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WILSON — Members of the Central Plains USD 112 board of education agreed Monday night to enter into an agreement with the Kansas Attorney General’s office requiring each board member to obtain one hour of training on the Open Meetings Act within 90 days.

Board attorney John Sherman said the board had self reported at its November session an open meetings violation to the attorney general.

Sherman said the attorney general’s office returned a finding that a violation did occur when the board went into executive session to discuss the sale of the Bushton building.

“The proper purpose for real estate is if you’re going to purchase real estate,” Sherman noted.

Sherman said once board members attend the training, they are to provide the attorney general’s office with written confirmation of the training. The board was also instructed to review any board policies with respect to the Open Meetings Act.

“There shouldn’t be any significant changes, if any,” Sherman said.

Sherman said training on the Open Meetings Act is scheduled by the attorney general’s office Dec. 17 in Salina.

“Violation is not a criminal offense,” the attorney added. “It’s a civil offense. There could be penalties in dollar amounts, injunctions and that type of thing.”

Sherman said the attorney general’s office indicated it was pleased the board self reported, an action taken into account.

“We had previously gone into executive session to purchase real estate,” board president Michelle Brokes said.“And so at a meeting where our board attorney was not here, the board completely inadvertently assumed that we were to go into executive session also for the sale of real estate. It was an oversight. It was not anything that was intentional or malicious. And that is why we self reported. We could have swept it under the rug and it probably would have gone away, but that wasn’t the right thing to do. We understood that it happened, so that’s why the report.”

“And the attorney general’s office, like I said, took that all into consideration and agreed it wasn’t meant to be intentional or to hide anything,” Sherman said.“That is the one thing public entities get confused on more than anything. Sale of real estate verses purchases.”

Sherman said even those board members who are leaving the board must take the training since they may serve on a board or council in the future.

In other business:

• By consensus, the board agreed to continue discussion on the boiler, LED lighting and the heating and air conditioning system at the former Central Plains Middle School building in Bushton.

Superintendent Greg Clark noted it would take $180,952 to do everything the board wanted to do with the equipment, including moving it to Central Plains Elementary School in Holyrood.

Board member Jerry Bieberle asked John Lewis Smith of LST Engineering whether the old heating and air conditioning unit could be moved from CPES back to the Bushton building and so the building would have heating and air conditioning.

Smith said the unit at Holyrood is not worth moving anywhere.

“You could relocate it, but it would be tremendously expensive,”he said.“I’m not sure it would provide you the results you are after.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Bieberle said.

Bieberle said if the board moves the equipment as it wants to, it might as well figure the cost of demolishing the Bushton building as well because it would be useless.

Bieberle recommended continuing the discussion and not making an immediate decision.

Bieberle said he didn’t think it was fair to members of the Futures Committee who put the time and effort into seeking what the communities in the district want by acting on this measure before they can make recommendations to the board.

“To me, if you go ahead and pull the trigger to destroy the Bushton building more or less, you’re pretty much telling the Futures Committee they wasted their time, because you already know the answer,” he added.

Bieberle said if the board acts and spends $180,000 to move equipment and the committee comes back with a recommendation of building one overall school in the district, that $180,000 is money that would not have to have been spent.

Board member Brad Schiermeyer asked if there was any reason why the decision had to be made now.

“I agree with you,” Bieberle told Schiermeyer.“If we’re not going to do the work till summer anyway, maybe the three new board members will come on and have a brain storm and figure something out.”

“If we just put it off so we don’t have to make a decision, that’s one thing,” Schiermeyer said.

He added there are several variables to consider, including the upcoming report to the board by the Futures Committee.

• Clark congratulated Principal Jane Oeser and several teachers from Central Plains Elementary School in Holyrood for the school’s recent selection by the U.S. Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School for 2019.

“What these folks at this school have done is really an amazing thing,” Clark said. “It is really quite an honor that speaks to what they are doing in the classroom with kids every day.”

Central Plains Elementary is one of six Kansas schools to be selected as a Blue Ribbon School for 2019.

Amy Hurley, a first grade teacher at Central Plains Elementary, said the school is one of 320 schools in the United States to receive the award this year in a nation of 180,000 schools.

• Three people addressed the board during the public forum. Here is a sample of all three:

Harold Siemsen spoke about the work of the Futures Committee with respect to the future of the district schools.

“If you’re going to consider everything, then you should include the Bushton school,” he said.“The building is over there, everything is over there unless something has been pirated out of there and taken to other schools already. There’s a major problem with the heating and air conditioning and LED lights, and we’ve got a large loan against it. Nobody in their right minds should have taken out that loan to begin with based on the bond program passing.”

Siemsen said the bond didn’t pass and the district has a huge bill at the Wilson State Bank it has to pay.

“That money could be going to the students,” he said. “I don’t see anything here in the last year and a half or two years that this school board has done for the students.”

Futures Committee member Jessie Habiger said she was hopeful for the future of USD 112.

“I know a lot of people care about our school district,” she said.“I want all old and new members on the board to really think about what our future should look like.”

"It was not anything that was intentional or malicious. And that is why we self reported."
Michelle Brokes
USD 112 board president

Habiger said she wants schools with great teachers that her grandkids could possibly come back to.

“At the rate we are going now, I truly believe this is not possible,” she said. “Please look at all possibilities, be open to change, take out the personal feelings and emotions and treat all decisions like a business.”

“I’ve been on the board for many more years than I can count,” said board member Cherlyn Maier.“I’ve lived through consolidation, we’ve worked to get new superintendents, probably three or four, we’ve given up evenings, we’ve given up even weekends sometimes. You rush from work to board meetings. You don’t get paid. A lot of times you don’t get thanked. But we do it because we care about the kids. We care about the teachers and the district as a whole.”

Maier said the past four to six months have been especially challenging for the board.

“We are trying to do what is best for the kids no matter what you guys say,” she said.“It’s hard to make decisions for the future when you have to make decisions on how to pay bills tomorrow. We don’t always have the luxury of looking five years down the road. We work together very well. It’s just hard to do our job when all we get is criticism. That is all we have gotten in the last four to six months. Instead of people rallying behind us and doing what is best for the kids, the schools and the teachers, all we get is backlash on everything. So please come together as communities wherever you’re at and support the new board that comes in. Stand behind them, pray for them that they do make the best decisions that they can.”

• A brief presentation was given by students at Wilson School on the Wilson Robotics program. Students in the robotics class learn problem solving skills, teamwork and engineering by working with a VEX EDR V5 robot that is 18 inches tall and has an arm and claw.

Clark recognized outgoing board members Maier, Brokes and Bieberle for their contributions to the board during the last eight and a half years by presenting each with a plaque.

• Board member Jacob Charvat was chosen to attend negotiations training Jan. 27 in Lyons.

• After a 17 minute executive session to discuss personnel, approval was given to offer Meghan Zelenka a teaching contract for the spring of 2020 at Wilson School.

• After three executive sessions to discuss non-elected personnel lasting a total of 63 minutes, no action was taken on the superintendent’s evaluation.

The next meeting of the USD 112 board of education will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13, at Central Plains Elementary School in Holyrood.