FHS seeks assistant activities director

Posted

Brenda Wade Schmidt
Enterprise

Flandreau School Board members last week voted unanimously to hire a part-time assistant activities director who will supervise coaches.
The position would include between 5 to 7 hours a week going to practices and games and completing paperwork and evaluations, and the person would report to Superintendent and Activities Director Rick Weber.
Adding a position in between the coaches and Weber would give any coach the opportunity to have another person to go to, much like a teacher would go to a principal before talking directly to the superintendent, said Darren Hamilton, board member.
“That was the impetus for it, what started the conversation,” he said.
The position requires someone certified in secondary administration, and applications are due Sept. 21. Pay for the position has not been decided.
Board members also heard what new state graduations requirements could look like in Flandreau.
In July, the state’s Board of Education Standards adopted revisions in the state requirements designed to give students more flexibility. The modifications, the first in nearly a decade, add three endorsements that include different requirements for math, science, technology, English and social studies. Instead of a college path, a student could take a career path, for example, and complete industry-recognized certification tests.

Schools have until 2020 to implement the endorsement options.
High School Principal Nicole Herzog said she would like to start talking with parents of younger students at the beginning of second semester and begin implementing changes so that the school is fully ready by 2020.
“I would personally like to start earlier so we can get out kinks worked out and so we can plan ahead,” she said.
The changes likely will mean the school will need additional course options that may be offered every other year, for example. It could include the need for an additional teacher, especially in math, for example. It also means that students will need to make decisions about their future earlier, but the school also needs to be ready to help if they change their mind on the direction they will go.
“I think we have some students who would benefit from the career track. That would really empower them to want to be in school more,” Herzog said. “We have a lot more students enrolling in tech schools than we have previously.”
For those students, math courses wouldn’t have to include geometry, for example, but could include consumer math.
Counselor Kari Lena-Helling said changes that include certifications in various areas also will mean that career counseling will need to start earlier, particularly in seventh and eighth grade.
Deciding what to do in life is a hard concept even for other students after high school, several board members said.
“There’s a lot of juniors in college that switch majors, and now we’re expecting it in ninth grade,” Board President Tom Stenger said. “I would hate to shut the door on somebody that finds out at as a junior or senior they really want to go to college, but they can’t because they don’t have the right credentials.”
As ninth graders, students have very few electives so they wouldn’t have to make many course decisions at that point, Herzog said. Minimum requirements still would include algebra and biology, for example. At each grade level, there are more choices. The school would be able to make on-line courses available for possible last-minute changes, she said.
The school board took no action at this point but will consider the issue at a future meeting. The state will reconsider the standards by at least 2026.
In other business,
•The school received a safe school award through the National Trainers Association. Trainer Katie Krystosek has updated emergency plans for gyms and outside sports areas.
•Fourteen high school students are taking dual credit classes, and teacher Travis Ahrens is the school’s testing coordinator.
•The school will begin advertising on the Associated School Boards of South Dakota website for a new business manager to replace Lisa Sanderson, who is retiring in January. The application deadline is Sept. 28, and the district wants to have someone hired and in place by the end of November to train with Sanderson, Weber said.
•Advisors were approved for school clubs to include Scott Ross, rodeo club; Liz James, First Nations Club; Amanda Aherns, art club; Dan Hall, gaming club; and Lori Williams, book club.
•The school board approved the following hires: Susan Damm, elementary student council; Amber Hoffman, middle student council; Melissa Opsahl, high school student council; Georgia Adolph, National Honor Society; Dan Hall, assistant tract; Mitch Miller, junior high boys’ basketball; Ann Kuper, fifth and sixth grade Title; and Xavier Pavlis, elementary paraprofessional and special education driver.
•The middle school, which is grades 5-8, has 221 students, including 57 fifth graders, 63 sixth graders, 46 seventh graders and 55 eighth graders, said Brian Relf, principal.