35 people attended Wednesday night’s open Greene County School Board meeting.
The main topic of discussion was about bullying. Angela Milakovich voiced concerns she had about her child, which she claims was involved in a sexual harassment and bullying incident involving another six year-old at the elementary school. She thought the district’s policy should be reviewed by the Board and thought the teacher and principal should take care of the situation. The result of the incident was that the six year-old boy, who was accused of bullying, would miss a couple of recesses and Milakovich’s child would get an aide to be with her, plus she would be put in another class to separate her from the boy. When Superintendent Tim Christensen asked if the plan that they had in place was satisfactory, Milakovich agreed.
Board member Mark Peters reminded everyone of the district’s chain of command in dealing with an incident, with the Board being the final step to take action, but that Milakovich’s situation was never brought to the Board before Wednesday night. MeLinda Madison Millard suggested to the Board that they review the bullying policy and put in clearly defined consequences. She also suggested implementing a mentoring program where high school kids mentor elementary kids to further stop bullying from happening.
Board member Mike Dennhardt suggested that some of the situations needed to be dealt with the parents in their homes. Uvette Winger thought that there needed to be stiffer penalties for bullying in the elementary school like suspensions.
Another component that was discussed was educating students about how to get along with each other. A possible solution is implementing anti-bullying programs district-wide as well as developing an anti-bullying walk with the students. Christensen said that they will look at other school district’s policies and implementing anti-bullying programs.
The other topic that was briefly discussed was having a full-time activities director for the district. The current position is only part-time. Celli Whipple presented information to the Board about getting the position moved to a full-time position. Peters thought it was a great goal to eventually get there, but in a budget year where they are cutting two and a third teacher positions, he wasn’t in favor of raising the activities director position to full-time and pay the extra salary. However, the topic will be discussed at next week’s regular school board meeting.