Townsend School Board Travels a Rocky Road Ahead
 | Author:
Nancy Marks, Reporter
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
Townsend School Board Travels a Rocky Road Ahead Nancy Marks, Reporter The election of two new members and the sudden resignation of another have plunged the Townsend School District into a state of upheaval and dissension over the prospect of switching the school system to a four-day week.
Shaun Scott, a member of the board for 14 years, abruptly resigned during the early minutes of the board’s May 9 meeting.
With frustration and sadness apparent in his voice, Scott said he felt the board made the wrong decision at an April 24 Strategic Planning meeting to adopt a four-day, Monday through Thursday, teaching schedule. “I can’t see dumping 550 kids on the street on Fridays. As a teacher for 24 years and an administrator I do not see how this will be good for kids,” he said.
“There are lots of ways to approach good education besides the four-day week,” Scott continued. “I do not want to be an obstructionist, so with that, I resign as a school board member,” he declared.
Then he walked out.
Scott’s resignation left the board with only two veteran members, Jason Noyes and Vanessa Flynn, joined by Chase Ragen and Jason Kool, both of whom were publicly elected on May 2. After Ragen and Kool were sworn in, the board re-elected Noyes as board chair and Ragen as vice chair.
In line with precedent, the seat vacated by Scott’s resignation was to be offered to Daniel Truesdell, who finished in third place in the May 2 election race for two seats on the board.
In public comment, Paul Graham of Winston said the school district’s survey of public opinion as to a four-day week was poorly distributed because it was only available online and difficult to track on the school district website. He questioned when the survey results would be released to the public. “It was paid for by the school board, so with taxpayer funds. We will be looking for the results,” he said.
Ragen noted that when the board voted for the four-day week, it did not set a date for moving into the new schedule. He asked if the four-day plan could be postponed so the board, school personnel and parents could prepare better for the change. “We are being reactive to the decision, rather than being proactive and prepared. I feel as if we’re going into battle with no sword,” he said.
Both Ragen and Kool pointed to a need for time to make the change, including classroom scheduling, teachers’ planning, negotiations with the two teachers’ unions, bus schedule changes and teacher recruitment. “If we could postpone the start of the shortened school week even until November or December, it would especially give parents time to prepare with childcare and job change arrangements they would need to make,” he said.
Ragen asked if recruiting teachers will be more difficult on such short notice since the idea to change came up so quickly. Middle School Principal Brad Racht said the four-day school week did not come from the teachers directly but from many parents. “Several different parents have asked in multiple years if we could make the change, especially since other schools around us are using the model. As a matter of fact, since we announced the schedule change, we have seen more teacher applications in the last week than we’ve had previously,” he said.
In the last 30 minutes of the three-hour meeting, Ragen asked about issues with the district’s financial audit. “The audit is not in a good place,” he said.
Ragen and Kool noted there were problems with the audit that needed to be addressed and corrected if possible. “We need to make sure our financial house is in order before we jump into a whole new way of doing business,” Ragen said.
Noyes admitted there were discrepancies in the audit. He pointed out the school district has had turnovers in the school clerk position, so the new person has been trying to get up to speed on putting out the financial information.
New district clerk Kayce Williams, who is assisted by Pam Watson, explained the workload of her position. “We are way behind. The work of payroll, insurance, salary negotiations and the school calendar is piling up. I think this time next year we will have a tight budget with lots of red lines,” she said.
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Image 1 Caption: Broadwater County Clerk and Recorder Angie Paulsen swears in Chase Ragen. Photo Credits: Nancy Marks
Image 2 Caption: Broadwater County Clerk and Recorder Angie Paulsen congratulates new school board member Jason Kool. Photo Credits: Nancy Marks
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