Libby School District renews interlocal agreement
The board members, principals and the athletic director are getting ready for back to school at the Libby district.
On Monday, the board approved the 82 Interlocal Agreement Fund renewal and discussed resignations, retirements and renewal of contracts.
The board unanimously approved the 82 Interlocal Agreement Fund, an agreement between Troy School District and Libby School District to help pay for the Lincoln County Vocational Charter. In spring of 2015, Libby’s became the first school in Montana to get a charter program, which is set up for juniors and seniors for dual credit automotive technology and welding certification classes. Libby and Troy partnered and pooled their resources together to offer students these classes in the fall of last year. Barringer suspects that within a year, they will be able to offer dual credits for high school and college to the juniors and seniors.
At the beginning of the meeting, Sindy Filler stood up to speak. Filler said she’s been a supporter of public schools and has served the schools for many years as a volunteer, but for certain circumstances she had decided to home-school her 10th grader. Filler said that she wants to work with the schools to allow current home-schooled children in the Libby area to have access to some of the facilities the district has to offer and become part-time students. She said that if any action were to be done, she would like it to be not just for her 10th grader, but for all of the families in the area with home-schooled children.
Superintendent Craig Barringer said there are certain complications that could come from allowing home-schooled children to attend public school part time, including if they are allowed to receive a high school diploma from Libby High School when it comes time to graduate. Barringer also added in order for any action to happen, the board policy would have to change, and according to Barringer, policy changes take three months to go into effect. Barringer said that he’s been in contact with the Montana School Board Association to see how other schools handle part-time students.
Libby Elementary School Principal Ron Goodman gave a presentation on the projects going on at the school, such as painting the flag poles, landscaping, adding gravel along the sidewalk to improve student traffic and allocating fifth and sixth grade classes between two teachers, which allows for each teacher to manage three classes twice a day as opposed to six classes in one day.
Libby High School Principal Ruth Rogers also briefed the board on the high school updates, including the new water fountains and the new speakers in the gym. According to Barringer, the sound quality in the gym has been an issue for a long time because of the gym’s size, but these speakers are state-of-the-art and should solve the sound issues.
Athletic Director Jim Germany then gave his report to the board, briefing them on the Logger Nation events scheduled throughout the year to build some excitement momentum for students and parents and to help them understand and support Libby athletics. He also extended a thank you to the Community Health Center and Libby Clinics for offering free sport physicals this year to the high school athletes. Germany also praised the recent improvements to the football field.
The board received four resignation letters since last month’s meeting, including Brenda Johnson, who moved from elementary school paraprofessional to preschool special education teacher at Libby. According to Barringer, they have filled most of the open positions, but are still looking for one more teacher at the elementary school.
The board approved to hire Brenda Johnson as a preschool special education teacher, Rick Morrow as an elementary school paraprofessional and Kassandra Killer as the Libby Elementary and Central School Nutrition Assistant. They also hired Todd Boehmler as part time physical education and part time fifth grade teacher and Andrea Boehmler as a second grade teacher. At the preschool, they also approved the contract for Ken Foss as education coordinator, Toya Laveway as family engagement coordinator and Michele Thompson as the health coordinator.
There will also be five new assistant coaches for the new school year at Libby. Jeff Gruber and Justin Graham will be the new assistant high school football coaches; Tony Smith will be the new high school girls basketball assistant coach; Peter Jacobson will be the new high school boys basketball assistant coach and Dan Jenkins will be the new elementary football assistant coach.
Reporter Bethany Rolfson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at Reporter@TheWesternNews.com.