Northome School principal to resign

In other personnel business, the board approved a one-year leave of absence request from Indus social studies teacher Corinne Anderson. She will pursue an international teaching position in Guangzhou, China, with the Nacel International School Systems, teaching social studies at the international college preparatory school for the 2012-13 school year.

The board also accepted the resignation of Spanish teacher Heidi Bessler. Bessler has taken a position at Cass Lake High School, closer to her home in Bemidji.

No action was taken on a request from fifth-grade teacher Leon Ditsch to have the district continue to pay his health insurance benefits until he reaches the age of 65 if he retires at the end of the school year. Ditsch had written to the board saying “as of this time the only obstacle (in retirement) is health insurance.”

The board approved the hire of Indus kindergarten teacher Miranda Gustafson and Early Childhood Family Education teacher Michelle Misner. For Northome, the board approved the hire of Title I teacher Kim Lindner.

In other meeting business, the board approved the fiscal year 2013 budget. Combining expenditure and revenue budgets, the district projects a deficit of $504,741.

The board approved the filing dates for school board elections. Filings open July 31 and close at 5 p.m. August 14.

The board received a quote from Wood Interiors for a project involving vanities for elementary classrooms, and one vanity larger in dimension for the kindergarten room. The estimate including materials, labor and installation was about $6,350.

Student policies

In policy business, several items were added or removed from the student handbook policies for both Northome and Indus.

For Indus, additions include that if a junior high student receives three or more failing grades in a semester, the student would be required to repeat the grade the following year unless they attend a two-week grade recovery class in the summer.

The Indus policies also added consequences to students who are late to class unexcused. Late students under the policy must eat last lunch that day or the following day. If the student is late again, they must serve one day of noon detention. Another tardy will require the student to serve three days of lunch detention. If the student is continuously tardy thereafter, the student must spend the rest of the semester in lunch detention.

Leniency in athletic eligibility at Indus was added to the policy. Students ineligible due to low grades will wait two weeks following the grading period to have eligibility reinstated. The time period was previously four weeks.

Wording in the handbook changed the definition of drugs to “mind-altering or mood-altering.” An added consequence of possession or use of tobacco on school property is out-of-school suspension. This was previously a consequence of in-school suspension.

The Northome student policies also underwent changes.

An “incomplete” given at the end of the grading period to students who did not complete their work had previously reverted to a permanent grade of “F” if the student did not complete work within two weeks. The new policy states that the grade will remain the grade the student had at the time of the incomplete if the student does not meet the deadline.

Changes in senior privileges also were changed. Only seniors who have “responsibility rights” will be allowed the privilege of leaving their last class early in the last four weeks of school. Responsibility rights are gained by good grades four responsibility areas students are graded on: cooperation, courtesy, work habits and dependability.

Because many students do not use locks on their hallway lockers, a policy was added to the handbook stating the school will not be responsible for stolen property from lockers that are not locked.

For prom, students will now be required to abide by the rule that guests invited to prom must be at least in ninth grade and no older than 20 years of age. District documents stated, “this past school year, we had both ends of the age spectrum questioned.”

Removed from the clothing policy is a rule that students must wear shoes and not slippers at all times. Added to the policy is “no holes in jeans above the end of the finger tips. This is becoming a fashion trend that can be very distracting,” stated a district policy outline.

Cell phone policies have changed to require students to make their phones or other electronic devices visible to the teacher by laying them on their desk “If they are out and visible it will be very obvious to teachers if a student is using them at the wrong times or inappropriately.” Students are required to leave cell phones on their desk when going to their locker or to the bathroom to eliminate in-school use.

South Koochiching-Rainy River superintendent Jerry Struss said the changes in student policies this year were more than usual.

“Generally, there are typically fewer changes, but there’s still a number of changes every year,” Struss said.