School Board Mulls 4-Day Week, Updates Policies

Nearly ten years after a four-day school week was originally discussed, the topic was once again broached at the October 4th meeting of the Whitehall School Board.

Whitehall Superintendent Hannah Nieskens questioned the Board as to what they have heard in the community and whether or not to take the change into consideration once more, especially now that Three Forks and Boulder have moved to a four-day week.

“I’ve had at least eight calls asking us to look into it,” Elementary principal Kurtis Koenig said. Nieskens said that the requests she has received have also been from elementary and middle school parents, which is the opposite of what she expected, with high school parents usually the ones requesting the four-day week. In the past, elementary parents have been against the four-day week because of childcare requirements for younger students.

“I think that since people are seeing Three Forks doing it and utilizing their 21st Century After School Program to make it work on Fridays, people are more curious if we could make it work here,” Nieskens said. Nieskens also said that it was premature for her to ask the Board to take any type of action on the four-day week, besides p[ossibly sending out a survey to the community for feedback. The Board voted to proceed forward by collecting feedback from the community in various ways, including a survey and person-to-person contact.

In related news, Nieskens presented the childcare facility project on which the school has partnered with Jefferson Local Development Corporation (JLDC) on. JLDC and the school were awarded a half-million dollar grant through the Montana Department of Health and Human Services (DPHHS) earlier this summer and Nieskens was returning to the Board to get approval for the land next to the bus alley and next to the old gym to be used for the facility. When Nieskens showed the proposed building, board chair Gina Ossello questioned the outside looks, as well as the non-sloped roof, of the structure.

“The DPHHS grant will help us with outdoor improvements and such, but at first, this will be a basic building as we put things together,” Nieskens said. The Board moved to approve the childcare facilities' placement on the land.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• Dimathy Robertson was hired as a kitchen helper.

• Lynnsey Moen, Kristen Wirth, Cassi Edsall, Yolande Eide, Kerry Kraha, Michelle McReynolds, Taunya Morris, and Gayle Walter were hired as 21st Century AFter school program staff.

• The updated Memorandum of Understanding with the Jefferson County Health Department was approved and signed.

• Talk about raising the prices for sporting events after football and volleyball’s completion was had, due to the fact that other schools in the Montana High School Association are working towards standardized pricing across all schools.

Current pricing is $6 for adults and $5 for students. Proposed rates would be $7 for adults and $5 for students, with $10 for adult tournament attendance and $7 for students. Family passes are still available for $200 and would be an even better deal once the new prices are implemented.

“It’s hard to be the lone school swimming upstream on this,” Nieskens said, noting that almost all schools are standardizing, with the exception of a select few which actually have higher pricing. The Board voted to standardize pricing.

• Policy updates to 1090F, 2045, 2060, 2120, 2335, 3040, 3050, 3070, 3096, 3097, 3100, 3121, 5055, 5085, 5090, 5223, and were approved.

Policies 8300, 8502, 4125, 5140, and 2335 were new and added by approval of the Board.

The next School Board meeting is slated for Tuesday, November 1 at 7 PM in the Elementary Library.