Danville School Board – LIVE! (6/2/16)

SouthsideCentral was LIVE! at Thursday night’s Danville School Board meeting and we’ve got the most comprehensive coverage of it. This article is now complete, so enjoy!

We’re underway. Sharon Dones is out tonight (though she made it back for the end of the meeting). Since it’s the first meeting of the month, it’s prayer and Pledge of Allegiance time. At the second meeting of the month, there’s no prayer nor Pledge of Allegiance. Insert your own reason here. Philip Campbell does tonight’s prayer. After the minutes from previous meetings are approved, we move to the section honoring outgoing board member Cheryl Bryant.

Cheryl Bryant gets her going away goodies.

Cheryl Bryant sits back down and I’m not sure why Ed Polhamus and Stan Jones look like pallbearers in this photo. Heh.

I’ll miss Cheryl Bryant. As an ex-teacher, she really advocated for the teaching staff and became an expert on the policy book.

Next, Dave Cochran talks about the participants of the Leadership Academy.

The Leadership Academy program was an after-school series of workshops to help teachers learn about possibly becoming administrators. Approximately 14 people took part in the program and are getting certificates tonight.

Stop the clock at 6:11 PM. Trevor’s here!

Most of the Leadership Academy participants showed up to get their certificate. Only one of them stayed to the end of the meeting, however.

It’s public comment time. Let’s see how many people offer complaints and suggestions about the GW graduation “controversy”.

Laura Bennett was a lot of fun.

Laura Bennett is first on the public comment section. She comes up with a “You gonna answer my questions tonight” attitude. Chairman Ed Polhamus nicely tells her that they ain’t gonna answer her questions tonight. It’s as much as a trainwreck as you expect because it’s her first time speaking, but it was entertaining. I want more Laura Bennett at future meetings, dammit.

Tonya MaCrae. a Schoolfield Elementary teacher takes issue with the late notice of their principal possibly being reassigned.

After that, it’s my turn to speak! Yay! I tell the board that it’s time for them to televise/webcast their second meeting of every month. I tell them that they call it the “work session”, but that’s in name only because the board takes votes, makes decisions and enacts policy at those meetings just like the first meeting of every month. Let’s see how this initiative of mine goes in the next few weeks. That ends the public comment section and we move to finance reports.

Lori Cassada (seated) did the finance and textbook fund reports, while Kathy Osborne did the end-of-year spending report.

There was no “Hurry up and spend the money we can’t carry over to next year” this year because Danville City Council approved an override allowing the school system to carry forward more than the $1,000,000 limit.

I’ve been standing up and doing my reporting/photos. Tyquan Graves sneaked in and stole my seat!

Lori Cassada is back up for her last presentation of the textbook fund.

Foreign language textbooks for the upcoming school year will be new. The public had a chance to view the new textbooks up until today. I don’t think anybody did that and I honestly can’t blame them for that.

It’s Robin Owens!

Robin Owens goes over the discipline report. Philip Campbell questions the entire discipline process, saying it was changed in mid-year. Board attorney member Steven Gould points out a possible chilling effect in the process in a terrific courtroom speech. Ben Matlock couldn’t have done that better.

The Juliet Jennings Personnel Recommendations Show was so quick that we’ll have to do a camera photo in the editing process. And here it is!

We heart Juliet Jennings!

Transportation Director Mike Adkins gets the contract for repaving the bus storage parking lot approved.

Kathy Osborne makes her final presentation of the night.

The school board votes to continue a pilot project for outsourcing grounds maintenance for elementary schools. Cheryl Bryant gets some clarification on the number of schools involved. Somebody smirks at that. Heh. Hint: It wasn’t Melissa Newton.

Finally, Dave Cochran talks about a grant to get the SOAR project going in the next school year. It will be an afternoon program for students needing academic and social behavior help. That gets approved and we’re on to the around the horn session to wrap up the meeting.

Everybody thanks the staff for the great school year and talks kindly about outgoing board member Cheryl Bryant. Steven Gould talks about my initiative of getting work sessions televised. Ed Polhamus wraps things up.

The board moves into a recess before the closed session and we’re done here! Since we’ve already got 12 photos in this article (That’s 12 more than the Register & Bee has. Heh.) , we’ll have a BonusCentral article coming up with other photos from the meeting. That’s coming up soon here on SouthsideCentral.

But before we go, we have to give the central office something to talk about in the morning. So we’ll wrap this up with the oh-so-hearted Juliet Jennings with vegetables and Melissa’s favorite fish.

Heh. Ok, now that we’ve had some fun, we’re really done. I hope you’ve enjoyed the most comprehensive recap of Thursday night’s Danville School Board meeting. It’s only here at SouthsideCentral!