- Juab School Districts board members put in overtime to wade through district policies
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
For the second month in a row, board of education members tried to wade through district policies by beginning meeting at 3 p.m.
Regular board meeting begins at 6 p.m. but Juab School District board members have been holding work sessions to try to make all current policies both readable and workable.
The policies under discussion have been separated into topics and the policies up for discussion, under a particular topic, are e-mailed to board members in advance of the meeting.
“We read through the policies up for discussion and then make notes,” said Delanie Hathaway, board president. “We then walk through each policy and make the changes we think are important.”
Even format issues are addressed.
“Seven sections will be in the policy folder,” said Superintendent Kirk Wright. “The policies will be posted on the district website when the board has completed the revision process.”
The board meets early and stays late to work on the policies. After the scheduled agenda, of which the policy revision was a part, they continued work on the revision process.
“These are meetings that are open to the public and anyone can attend,” said Hathaway.
Up for discussion on the Wednesday meeting were policies dealing with special donations made by district patrons.
“A donation made cannot confer any special privileges or benefits to the donor or to the donor’s family,” said Hathaway.
Wording for the policy needed to be carefully addressed so that no loopholes were left and so that such a donation did not create an inequity between schools, she said.
“How can you donate to one school and not create an inequity?” asked Cheryl Kay, board member.
Stacy Brooks, board member, said she did not think the board should use the word “assure” to indicate that no inequity would be allowed.
However, Wright said, the policy could be worded to state that donations would be accepted by the district and would be monitored so as to not create inequities.
For example, he said, perhaps a donor would want to give enough money to a district to assure that another teacher could be hired at a particular school so that the class size for a grade the donor’s student was attending would be low.
Such a donation could cause problems in that the district would not be able to provide such class size benefits to all schools.
That had happened in a few schools in well-populated areas of the state where parents had great concerns for their student.
“That is one of the problems that could occur,” said Wright.
Hopefully, most patrons would be like Pat Painter, Mona, who donates money to the district each year, said Tracy Olsen, board member. Painter puts no strings on the donated funds and they are divided between schools. Nevertheless, said Hathaway, it is wise to stipulate that any donations will be accepted but that they cannot buy special favors for the donor or for the donor’s family.
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