Dufur School board gets resignation, compliance evaluation

The consent agenda, including the resignation, passed unanimously on a motion from former chairman and current Vice Chair Tim Fain.

Two jobs are open, one of them a bus driver.

Evans also reported on Division 22 standards and compliance, an administrative rule (KNA-AR(1)), and seismic work in the library and elementary areas.

Reading through the Division 22 rules, Evans noted several areas in which the district was not compliant last year, most of them now corrected.

The problem that will take longest to correct: the board must formally adopt science and social science curriculum, a move the state requires every two years. They are behind on that.

They didn’t have the proper 150 minutes of PE for some grades last year, needed a comprehensive school counseling plan — “I couldn’t find any evidence that we had one last year,” Evans said — and a couple of personnel, “one in particular,” weren’t properly licensed. All of these have been corrected.

Also, while they had K-12 substance use prevention education, and school policies, they were out of compliance last year because they didn’t have a comprehensive, school-wide plan written up on substance use prevention. They “will have it this year,” Evans said.

The new AR, or board policy, describes how they will implement the OSBA rules they adopted last month regarding ICE.

As for the seismic, or earthquake, work in the library, the school got a grant to help earthquake-proof the buildings and a previous board approved it. They also added HVAC to the building. The roof will also get torn off, reinforced, and re-insulated. Besides earthquakes, Evans said, that should help with classrooms getting very cold in the winter.

The board also got an in-depth financial report. Evans cautiously said the budget was “healthy” and with “just a little caution” would last.

He also noted the new hires are saving them money. As staff and teachers have quit, they were replaced with new hires — who start “lower on the pay scale,” meaning they haven’t yet gotten the raises districts use to reward teachers who have stayed with them a long time.

Which can be “like, a 70% difference in the salary,” Evans clarified.

An audit will happen in November.

The board also voted unanimously, on a motion by Tim Fain, to admit a non-resident student — the child of a new employee who had just moved to the area and not achieved residency yet.

The board concluded with an executive session under ORS 192.660(2), articles i and f, to “review and evaluate the performance of the superintendent or any other public officer, employee or staff member, unless that person requests an open hearing”; and “to consider records exempt by law from public inspection.”

Before opening executive session, Chairman Dave Beeson asked Fain if policy required they return after the executive session and formally end the meeting, as “we’ve done it a couple of different ways” in the past. Fain confirmed they “technically” need to return after executive session and end the meeting on the public record. Beeson also asked Fain to confirm which legal script he needed to read to begin the executive session.