Cadott School Board; Library policy changes up in search for improvement

Nick Kotek was on hand during a Cadott School Board Committee of the Whole meeting May 23, to answer questions and offer clarification, as board members looked through potential changes to the district’s library policy. Photo by Julia Wolf

By Julia Wolf

When it comes to the next steps on updating the district’s library policy, the Cadott School Board held a discussion on the matter, during a Committee of the Whole meeting May 23.

Superintendent Jenny Starck started by sharing a Neola policy on the subject with the board, for consideration. The district works with Neola to keep district policies updated.

“That’s very basic,” said Starck, of the policy. Board president Cory LaNou asked how long the Neola policy is. Starck said it is two pages long and is similar to what many other districts have. It starts by talking about the goals of the library, gives parental access, interlibrary loans and fines.

“And, I will say, for many schools, that’s kind of it,” said Starck.

Starck says it would be nice to include a process to address concerns, whether they call them guidelines or something else.

LaNou noted the district currently has a policy about 20 pages long, while the surrounding districts he checked have something closer to two pages long.

“It got me wondering, why do we have such an exhaustive policy?” said LaNou.

When he asked other districts how they handle parent concerns about books, he was told the parents can just call and talk to them.

“I understand that, that may raise other issues, but it also kind of stops other issues, too,” said LaNou.

Starck said they could walk through the policies, then discuss whether they think more or less is better.

Starck also went through the current policy, with highlighted areas showing potential changes the board can consider.

Grade level labels for materials are in the works, which would be displayed on each item. Starck says she talked to district school librarian Nick Kotek and the most challenging area there, is the materials for grades five through eight.

“We could say five to eight books go in this library, not the elementary library,” said Starck, of one way to resolve some concerns.

Books for grades three through six would remain in the elementary library.

A parent and guardian opt-out form was also discussed, which fell in line with previous discussions, where parents could say they do not want their students to check out certain titles or only check out materials for their grade level.

“That would go on their library account,” said Starck.

Kotek says he recently drafted the form, so parents know it is an option. Previously, parents and guardians would just contact him with the request, and he would add it to the student’s account.

Board member Kevin Roshell says his concern with the proposed form, is around the amount of manual work it would take to add a long list of titles to a student’s account and check against it each time they check out books. He also pointed out it could be a lot of work for parents if they do it for multiple children.

Starck says she thinks it will be challenging if a parent says their child can’t check out books around a certain subject. If it is the main topic of the book, she says it will be easy enough, but a passing reference or side character falling under that subject would not show up in a search.

One change to consider, is setting who is on the committee at the beginning of each year. Starck says the lawyer did see value in keeping the Reconsideration Committee. The board previously discussed culling the committee, because the appeals to the committee decision come to the board.

“It does help your due process, because it puts some additional checks in to that,” said Starck of the lawyer’s view of the committee.

LaNou says the current way the committee is set up doesn’t seem to work well, because the committee had a unanimous decision for many books and the board had a split vote on the appeal.

“It just seems like there’s extra controversy and turmoil at that point,” said LaNou.

Kotek also says the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) strongly recommends each district have a Reconsideration Committee before concerns come to the school board.

Roshell says he supports a committee, because the board’s job is setting policy, not operational things. He asked if they reached out to the community to see interest on participating on the committee. Starck says they did not, in case the committee didn’t stay.

Board members said they would support a diverse Reconsideration Committee, after further discussion.

The timeline of the reconsideration process was also discussed, giving board members time to ask Kotek questions and for clarification.

Kotek also says parents are able to log into their child’s account whenever they want to, to see what they have checked out.

LaNou asked how other districts who use the shorter Neola policy handle their processes. Kotek says it is very similar to Cadott’s system, but the short policy links to a number of other policies. By the time that is figured in, Kotek says they are about the same length.

In a facility plan update, Starck reported they met with Miron Construction, to set timelines for newsletters on when to share out information. She says they also discussed planning two community informational meetings, around August and September, where they can share information about the assessment findings.

“The big thing, is promoting the survey,” said Starck, adding they want the highest survey participation possible.

The survey is expected to come out after the community meetings.

Starck reminded board members that elementary needs were addressed with the last referendum.

“But, the middle/high school does have some priority needs,” said Starck.

Starck also shared a debt history for the district, to show where they are and where they are coming from.

Board members agreed the finance information shared with them at a previous board workshop should be shared with the public in future meetings.

“I think all the stuff she brought up that night, I don’t think any of that would be unnecessary to share with the public,” said Becca Blanchette, board member.

In the business portion of the meeting, board members aproved the hire of Leona Sonnentag, 4K teacher; Sean Hurt, elementary PE/district substitute; Hannah Hawkins, fifth-grade teacher; Jason Weisner, strength and conditioning coordinator; and Jim Aerts, fifth to 12th instrumental music.

The resignation of Spencer Kempf, social studies teacher, was also approved.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of your staff for the past five years, wrote Kempf.

Jim Jahr’s resignation from the business education teacher was also approved.

It has been a pleasure working with you and the rest of the community over the last six years, wrote Jahr.

The resignation of Missy Lesik, director of special education/ pupil services, was also accepted.

I am grateful for the experiences that I have had here and how they have helped shape me to become a stronger, more effective leader, wrote Lesik. Cadott will always have a special place in my heart, and I look forward to cheering the Hornets on into the future.

Other resignations accepted were that of Elizabeth Weir, NHS adviser; Jessica Hager, girls basketball eighth-grade and volunteer assistant; Ben Elbert, boys basketball assistant coach; Brent Crank, boys basketball junior high coach; and Luke Rykal, boys basketball junior high coach.

Coaching positions for fall and winter sports were also renewed, during the meeting.