Sweet Home School Board members approved the hiring of a new principal for Foster School, among other assorted actions at their monthly meeting Monday, April 14.
The board unanimously approved the hiring of Shelly Nurre to fill the position, which is currently occupied on an interim basis by Lisa Leatham.
Nurre is in her sixth year as principal of Mt. Vernon Elementary School in Springfield and, before that, worked in the Gresham-Barlow district as director of its Student Support Services Program.
“She’s an experienced teacher,” Supt. Terry Martin told the board.
The board also approved the hiring of five teachers for the upcoming school year, three for Oak Heights: Gillian Coplin, Summer Edmonds and Emma Rose. They also hired Hannah Bliss for Holley Elementary and Shane Sheppard to teach physical education half-time at Sweet Home High School and half-time at Holley.
Board members also accepted the resignations of Megan Gonyea, fourth-grade teacher at Holley; Rebecca Ley, special education teacher at Sweet Home High School; and Kate Virtue, fourth-grade teacher at Foster.
They accepted the retirements of James Costa, social studies teacher at Sweet Home High School; Cynthia Davis, fourth-grade teacher at Oak Heights; and Colleen Unger, fourth-grade teacher at Hawthorne.
They approved a one-year leave of absence for Hailey Schilling, kindergarten teacher at Hawthorne.
They also approved an overnight trip for high school students to visit colleges in Washington state April 16-19.
Board members approved a district calendar for 2025-26 that Martin said had been reviewed by administrators and union representatives. He said the calendar is “pretty much this current year’s calendar, adjusted for next year’s ins and outs.”
The calendar has the school year beginning for students on Tuesday, Sept. 2 and ending on June 11, 2026.
Following a closed session, the board postponed approval of a contract with classified employees because it had not yet been ratified by union members.
Members also approved a three-year contract, beginning July 1, for Supt. Terry Martin.
In other action, the board decided to continue to hold off on discussing proposed district policy updates that member Mary Massey last month requested to set aside “temporarily” because of questions about continued federal funding.
“I’m going to ask again, because it seems to be even more contentious, that we set discussion of these policies aside until we get a clearer picture,” she said.
Member Jim Gourley noted that some policies, such as those dealing with family and medical leave, graduation requirements, and admission of resident students are based on state laws, so would not be subject to changes in federal policies or funding.
Others on the list that are subject to federal law include policies dealing with sexual misconduct and civil rights.
Redick and others agreed that because this month’s consideration was simply the second out of three required readings, they could address it next month at the third reading.
Business Manager Kevin Strong announced that the district’s Budget Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, May 12, in the board chambers prior to the regular School Board meeting. He said hard copies of the proposed budget are expected to be available about a week before that time.
He said he hopes that committee members will be able to approve a budget at that meeting, which could then be approved by the board without requiring additional meetings.
Member Jim Gourley asked about the longterm maintenance budget.
Strong said that over the past several years the district has benefited from “much lower PERS rates” due to decisions made by School Board members some 20 years ago, which created a PERS side account, a special account set up by the district, which made a lump-sum payment to prepay its Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) liability, also known as PERS debt.
That investment, Strong said, has paid off in allowing the district to save money on PERS costs and channel those funds into maintenance.
“We’ve had a fairly large spike in our balance and we’ve had quite a bit of savings there,” he said, noting that the side account balance has been “drawn down and will very soon go away.”
“We’re not going to see that savings, going forward, but that’s allowed us to build a pretty healthy maintenance fund.
He said the district has been able to “kind of turbo-charge that” by taking advantage of favorable interest rates for several years now which has increased the revenue going into the long-term maintenance funds.
“We’re well-positioned right now,” he said, adding that district staff is hoping to be able to float a bond request that would not include a tax rate hike for future necessary improvements.