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Ironwood School Board
Meets in Regular Session |
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above board
meets one week late due to Hunting Season |
Ironwood School Board November 23, 2008
The Ironwood School Board met in regular session
Monday evening. The meeting had been scheduled a
week earlier but was postponed due to HUNTING
SEASON.
There was a full agenda of items to be discussed
and as usual most items pertained to money and
not curriculum.
One of the first items on the agenda was a
request to send a sports team on a trip to
Calumet . Mr. Rayner explained that the team is
not an official school sport and should not
receive the money. Mr.Thomas seized the moment
to state that Mr. Boyd opened a can of worms by
receiving similar money for the band. In fact
Thomas went on to say that he (Thomas) found
little excitement in a band trip to play for the
Michigan Governor! WOW. As you might expect
sports trumps curriculum and culture every time.
The motion to support the non school sport
passed 4-1 with only Dr. Edwards abstaining.
The board went on to pass the summer tax
resolution. This gives the board the right to
collect the summer taxes, a routine measure
passed unanimously.
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| above - Bruce Beckman
tells board that 403(b) is a "union matter" and
he would like to be included in any discussion
on the matter. |
The Board took up the resolution to join the U.P.
Consortium for management of the school
employees 403(b) plans. Thomas objected to a
portion of the resolution and as you might
expect the vote was 3-3 which killed the
resolution. Of course all three union members
voted no. To the best of our knowledge Ironwood
is the only school in the ISD to turn down the
resolution. No wonder why the Board received an
official letter from the county clerk advising
them that the results of the election indicated
that no one wanted to consolidate with their
district.
The board also took up the notion of reinstating
driver's ed. Kolasar suggested that if it were
reinstated students who have 2 failing grades
would be ineligible. Dr. Edwards argued that if
it were reinstated it should be open to all
students as the cost would be covered 100% by
the students not the school district. Kolasar
countered with a lot of hype on why they
shouldn't allow students with two failing grades
to take the course.
La Di Da La Di Da. First of all why can't a
district that's half it's former size provide
drivers ed to all students. Especially when it
will cost the district nothing. This item was
also tabled. No wonder no one wants to
consolidate with Ironwood.
Mrs. Dean reported that she met the teachers to
discuss among other things the eight period vs.
seven period day. She advised that the teachers
voted unanimously for the eight period day. WoW,
some surprise. I could have given that report
without being at the meeting. Ironwood teachers
will never give up the eight period day, never!
Want to guess who's the real beneficiary of the
eight period day?
Facing smaller revenues and growing expenses the
board unanimously passed a budget amendment
cover the expected changes.
The board once again passed a proposal that
would allow for skiing, snow boarding and
skating for the elementary school students. The
only cost for this annual program is the cost of
busing to Mt. Zion. The students are picked up
by their parents for trip home.
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photo above
a relic from years past.
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In news important to taxpayers. The
board agreed to go forward with another tax
millage plan. The school intends to come up up
with a plan to move the Norrie students to LLW.
To do so the school plans to add an addition to
the high school. This is the same tax proposal
put forth by the Ontonagon School Board last
spring. Their bond effort went down in flames.
In fact the two people responsible for that
fiasco are no longer associated with that
district. The Ironwood district will seek
authorization to proceed with the tax measure
once the building committee comes up with it's
final final plan.
This tax proposal will hit the taxpayers just
about the same time as the latest library tax
measure. Great Planning! |
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