POMEROY-At the regular Pomeroy School District Board Meeting, Thursday evening, October 24, 2019, Tyson Kimble, ASB Class Representative, reported to the board about the upcoming Homecoming activities scheduled for the week of October 27, 2019, starting on Sunday with hallway decorating. Each high school class was assigned a portion of the hallways and chose a U.S. state to use as their theme. The decorations will serve as a competition between the classes. The rest of the week is filled with games and activities, such as Junior Varsity Volleyball vs Clarkston, in Clarkston, on Monday at 5 p.m., and a Junior Varsity Football game at home vs Tekoa-Rosalia. Tuesday will be more Junior Varsity Volleyball vs Clarkston at home, as well as Varsity Volleyball vs Prescott at home. It will also be Senior Night for the Volleyball team, with the event being called “Homecoming Spirit Night.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, students will be released from school at 12:30 p.m. and parents may meet with teachers from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and 12:30 to 4 p.m. on Thursday. The renown “Lip Sync” contest will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening in the High School Gym, and a Dodgeball Class Competition will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Friday morning, students will meet with each class briefly, and then proceed with Spirit Day activities in the gym at 10:24 a.m. The Pep Assembly begins with cheers, announcement of the Homecoming Royalty for 2019, and games, with a dismissal to lunch and then home at 12:30 p.m. Later, just prior to the Homecoming Football game vs Colton, the Football and Cross County Seniors will be presented, with the game starting at 7 p.m. The Homecoming Royalty will be presented during half-time of the game. The week then wraps up with the Homecoming Dance at the high school on Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

The School Board discussed and approved Discipline Policy 3241, which will change disciplinary action of removing students from the classroom for in-school suspensions or out-of-school suspensions. The new policy is to keep students in the classroom for instruction and learning as much as reasonably possible. A disciplinary intervention process is now made by the classroom teacher before removal is allowed.

As stated in the policy, “Unless a student’s presence poses an immediate and continuing danger to others or an immediate and continuing threat to the educational process, staff members must first attempt one or more forms of other forms of discipline to support students in meeting behavioral expectations before imposing classroom exclusion.” And, “before imposing a long-term suspension or expulsion, the district must first consider other forms of discipline.”

Thirty-minute detentions may still be allowed during lunch or after school as disciplinary consequences. When it is found necessary to remove a student from the classroom, parents must be contacted, and all disciplinary actions taken must be documented with copies going to Superintendent Rachel Gwinn and parents.

Also, students must be given the opportunity to make up, for full credit, any work that was missed during a removal from class. However, the policy also states that “after attempting at least one other form of discipline, teachers have statutory authority to impose classroom exclusion for behaviors that disrupt the educational process.” High School Principal, Amy Miller, has met with all teachers and explained the new process and expectations.

A request was made to be able to take credit cards at school concession stands. This requires setting up a new bank account, which was determined to be at the Bank of Eastern Washington. The school board approved the new account.

Gwinn discussed the need to update the school district policies, some of which are obsolete, and others have not been updated for many years. She distributed copies of the first section of policies for each board member to review before the next meeting. They will continue reviewing a new section each month until the policies have been thoroughly updated, at which time they will be posted on the new school website. The website is in the process of being updated as well, making it more user friendly. It will also include an application that parents can download so they may receive emergency or school news alerts directly to their devices.

Principal Miller explained that Parent/Teacher Conferences will be handled differently this year. As many other school districts do, the high school will have arena-style conferences where teachers will each have a table set up in the gym, and will be available to meet with any parents who choose to come to the school during the time periods set for Wednesday and Thursday after the early dismissal from school. This new set-up is replacing the individually-set appointments used in the past. There will also be representatives available for parents to visit such as Sara Meyers with the Healthy Students Program, the Health District with information on vaping, and Dan Lewis with Pomeroy Partners.

Miller also said that the high school Junior class travelled to Lewis-Clark State College to learn about the opportunities there to learn technical skills. Also, the “College in the High School” program is now set up with Walla Walla Community College in Clarkston.

Parent/teacher conferences for the Elementary will proceed as they have in the past, with individual appointments set up between each teacher and parents according to Gwinn The professional development time this year will continue with working out any problems that come up with the new math curriculum. Overall, she says the problems have been easily solved and she believes that the new curriculum is going well.

There will be a Veterans Day Assembly on November 12 at 10 a.m.

Gwinn will work with the Washington Educational Service District (ESD) to learn about assessing possible threat indicators, what to look for, and how to handle those threats. She has also been communicating with Clarkston and Asotin Superintendents about the possibility of planning a professional development day of collaboration for school staff members. Gwinn extended an invitation to each school board member to meet with her, one-on-one, to share ideas or ask questions. She expressed the desire to continue doing this on a regular basis.

The next meeting of the Pomeroy School District Board was set for November 25, 2019, at 6 p.m., to be held in the Shepherd Room of the Elementary School.