by Garrick Moritz, Editor

            Just before press time, we learned that the Garretson School Board scheduled a special meeting on Wednesday Feb. 23rd to discuss a personnel matter. This was reportedly the meeting that they will tackle the issue of the employment of Chris Long that we’ve been covering for the last month. Though coverage of the meeting was too late for this week’s publication, we will post information on our website and social media accounts and cover the meeting in our next issue.

            We left off our coverage of last week’s Garretson’s school board meeting as they were moving to their consent agenda items.

            Board President Nordstrom noted the resignation of two long-time teachers. Kari Stoltenberg and Julie Mueller are both retiring from their positions at the end of this school year. Stoltenberg has taught for 40 years at the school, and Mueller for 25 years. Nordstrom and the board wanted to officially thank them for their years of service to the district.

            Superintendent Guy Johnson also listed the resignation of Tina Reiter and Anna Nelson effective that coming Friday and told the board that both employees had been informed about the potential for liquidated damages clause of their contracts.

            With that, the consent agenda was approved.

            With no old business and no conflicts of interest to note, Board President Nordstrom stated that this week was School Board Recognition week and had a certificate of thanks for each board member present, recognizing them for their service.

            Addressing the gathered crowd of constituents gathered for the meeting, he also reminded them that anyone who wants to become a school board member can take out a petition to file for election to the office from the school’s business administrator Jacob Schweitzer.

            The deadline for said petitions is Monday, Feb. 28, so there is little time remaining to get the paperwork filed. All school board seats except for the seat held by Kari Flanagan are up for election this year.

            The next item for discussion was the School’s COVID-19 Mitigation Plan. The board had chosen not to update their COVID-19 plan at the prior meeting, and to continue their practice of requiring a 10-day quarantine period for staff and students with a confirmed case of COVID. The CDC had confidently reduced the recommended standard quarantine period to 5 days instead of 10 at the end of December.

            Supt. Johnson said that the 5-day recommendation was the right call, as the number of cases among students and staff had reduced significantly since then. Currently, Supt. Johnson said, there were only three cases of COVID in the active student population and there were no infections among the staff. He said that Monday was the first day in some time that there were no substitute teachers at work in the building, and that was something he’s not been able to say for some time now.

            Supt. Johnson recommended the board approve a revision to the COVID mitigation plan to reflect the new CDC guidelines. They voted to do so.

            Next item of discussion was a new potential team sport for the Garretson School District, sanctioned girls’ softball. The South Dakota High School Activities Association approved softball as a sanctioned sport, and now schools across the state are deciding if they want to participate. It will be a spring sport, sharing a season time with Track and Field.

            Supt. Johnson asked Assistant Athletic Director Kevin Steckler for his assessment of the situation.

            “We’ve already got more sports programs than many other districts within our conference,” Steckler said. “I don’t know if the school will be able to handle one more and with softball being an intensive team sport, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a student to be able to participate in both track and softball at the same time.”

            Steckler said that an initial student survey was favorable to having a softball team (with 26 students expressing an initial interest), but that as of right now, he had no idea what other districts in the area were going to do about creating a team and a program for the sport. Initially he said he was not in favor of it at this time, but he did say that if a true interest grew in the community, the SDHSAA is welcoming schools with open and late enrollment. His advice to the board was to adopt a wait-and-see approach, not to step through the door, but to leave it open if the school chooses to go through it.

            The school board then approved an exemption for use of the facilities by JO Volleyball to host their annual volleyball camp at the school.

            Next, the board considered a measure increasing substitute teacher pay to $130 per day and $135 per day after 10 consecutive days. This increase is after Sioux Falls and other districts in the area have likewise raised their prices to $150 per day. In this way, we can stay competitive and encourage local area substitutes to stick closer to home. As a recent South Dakota Newswatch story reported, there is a great shortage of substitute teachers all across the state and Garretson has felt this pinch just as keenly as other districts.

            “With fast food places in Sioux Falls increasing wages to $15 per-hour with benefits I don’t see that we have any choice but to increase our base pay,” said Board Member Ryan Longhenry.

            The board voted to do exactly that.

            The board then read over policy items, informational items, first readings and final passage of two policy revisions on expense reimbursement and alternative instruction participation.

            The meeting then moved to the Supt.’s legislative update. This one was a doozy as there were a lot of education bills proposed, and nearly all of them were detrimental to the daily operation of the school in one form or another in Mr. Johnson’s opinion.

            First was the “Critical Race Theory” bill that has received so much traction from some cable TV news networks. Supt. Johnson said that the bill proposed was badly put together, but the worst aspects of it have been amended away and the form it will take if it does pass will be that of a toothless resolution rather than a law with any unfunded mandates that interfere with the district’s curriculum selection.

            Supt. Johnson then spoke about HB 1310.

            “As an administrator and educator, I have to wonder sometimes if certain legislators delight in coming up with new bills and laws that are deliberately trying to get our teachers to leave our school districts,” Johnson said. “That can only be the result of HB 1310. It’s really ridiculous. It would require teachers to post their entire lesson plans a year in advance online so it would be open for parental review. I don’t know in what world that they think this is feasible, but that is not how we do business at our school. Nobody does their lesson plans that far in advance. They are always making changes and improvements to their curriculum, sometimes on a daily basis. If something comes up in class, and the students want to learn about it, and the teacher is capable of teaching it, then we do that. We can’t set a structure like they’re proposing in this bill. It would never, ever work. The ASBSD will oppose this bill, as should anyone else with any sense.”

            Board President Nordstrom asked if this bill was proposed by anyone local to address any issues the state actually had, or if it was from an out of state legislative bill mill creation. Supt. Johnson responded by saying that it was most certainly a fabrication of an out of state interest. Nordstrom said that it’s one thing if a bill was created by a local legislator trying to address a need they see within the state, but that it’s quite another thing if it’s just someone’s legislative experiment they want to try out, and that the state could certainly do without that kind of bill.

             HB 1246 Supt. Johnson said is also a bill that is a solution in search of a problem. It expresses the fundamental rights of parents to decide the educational future of their students, which is something that already exists in their right to take their children out of school if they desire to do so.

            Supt. Jonson prefaced his last legislative item with some history. Back in 2016 under the Daugaard administration, they pushed forward a JV reform package aimed at helping students get the services they might need rather than going after juveniles for criminal charges. The side effect of this is that now, law enforcement only focuses on serious crimes. Truancy, for example, is much less enforced. SB 198 is set to do a reset on those laws. However, it shakes out, and Johnson said that he hopes for better methods going forward in the future.

            Supt. Johnson then gave a report on the latest parent teacher conferences and teacher in-service day to the board. Board member Rachel Hanisch also gave a very brief update on the Prairie Lakes cooperative, stating that open positions in the coop have been successfully filled.

            With that the board went into executive session at 6:35 to discuss a personnel matter. They emerged from executive session at 7:29 p.m. and adjourned.

            The Garretson School Board held a special meeting on Feb. 23, 2022. After five hours of deliberation, the Board terminated the contract of Principal Chris Long.

            They called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. The crowd was much larger than the regular meeting held on February 14, and was comprised of students and parents, many sporting the T-shirts supporting Chris Long.

            “We’re going to start these proceedings with a few agenda items, but most of this meeting will be held in executive session for the purposes of an employee hearing,” said Board President Shannon Nordstrom. “This might take an hour, four hours or even longer, and there may or may not be an outcome tonight as we may want a decision based on clear minds. Any final decision on this issue will be voted on in open session, though the deliberations must take place in closed session.”

            The board appointed Rodney Freeman, Attorney, as the Hearing Officer and legal counsel to the Board for the purposes of holding an Employee Hearing.

            Present were two other attorneys, David Kroon, who was representing Chris Long, and Sam Kerr, who is the appointed attorney for the Garretson School District. Kerr and Garretson Supt. Guy Johnson sat in one set of desks facing Freeman and the School Board, and Kroon and Long sat in another set of desks facing the board. The setup was very reminiscent of courtroom prosecution and defense.

            The Garretson School Board entered executive session at 6:03 p.m.

            During the proceedings there was quite a bit of coming and going of all parties except school board members. Supt. Johnson and Kerr, as well as Long and Kroon, would each enter the administration wing to deliberate at several points during the proceedings, and the board also notably called witnesses, such as GHS Basketball Coach and assistant Football Coach Tad Heitkamp.

            Neither Supt. Johnson, Long, or their attorneys issued any public statements.

            Just after 11:00 p.m., Mr. Freeman announced to those still in attendance that the board was back in open session.

            The Board was declared out of executive session at 11:19 p.m.

            “We had a lot of deliberation,” said Board President Shannon Nordstrom. “This was not easy at all. I’m going to read the motion that we have. Then someone will take it from there. The motion is to terminate the contract of Chris Long effective immediately, based on his clear failure to follow, and violations of, the district’s policy and procedures, and to direct the Hearing Officer to present a finding of facts in conclusions of law, and decision to be approved and adopted by the board of education. I will bring that motion forward.”

            “I will second that motion,” said Board member Kari Flanagan.

            “Is there further discussion?” asked Nordstrom.

            There was silence.

            “All those in favor say aye.”

            The vote was unanimous.

            “Motion carries,” said Nordstrom.

            Board member Ryan Longhenry made the motion to adjourn and Flanagan seconded, ending five hours of deliberations.

Update 2/24/2022 2:39 p.m.: The Garretson School Board issued a statement to the public, noting that the hearing had been at the request of the employee. The letter reads as follows:

The Garretson School Board met Wednesday night February 23^rd for an employee hearing that had been scheduled.  This hearing was at the request of the employee after receiving a recommendation for termination of contract for not following and violating district policies. While it is unfortunate the timelines stretched out, it was important that as a board we kept confidentiality for the employee and students and understood the parties involved were working through processes.  These processes once started were out of the districts control until completed.  As a board, we worked to understand the impact of the situation on all parties involved, and the temperature and feelings of many in the district.  

At Wednesday night’s hearing, we were presented exhibits, heard testimony, and asked questions. This was done as part of the judicial capacity of our positions on the school board. In the end the board voted unanimously to terminate Mr. Longs contract.

Mr. Long has served our district for 13 years and has been part of a team involved in many very good things that are happening at our district. The collective team that makes up the Garretson School District can be proud of many accomplishments at the Home of the Blue Dragons. Unfortunately, the hearing led the board to the conclusion that this decision was necessary.  We do understand the bond that a principal and football coach forms with many and this is surely hard to understand for some. 

As a board, our hope is that the Garretson community can put trust in our decision and the work we will have to do with our administrative team, staff, and students to begin the healing process. Many people, some are front and center, and some that are behind the scenes have been uniquely impacted by process that has played out. We would also issue a challenge to take a step back, reflect, think through your own actions, and realize that we are not helping the problem heal by attacking others and spreading misinformation. 

Our district will be starting the process of hiring a new principal and we will work step by step to review what we have learned, use it as part of our tools, and work towards the future.  The Garretson School district is a great place, we believe in the people in our district and their vision to follow our motto of “Growing our Future, Every Child, Every Day” There are great things happening today, but it is easy for them to be overshadowed when situations like this unfold.  We thank every person that is part of this district for the role they play to make good things happen and look forward with hope and optimism for the future, even with the challenge of today. 

For the Board

President- Shannon Nordstrom 

Vice President – Kari Flanagan

Rachel Hanisch

Jodi Linneweber

Ryan Longhenry

This is a developing story. See future issues of the Garretson Gazette for further developments.

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