Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Thrasher retires as teacher in Gurdon

Formal acceptance of the retirement of third grade teacher Linda Thrasher and transfer of staff within the school system were among the items planned for the May meeting of the Gurdon School Board. But without a quorum, the board could not conduct business and the meeting was never called to order.

The three board members who did attend the meeting were President Jesse Runyan, Brad Clark and David Williams.

While the board was not able to conduct business, High School Principal Leonard Gills did talk to those who attended, including the father of a high school student who has questioned the district's honors policy. Superintendent Bobby Smithson said he felt Gills' comments were in order, since the parent was present and the board would not take any action on the subject.

Gills said the state requires students have 22 credits to qualify for graduation. Individual school districts must use that as the minimum requirements but can increase the number of credits, at the district's discretion. Gurdon requires two to four additional credits.

The policy has been that athletics cannot count as a credit for an honor student. That means, under the current policy, it's not possible for a student to graduate with honors if they take athletics classes.

Gills said the state allows individual districts to make their own decisions about whether to count credits above the state's 22-credit requirement for honors credit and he said the district will allow athletics to count.

Asked if the district plans to go to an after-school athletics program  a possibility that has been mentioned in a previous school board meeting  Gills said, "Not at this time."

Items on the agenda will be held over to the regular June meeting.