Policy banning cell phone use in school among many revised policies adopted
The Giltner School Board spent Thursday evening discussing ideas for the future of the school bond project.
After the bond issue was voted down by patrons during the May 14 primary elections, Supt. Nick Mumm announced that the board will be seeking feedback from the community and school district before moving forward in making changes.
“There will be a survey for every community member and district member to fill out,” he explained. “We put a stamped envelope to return it and then we’re asking them to send that back to us. We want to collect some feedback about project size, project needs and their opinion of all of that.”
The survey will contain up to eight questions that will ask survey takers their thoughts on the school bond, such as what they believe needs be renovated or what would be a comfortable cost for the bond issue. The survey will be anonymous with no return address required.
With the hope having the survey released this week, feedback sent in would be discussed during the August board meeting or during another retreat with Hausmann Construction, Wilkins Design and First National Capital Markets.
“We’re probably going to put on there a two-week window, maybe three-week window to get it back so we can collect all the information off of it,” Mumm stated. “Then we can put it together so we can have another retreat about what we found out from the survey.”
As of the July meeting, the only confirmed change of the bond since the primary elections is the removal of the proposed daycare classrooms for Giltner Little Stingers Daycare.
“If a bond is re-ran now or later, sooner than later or later, I’m 100 percent confident that the daycare will not be included at the childcare center,” Mumm stated. “That wasn’t a voted decision, it was just the feedback (the board) already received from community members, which was to leave the childcare center off and the childcare center needs to look and see what other options they have.”
With the removal of the daycare from the bond project, Mumm expressed his concern of relocation.
“We obviously know the community needs it in the school, but it probably won’t be able to stay where it currently is if a bond is ever passed or ran,” he explained. “So there was a lot of discussions about where it could go or could it stay on campus.”
The school board will be holding off on moving forward with potential ideas for the daycare and the bond as a whole until they receive feedback from the community and district on the survey.
“Please provide your feedback,” Mumm added. “It probably won’t take more than five or 10 minutes to fill out the survey and put in back in the return envelope and drop it in the mail.”
The superintendent commented that members of the school board are appreciative of the feedback received since the bond project started and are eager to hear the results from the survey.
“We want to hear people’s opinion,” he commented. “I know the board really takes a lot of time and they carefully think about all the feedback they do get. They’re really encouraging people to take those few minutes to take it and send it back to us. That way everyone can voice their feedback and give us their opinions.”
The superintendent emphasized that the bond issue will not be appear on the ballot during the general election in November.
Updates on policies
Prior to the work meeting, the board spent a half hour going over, updated and approved school board policies for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
“Ninety-nine percent of those policies in there were just policies that KSB, our school attorneys, sent out as an update on policies for the year,” Mumm explained. “They were all policies that we had to make some adjustments to based on what the new state law, new federal law or what KSB wrote as a policy change.”
One of the major policy changes made from the meeting included the adoption of Policy 6025, which makes the usage of cell phones prohibited for students during school hours.
“They can bring them to school,” Mumm stated. “But in K-6, they have to turn them into the teacher when they get to the room. If they’re 7-12, they will bring them in and they put them in a container in the school office, unless they drive to school, then they will leave them in their vehicle.”
One policy the school board will be waiting to make further changes on is Policy 5035, which prohibits anyone from carrying or possessing firearms on school grounds, with the exception of peace officers or members of the armed forces.
“The reason is because of classification school one and two,” Mumm said. “So schools that are classified as one and two are the only ones that can have a gun in the school if they choose to, but unfortunately you don’t get your classification until Jan. 1.”
Mumm stated that a policy committee will be held around November or December to discuss changes for the policy.
In other action Thursday, the board:
* approved the 2024-2025 handbooks regarding student, activity, staff and pre-school;
* discussed the usage of the school home located at 704 N. Enfield St.