brought up before, the district felt the action was uncalled for given the minor issues involved. The areas examined were the Deutchesfest FBLA booth, the food booth at the Stumpjumpers’ Desert 100 event and the Legislative Dinner catered by the FBLA.

Bruce Todd, athletic director, told the board of the summertime sports camps and tournaments. He also shared highlights of the meeting for coaches held at the conclusion of the school year.

Justin Parr, facilities director, said he has been fixing water lines to keep the athletic fields watered. He and his crew are just getting started on summer projects. In response to a question from the audience, he said the scoreboard in the multipurpose room would be moved this summer. The project requires special timing as events in the room have been scheduled and refinishing of the floor also needs to be done this summer.

Parr informed the board of the low bid for the phone, bell and intercom systems to be installed this summer. The high bidder provided a bid only for the phone system, so did not fully comply with the school’s request. The low bidder was EVCO and the total was $75,975.89. The board voted to accept the EVCO bid and to proceed with the project.

The financial report showed $775,489 in the reserve fund and an average enrollment for the 2014-2015 school year of 212 students.

The entire contract with the teachers’ union was up for review this year. Some minor wording changes were made, and the new employee evaluation instrument was a major part of the negotiations. Since some advisor positions can be held by non-certified staff, they should not be part of the contract for certified teachers.

A tentative agreement was reached to provide a longevity increase based on the base salary, with teachers having 17-20 years of employment getting .75%, 21-25 years 1.00%, 26-30 years 1.25% and over 30 years 1.50%. The provision will cost about $5,700. Earning this stipend will require extra responsibilities for the teachers, including the mentoring of new teachers, student support, leadership in building curriculum and performing assessments, etc. This agreement was intended to help keep senior teachers in place, since not enough new teachers are graduating to fill all the available openings in the state.

Contract language was changed to require teachers to give notice of personal leave by April 30 for leave taken in May and June so that substitute teachers can be scheduled. For this provision they were allowed to cash out an additional personal leave day at the rate of substitute pay.

In the union contract for classified employees, both sides agreed to language similar to the teachers’ contract for personal leave notification and cash out. It was also agreed that before an employee could be negatively evaluated based on an event, the employee would have had to hear about it within five days of the event happening.

The board unanimously ratified both agreements.