The Strasburg School Board accepted a petition at its May 6 meeting to allow voters to decide whether to change the name of the school district to the Strasburg-Hague School District.

Business Manager Terri Kuss reviewed the 45 signatures on the petition and found that at least 26 of them were valid, which exceeds the minimum required of 23. She said some of the signers had not properly included addresses or other required information.

The regular school election will be held Tuesday, June 3, and Mark Kramer and Sheila Wagner have filed for the seat currently held by Board President J. Edward Nieuwsma, who is not seeking re-election.

In addition to electing a board member, voters will decide the fate of the district name.

Duane Wald made the motion to put the name change on the ballot, and Duane Ternes offered the second. Joining the sponsors in supporting the motion were Nieuwsma and Tony Roth. Board member Rosalind Leier was not able to attend the meeting.

Other business

In other business, the board:

•Approved the hiring of Daren Kurle of Wishek as the Elementary Principal for 2008-09. He will replace Yvonne Engelhart who will succeed Joel Hedtke as High School Principal. Hedtke resigned his position. The school has vacancies for a part-time elementary music teacher, an English teacher and a business teacher. Hedtke taught English, and business teacher Lindsay Burkhartsmeier also resigned. Supt. Eiseman said 15 schools are trying to recruit business teachers.

Eiseman said, if a business teacher cannot be found, the school will need to look at adding an ITV (interactive television) class to provide an elective.

•Received input from several elementary teachers who questioned the procedure for hiring the Elementary Principal, the salary and job description for the principal position, the fact that an elementary teacher had been riffed yet a new principal-teacher had been hired and other elementary school issues. Supt. Jim Eiseman said he felt the need to move quickly to fill the position and preferred that one of the elementary teachers would take the job. He said no one had applied by the April 17 deadline he established, and he said he would have extended the deadline had he known of any interest.

Teachers who spoke said they wanted to clarify why none of them had applied for the job. They indicated there was confusion about whether the principal would have one or two preparation periods, the salary and the teaching load. Fran Kuhn, who was principal before Engelhart was hired, said she was out of town on the 17th and might have been interested in the job. Some criticized Engelhart’s role in the process and whether they should have gone directly to Eiseman rather than to go through the normal channels (to Engelhart first).

Nieuwsma said he felt the effort had been made to encourage existing teachers to take the job.

Some of the teachers were also concerned about what grades they would be teaching, which classroom they would be assigned and whether they would know in time to order materials.

Another matter of concern was whether each elementary teacher would have to teach music and physical education to their students. Part-time Elementary Music Teacher Christine Nieuwsma was riffed (job eliminated) at an earlier board meeting. High School Music Teacher Kellie Wikenheiser was asked to take the K-12 music program, but she later declined the additional elementary duties. What to do with elementary music will be decided at a future meeting.

After much discussion, some of it heated, it was agreed that Supt. Eiseman would arrange for Kurle to meet with the Elementary School faculty in the next couple of weeks to try to work out issues relating to the 2008-09 school year. Board members urged the teachers to share their concerns with Kurle and try to get their questions clarified.

•Approved 5.6 percent raises for the certified staff.

•Approved raises for support staff. Bus drivers will receive $33 per day (up from $31.25) and $.3325 per mile (up from $.315). Staff being paid by the hour will receive a 75-cent-per-hour raise.

•Discussed the 2008-09 budget. Preliminary numbers project a $20,000 deficit for 2007-08 and possibly $67,000 for next year. All schools in the area are being impacted by declining enrollments, rising fuel costs and higher health insurance premiums (to increase 11.9 percent for 2008-09). The board will re-visit the budget at its July meeting.

•Heard from students Laura and Dan Nieuwsma concerning whether seniors with an 87 percent or better grade average in the second semester have to take final exams. The policy has been that seniors meeting the grade standard do not have to take the tests, but the class was informed about three weeks ago by Principal Hedtke that they would have to take the tests. Laura said she felt it wasn’t right since students had thought the rule was the same as in the past and had worked hard to keep up their grades. Hedtke said a mistake had been made when the information was typed, which caused the confusion, and he would go with the past rule.

•Discussed the location of the teacher’s lounge in the Elementary School. If a room is designated for the principal’s office, the lounge would have to be moved from its current upstairs, corner location. Some of the teachers present objected to using a downstairs room was being considered. They noted the room, currently used for storage, does not have a window. Supt. Eiseman said their input would be taken into account.

•Discussed replacing the school’s 15-passenger van. The federal government will no longer allow such vans to be used for transporting students. Ken Scherr of Ken’s Auto offered to assist the board in selling its 2000 van and in possibly finding a used Suburban. It was noted that mini-vans would lose their mileage advantage when loaded and that a Suburban would be safer.

•Approved a non-tuition agreement for a first grader from the Bakker School District who will be attending the Strasburg School this fall.

•Noted that students Carlene Ternes and Kimberly Hulm qualified to attend the National Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, Georgia, May 9-17. The board agreed to increase its share of the students’ costs. This year’s costs are $1,000 per student for travel and lodging; other expenses are paid by the students. In the past, the school paid $200 per student plus $400 for their advisor. This year, the amounts will be $600 per student and $700 for the advisor.

•Learned from Principal Engelhart that six children are registered for Kindergarten for next fall.

•Set the next meeting for Tuesday, June 3, at 8 p.m.