School Board approves calendar
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
The McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 school board gave its stamp of approval to a new calendar for the 2009-2010 school year during its regular meeting on Wednesday, March 11.
Under the new calendar, Watford City classes will begin on Thursday, Aug. 27 with the last day of school set for Wednesday, May 26. Watford City High School will hold its graduation ceremonies on Sunday, May 30.
One area of board concern which was adopted into the new calendar was shifting one of the days off from school associated with teacher conferences to Friday, Nov. 13. The shift was to provide a day off from school in the event that the Watford City football team qualified for the State Football Championship game, which would be played on Nov. 13.
“Under the other two calendar proposals, if we would have had school on Nov. 13 and the football team made it to State, we would have had a lot of students missing,” stated Holen.
But in making that change, Holen noted that there will not be school on Wednesday, Nov. 11 in honor of Veterans Day and on Friday, Nov. 13. However, school will be held on Thursday, Nov. 12.
In other business, the school board:
• Approved Supt. Holen’s evaluation. Holen received satisfactory ratings in all categories of the evaluation.
• Approved open enrollment applications for two students, Trey Jacobson and Amber Tveter, to attend McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 next year.
• Was informed by Supt. Holen that the FFA could no longer sell meat from local stores as part of its annual fundraising efforts. According to the North Dakota Dept. of Agriculture, all meat sold must be purchased from a federally certified retailer.
• Approved offering a contract to Eric Krogen as a high school social studies teacher.
• Approved Reduction In Force notices to two elementary school teachers as a result of declining enrollment.
• Approved granting authority to the administration to hire one classroom reduction position at the elementary school.
• Approved issuing teaching and administrative contracts to district employees for the 2009-2010 school year. The contracts are to be signed and returned by April 11.
• Approved a baseball co-op agreement with Alexander Public School District No. 2.
• Approved submitting a $49,000 grant application to the North Dakota Energy Impact Office to offset the purchase of one school bus.
• Approved the second and final reading of the district’s policy relating to the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• Was informed by Supt. Holen that the North Dakota High School Activities Association will be deciding on whether or not to pursue a three class system for basketball at its April 15 meeting. A straw poll, according to Holen, indicated that 53 percent of the state’s schools were opposed to a three class system.
• Was informed by Holen that the administration was still working on a multi-sport absence policy.
The next meeting of the McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 school board will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14.