Scott Swanson
Sweet Home School Board members on Monday chose one of their former colleagues to fill a vacant seat on the board until the 2014 election.
Leena Ellis, whose last name was Neuschwander when she served on the board for six years before opting not to run for re-election two years ago, was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Jan Sharp, who resigned in August to serve as acting principal at Foster School.
Ellis, who has two children in local schools – Madelyn in junior high and Sicily at Foster School, was the only one of three candidates present for Monday’s meeting. The others were Royce Cantrell and Shari Smith.
Board member Chanz Keeney questioned Ellis during the meeting, asking why she had not run again.
Ellis said she needed some “personal time” to devote to her children during that period, which is why she decided not to run. At that time she filled the Cascadia seat, now occupied by Kevin Burger.
She now resides in the 28000 block area of Highway 20, west of Sweet Home.
Later in the meeting, board members unanimously voted to appoint Ellis, who works in Salem as an office administrator, to the position.
“I really appreciate her experience, her ability to ask questions,” said Jenny Daniels, adding, “I really appreciate that she’s a female.”
Keeney said he didn’t really like choosing a fellow board member, saying he preferred to leave that to voters.
“But I think Leena did a good job last time,” he said.
“It sounds like it pained you to say that,” Ellis teased.
Keeney mumbled something intelligible.
“It’s not your style, right?” Ellis said.
Ellis’ new seat, No. 5, At Large, will be up for re-election in two years, Superintendent Don Schrader said.
Board Chairman Jason Redick swore Ellis in promptly and she was seated, in time to help finish up the night’s business.
That included approval of a new Professional Growth and Accountability Handbook for licensed personnel, to be used by administrators to evaluate teachers and other certified staff members.
Schrader said the PGA manual includes a wide variety of standards for performance, such as knowledge of what is being taught, and administrators will visit classrooms on a regular basis to observe teachers in action, as well as spending one-on-one time with them.
Probationary teachers will be evaluated every year and contract teachers every two years. Teachers who are not found to be performing well may be evaluated more frequently if needed, he said. Teachers will also be required to show evidence of how they are meeting standards, such as lesson plans and other materials.
“The bottom line is getting the best people in front of kids and this is one way to make it happen,” Schrader said.
In other action, the board:
n Voted unanimously to form an aquatics committee to consider how to fund the swimming pool and aproved a time line to do so.
In May of 2012 local voters – by a 54-vote margin – passed a two-year local option levy that costs taxpayers 32 cents per $1,000 of assessed property values to fund the swimming pool, to a tune of about $90,000 in both 2012-13 and 2013-14.
The pool belongs to the Sweet Home School District but was defunded by the School Board in the summer of 2011 in a cost-cutting move.
The levy will expire next spring and the board must decide whether to put another local option levy before voters or try for an aquatics district, like Lebanon has done to fund its pool.
Business Manager Kevin Strong said Sweet Home City Manager Craig Martin has communicated to him that the city’s property tax compression losses – largely due to the county’s foreclosure of the Western States Land Reliance Trust properties – make it unable to support the formation of another taxing district.
Strong said an aquatics district would impact the city police and library more severely than a local option levy would, though the option levy may be slightly more costly for some rural residents.
An advantage of forming an aquatics district is that it would also qualify the school district to receive state grant funds of between $50,000 and $60,000 annually.
Redick said he likes the idea of forming an aquatics committee to work through those pros and cons.
“It gives the community a chance to buy in,” he said.
According to the time line, individuals interested in serving on the aquatics committee would need to contact the district office by Oct. 11. The board will appoint committee members at its Oct. 14 meeting.
n Hired new teachers Rosemarie Clifford, Kay George, Mary C. Harn, Tyll Parker, Michael Rolph and Stefanie Steffensen. (More details concerning those teachers are reported starting at the bottom of page 1 in today’s issue.)
n Accepted a donation of one log truck full of wood for the Sweet Home High School Forestry Club from Bruce Flory of Lebanon.
n Set the November School Board meeting date for Monday, Nov. 4.