School Board Roundup for September
Alder
Improved air quality, free meals and a playground reopening
The Alder Board met Thursday, Sept. 23, for their September Board of Trustees meeting. It was a fairly light meeting. The following items were discussed:
• The board approved trustee Ryan Ellis to purchase three new chairs to be used by the trustees at the board meetings.
• The board did a first reading on three existing policies that require updating due to new regulations after the 2021 legislative session. These policies deal with administering medication to students, prevention of disease transmission, and breast feeding in the workplace. They also had the first reading for a new required policy regarding water supply systems. The board discussed and approved changes to COVID emergency policy 1910 to allow the district to continue to pay up to 80 hours of emergency sick leave to those employees quarantined due to COVID and up to 80 hours of emergency sick leave at 2/3 pay for any employee who has to stay home to care for a family member affected by a COVID quarantine. This change was required because the Federal mandate for emergency sick leave expired. Some of the ESSER III funds will be used for this purpose.
• The board approved participating in the Seamless Summer Food Program. Therefore, all school meals will be free to students.
• The board was presented with an opportunity to apply for a DPHHS Rapid testing grant. They decided that Alder was not a fit for this grant at this time.
• The board approved the use of ESSER II and III funds for the following: renovation of the heating and cooling systems to improve air quality in both buildings, construction of a covered outdoor learning space over the existing basketball court, emergency sick leave for employees, extra custodial hours due to COVID cleaning requirements, and expenses due to learning loss such as tutoring, additional certified staff, and summer school opportunities for students.
• The board approved reopening the playground to the community outside of school hours. The playground had previously been closed due to the pandemic. Signage stating that the playground is closed will be removed.