Dr. Craig Neuenswander, superintendent of schools, said it best: “It seems we’re discussing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
That concluded comments about whether trustees of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, who sit most of the time as USD 257 board members, should be represented on the Bowlus Commission or the Friends of the Bowlus.
The discussion arose at Monday night’s BOE meeting.
Friends of the Bowlus, represented at the meeting by Mary Martin and Ken McGuffin, is in place to support bricks and mortar needs of the arts center, said Susan Raines, executive director, while the Bowlus Commission, represented by Jacki Chase and Susan Lynn, chairman, is an advisory council for the trustees.
“I think communications have improved,” said Mary Apt, BOE chairman. “I don’t see an obstacle.”
However, she wondered if having a trustee regularly attend meetings of either group would be an advantage.
Tony Leavitt said he was uncomfortable with a trustee representing all seven with either, noting that one trustee could speak only for himself and not the board.
Chase said she thought, as Leavitt feared, such an arrangement could be a conflict of interest.
“The board formed the Bowlus Commission to step back and be its advisory group,” she said, and wondered if having a trustee as a regular attendee would negate the reasons for having a commission. Those on the Bowlus Commission “give trustees their opinions of what they think is best for the Bowlus,” she pointed out.
A third entity, the Bowlus Planning Commission, which meets periodically, draws in trustees, Friends and Bowlus Commission members, McGuffin noted, and meshes the interest of all involved.
NEUENSWANDER told board members that a state audit found the district’s weighted fulltime equivalency was 2,317.5 students, 23.6 FTE fewer than the figure used for the 2010-11 budget at 2,341.1.
That means the district will lose $114,605 in budget authority, he said, lowering the general fund to $9.306 million and the local option budget to $3.095 million, or a total of a touch over $12.4 million for general operations of the district.
Lost budget authority amounts to less than 1 percent, which Neuenswander said the district could deal with without any great difficulty, by moving any needed expenditures that might crop up to other places in the budget. He noted the contingency reserve fund contained $500,000.
FOLLOWING a pair of 15-minute executive sessions, board members voted 6-0 — member Deanne Burris was absent — to hire former Iolan Scott Stanley as the district’s first director of operations. He will be paid $50,000 a year to oversee maintenance and transportation departments.
Stanley, a 1999 graduate of Iola High School, has been living in Gardner and is the son of Jack and Tina Stanley, employees of USD 257. Jack Stanley is middle school principal; Tina Stanley teaches business classes at the high school. He has been involved in construction project management, including computer-related aspects.
TRAVIS HERMSTEIN, a history instructor at the high school, was recognized for being chosen the Kansas Teacher of the Week Saturday by the University of Kansas and Armstrong/Shank Advertising, Wichita. He was introduced at KU’s football game Saturday afternoon.
Hermstein credited his students for his expertise, noting, “I have good kids” in class and that “I care that they learn.”
Board members also congratulated David Grover, Iola High principal, for being named district principal of the year, reported earlier in the Register.
