Tag Archives: School Board

Should the superintendent’s salary be discussed in public?

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A frequent commenter has raised an intriguing question about the $5,000 raise recently granted to Mitchell School District Superintendent Joe Graves. The raise was approved after an "executive session," which is a euphemism that governments use to describe a non-public, closed-door meeting. (Click here to read our coverage of the public portion of the meeting.)

By my reading of state law, the Board of Education was fully within its rights to discuss the raise in an executive session. Personnel issues are one of the lawfully allowed executive session topics. But the law does not require a superintendent’s salary to be discussed exclusively in executive session. The board could have chosen to conduct some or all of the discussion in public.

So, here is the question that was raised in the comment section (I’ve cleaned up the grammar and spelling):

Before approving a salary increase for the superintendent, shouldn’t the superintendent’s job performance be evaluated in an open session seeking public input from parents and taxpayers?

What’s your answer to that question?

The proposal to save gymnastics: A good idea?

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From our Saturday paper:

Mitchell Superintendent Joe Graves will present the school board Monday with a recommendation to keep gymnastics as a sanctioned high school sport and add competitive cheer as a sanctioned sport for the 2010-11 school year.

The proposal, which is the result of a Monday meeting between Graves and a gymnastics parent group, was revealed Friday in the school board agenda for Monday’s meeting. As part of the plan, gymnastics backers would have to raise half of the program’s $16,000 annual budget.

Click here to read the rest.

What do you think about the proposal?

School board gives $17,800 ‘gift’ to swim club

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There was some debate at last night’s Mitchell school board meeting about the board’s decision to give $17,800 to the Mitchell Aquatic Club for the temporary swimming facility that the club hopes to assemble.

I got the impression from reading The Daily Republic’s story that the board’s "gift," as Superintendent Graves put it, was motivated partly by the board’s need to clear its collective conscience. It seemed like even though they were firm in their belief that the Middle School pool needed to be closed, board members felt kind of bad for booting the club out of the facility and tried to make up for it with a gift of money.

At least one local resident disagreed with the move.

Mitchell resident Ed Potzler asked, “How can taxpayer dollars be used for this purpose?” He questioned whether public money should be used to fund a private organization such as MAC.

I don’t want to have a debate about whether the Middle School pool should have been closed. It’s already being converted to a gym, and there’s no going back. I am interested, though, to hear your thoughts on the board’s gift of money to the MAC. Did the board make the right decision?

MAC considering its options

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The Mitchell Aquatic Club is considering the Old Home Bread building as a possible site for a temporary pool.

It doesn’t appear there are a lot of permanent options out there right now, considering the middle school pool is being filled in with gravel today to add gym space for the school district.

What’s the best option out there for the MAC?

(Click below to watch a video of the Middle School pool being filled with dirt)

Middle school pool drained

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Here’s part of a story that will be in tomorrow’s paper:

The Mitchell Middle School’s indoor pool has been drained and might never be filled again, according to a school board member.

School Board President Dana Price said Sunday that school personnel began draining the pool Thursday, following the completion a day earlier of the last swimming lessons scheduled to take place in the pool this summer.

The pool is drained annually as part of its maintenance, but Price said the school district does not plan to refill the pool this year and has eliminated pool-related expenses from the draft budget for the upcoming school year. The pool will remain empty but otherwise intact, Price said, until after the board hears more input from members and supporters of the Mitchell Aquatic Club.

Read the rest here.