WHITEHALL — The Whitehall school board unanimously approved interim
superintendent CJ Van Wieren's contract as part of its consent action
agenda at Monday's regular meeting and discussed a schedule to conduct
Van Wieren's evaluation.
The evaluation, which the contract
states must be completed by Jan. 30, would precede a formal decision on
whether Van Wieren would be elevated from interim to full superintendent
by the end of March. If elevated, the contract states, Van Wieren would
receive a three-year extension to the contract through the 2027-28
school year. The opening compensation rate will be $155,000 annually,
subject to future increases based on longevity.
The board
discussed the possibility of pushing the evaluation back to June, but
after some discussion, no action was taken on the matter. Trustee Tim
Cross offered, and treasurer Jimmy TenBrink concurred, that the board
could decide in a month or two that if it felt it would be beneficial to
push back the evaluation that it could do so. Board president Rachel
Fekken noted that any board member would have to have completed the
evaluation training prior to a vote taking place, with the same applying
to any potential new board member in the intervening months.
The
board unanimously approved a tweak to the wording of its discrimination
and harassment policy, noting the Miller Johnson firm helped come up
with the language. There are other policy updates the board will
consider in the coming months, but due to changes in the Title IX law,
the board had to act on this policy for its September meeting. As part
of the move, which does not functionally change the school's policy on
the matter, the district appointed Shoreline Elementary principal Beth
Whaley as its Title IX coordinator. She will supervise the policy's
implementation.
The board also unanimously approved the Master
Agreement between the Whitehall Education Association (the teacher's
union) and the district. Additionally, the board considered moving next
month's meeting from Oct. 21 to Oct. 14 due to the annual marching band
glow show also being scheduled for Oct. 21. After discussion the board
did not take any action and the meeting will remain on the 21st.
Van
Wieren gave his first superintendent report and said the feedback he's
consistently received is that it's been a "smooth and exciting" start to
the school year, adding that it appears the overall student count will
be higher than preliminary projections, which anticipated a drop of
about 40 students in the district. Van Wieren also noted that the
district's Community Night prior to last Friday's football game was a
hit and that students enjoyed dunking their principals in the dunk tank.
The district is working on disseminating information about the upcoming
operations millage renewal vote, which will be on the November ballot.
