Garrison School Board stays on course with status quo vote
Garrison School Board stays on course with status quo vote
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
Melissa Rud and Karla Scheresky were re-elected Tuesday to three-year terms on the Garrison School Board.
A total of 23 votes were cast; 20 votes were cast for Rud; 19 votes for Scheresky. Brad Lagge received one write-in vote.
Rud has been on the board since 2007. Scheresky was appointed in October 2010 to fill the unexpired term of Penny Styron; Styron moved to Bismarck.
Historically, turnout is small in years without contested races. But last year 382 people turned out to vote. In 2003, another contested race drew a record in recent years of 395 people.
In the question of whether the minutes should be published in the official school newspaper, 19 voted in favor; there were four “no”votes.
Following the announcement of the results at a board meeting Tuesday evening, the board discussed the board position of Jerry Sayler. He has not attended a board or committee hearing this year.
“I don’t think it’s a credit to our board if there is a board member who has not been present,” Janis Sloka, board member, said. Sloka said the board functions well with seven board members.
He asked Superintendent Steve Brannan to ask the North Dakota School Board Association what options the district has available.
Also at the meeting, the board:
• Learned that the high school did not meet the Annual Yearly Progress standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind program. Principal Darwin Routledge said there was a 10 percent hike in standards; “there may be a time when every school in the state of North Dakota will not meet AYP unless changes in the system are made,” he said.
Routledge gave the grade point averages (based on 4.0) for teams and clubs to explain how well students are doing: chorus, 3.61; band, 3.54, girls basketball, 3.45, cross country, 3.21; drama, 3.29; and volleyball, 3.79.
The elementary school did make AYP, primarily through strong improvement by the Title I students, Principal Shelly Fuller explained. Fuller said the elementary school only barely made the standards. “You have to hit the bull's eye and we hit the corner of it,” Fuller said. She said the elementary school continues to try to strive for better results.
