Highland Community Schools
Board of Directors
Work Session
Monday – August 26, 2024
5:00 p.m. – Highland Board Room
The work session was called to order at 5:05 pm by President Nate Robinson.
All board members were present except Karen Fink.
Ruth made a motion to approve the agenda. Seconded by O’Leary. Motion carried 6-0.
Mr. Crawford spoke about the construction manager at-risk for the upcoming bond issue vote.
Mrs. O’Leary stated that the 24-25 year began with a smooth start. Grades first through fifth started out on the blacktop with introductions, the pledge, and the husky pledge; followed by the fifth grade class making a tunnel for the younger students to enter the building. Preschool had their first day on 8/26/2024 with a full day where they ate lunch and all went well. Mrs. O’Leary stated a student told her it was the fastest first day of school. The GaGa ball pit and kickball field are a huge hit with the students. They love playing during recess and get along well doing so.
Mr. Crawford spoke about the district having a memorial/naming policy and provided examples from other districts that contained: naming rights of facilities, memorial policies, the types of memorials allowed, putting in place a 4 to 6 month timeline with approval of memorial from both district and family of the honored individual, and what is or is not acceptable for memorials. Having a policy provides direction, consistency, less urgency, with board approval.
Mr. Fink spoke about the wall of fame policy that has been in the works for over a decade. There will be criteria followed, a committee to decide (made up of coaches, community members, athletic director), and statistics to back the decision. The vision of how the process will flow is the committee will receive nominations and then select the recipient. The recipient will be inducted into the wall of fame via celebration which can be sport specific. The tentative plan is to have the policy finalized to begin accepting nominations in January 2025. The board was supportive of the idea but stated there needs to be more guidelines that are sport specific to be all inclusive and the tentative finalization of the policy may need to be pushed back.
Mr. Crawford spoke about the upcoming bond issue vote. The “YES” committee has met and discussed the following methods of communication to get information distributed to the community: flyers, postcards, presence at trunk or treat, open house nights, presence at shop the park, multimedia project completed by students, writing letters to the editor with 4 to 6 weeks of content in the paper, facebook page, and frequently asked questions info sheet. Mr. Crawford and the board thought it would be beneficial to have a satellite voting station. To obtain a satellite voting station we need to get a petition with 100 signatures to the secretary of state. It was stated that the first mailings of information are being worked on and will be distributed within the next week or so.
Longbine made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by O’Leary. Motion carried 6-0.
The work session adjourned at 6:28 pm.
PRESIDENT, NATE ROBINSON
SECRETARY, AUTUMN M MOYER
Published in The News, Thursday, September 5, 2024 L-93
