Board approves contracts, talks drugs
Students in Andrea Paterson's pre-school at Mease Elementary made Valentine's boxes as a classroom project on Friday, Feb. 14. Humboldt Independent photo by Phil Monson.
The Humboldt Board of Education met Monday, Feb. 17 and approved a contract with interim superintendent of schools, Mike Sherwood of Webster City. He will be employed on an as-needed basis for the next 4.5 months, at a rate of pay of $500 per day. One non-action information item the board spent considerable time discussing was district policy on drug use and possession. Board President Tate Satern asked administrators to look at policy in other districts and consider possible changes in Humboldt’s policy.
“I’ve spent a substantial amount of time looking at policies from different districts on how they handle this issue. I think we can all agree that drugs pose a very significant disruption to the educational process,” Satern said. “That being said, our current policy – I have a number of questions for the administrators. Some of my observations are that I think we can do better.”
“As our policy stands, a student using chewing tobacco and a student using cocaine are handled the same way. That’s not incredibly uncommon across the state. I’ve talked to the IASB about this as well as our attorney. A number of schools do it this way but some differentiate,” Satern said. “But they are handled the same way under our policy.”
“The policy leaves the opportunity for discretionary discipline. That is one that our attorney is not in favor of,” Satern said, asking middle school principal Brenda Geitzenauer and Westhoff their opinions on the policy.
“We want it to be that we can take each case separately and not be confined to something, and we all know that drugs is more than the others, but it all comes down to what I feel or Mr. Nelson (Brad, assistant principal) feels that student should have for discipline,” Geitzenauer said.
Westhoff said the high school strives for consistency in its disciplinary approach. Both administrators believe there should be flexibility to deal with each case on an individual basis.
To find out more about his story and other school news, read the Humboldt Independent.
