Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School Board Tables Teacher's Calendar

The Gurdon School board voted to table the teacher approved calendar for the school year 2001-2002. The calendar chosen by the teachers provides for five days set aside for a review teams visits, which have caused discussion.

In materials provided the public Smithson states, "A major change is dismissing school for five days of in-service for the ASCIP team visit. This is allowed by the State Department of Education in order for our teachers to prepare for this study. Our teachers are scheduled for seven days of in-service training each year. The law requires 30 hours of in-service. I have a problem with reducing five days of instruction."

While in the meeting Smithson strengthened his views by commenting, "These people come in, take a look and make suggestions. Is this in the best interest of our kids? I may be looking with the wrong perspective. I just don't have a good feeling with it. I don't have strong feelings. Just a little problem with it. I'm not going to recommend against it. If we approve it absent teachers will be docked."

"With this calendar spring break is the week of Easter," Pat Talley, a Gurdon Primary School (GPS) teacher, told the board.

"The state gives permission for these days, this is just the first year we've applied for them," Rita Roe, principal at GPS, said.

Roe reconfirmed these days will not be counted against the total number of state-required student days. Student days with this calendar amount to 178, including the five days the teachers are asking for.

"Many of the teachers go to workshops in the summer, which count as in-service," Smithson said. "This would put a hardship on the parents who will have to find babysitters for their children."

Board members Stan Escalante and Billy Tarpley agreed with the idea of tabling the issue. One of which commented, "I can hear my phone ringing over this."

"The state wouldn't exempt us for absent days due to the ice, now they're going to exempt us for review?" Smithson asked before the issue was tabled.

One of the days in question chosen by the teachers is Friday, October 26. This day is placed before the last Saturday in October, normally a very busy time for students, teachers and parents due to the Gurdon Forest Festival.

The second and third days are Monday and Tuesday, November 19 and 20. This would provide a full week off for the students since they are positioned to complete the week of the Thanksgiving holidays, November 21-23.

The fourth day is placed at the end of the Christmas holiday, Monday, January 7, 2002. The students would arrive the following day, Tuesday, January 8, 2002.

The fifth and last day would be placed on Friday, March 22, 2002 before spring break. Teachers often have a difficult time teaching on this day due to the enthusiasm of students and often high absenteeism.

In other matters the school board gave Smithson the freedom to borrow money at his discretion this summer.

"We will need to borrow money for the summer months which we will repay after we receive the bulk of our local property taxes," Smithson said in the materials. "Our forty percent pullback is approximately $440,000 for the current year.

"As of this date, we have not received any of this pullback," he said. "The mechanics of the new tax exemption for homeowners may have created a problem with cash flow. We only want to borrow the amount needed in order to continue the operation of our program," Smithson stated.

At the previous meeting of the school board Norman Montgomery had expressed his disapproval with Cabe Middle School principal Jeff Alexander's handling of an incident involving his son. He was scheduled to be heard at last week's meeting, but failed to show

"We have given Montgomery an opportunity to express his feelings. We need to move on," Smithson stated in the materials.

Local cheerleading and dance instructor Keri McQuistion presented her proposal for a middle school dance team. With 27 girls already interested McQuistion said "this would not effect Ms. Butler's Pepsteppers."