After criticism of the way that it relates to the community and governs itself, the Stanley-Boyd School Board stayed behind at its August 24 meeting to discuss some self-assigned reading. With all members present, the board discussed “The Essential School Board Book” by Nancy Walser. Board President Bob Geist asked members to share their thoughts on what they had read in the first two chapters. “Does anyone want to start?” he asked. Lance Carlson had some input.

“The first two chapters circled back to the board’s role in student achievement,” he said, a point echoed by member Jeff Boie. Speaking of student achievement, though, the virtual school that Stanley-Boyd participates in as part of a consortium also came up at the August board meeting, alongside other school needs.

“Stanley-Boyd is the driving agent for how the finances change,” Superintendent Jeff Koenig said of the virtual school consortium the district participates in. Existing as part of an intergovernmental agreement including Bruce, Cadott, Cornell, Gilman, Lake Holcombe and New Auburn along with Stanley-Boyd, the individual district membership fee per the e-succeed agreement that governs it is $8,000. The online virtual charter school, which is a separate enterprise from the district’s WINGS Academy, has expanded from 9th to 12th grades in 2019 to K through 12 in 2020, in part due to specific contemporary advantages.

“They can do it from anywhere,” Koenig said of the virtual charter school, with the partnership and pooling of resources also allowing districts to offer full-time positions to online teachers where they might otherwise only be able to afford parttime ones. Student enrollment continues to change for both the virtual charter school and WINGS Academy as parents and students decide what works best. Offering more teacher hours for the online option, meanwhile, also meant potentially attracting better talent with these hours. And while it was made known that “a supermajority” could technically kick a district out if they weren’t playing nice, this wasn’t reported to be an issue at present. From discussion it was into motion.

“I make a motion that we approve the e-succeed agreement,” Jeff Boie said.

“Second,” Denise Hoffstatter said. With the roll called for all board members, the e-school agreement was unanimously approved. From there it was on to a fall calendar change, moving a staff development and parent-teacher conference day from October 19th back to October 2nd.

“So that was originally a half day?” board member Ryan Lewallen asked Koenig. The Superintendent answered that it was a full day, with half devoted to professional staff development and the other half to parent-teacher conferences. “I just have a question since there’s a Monday off,” board member Toni Seidl said. “Is anything going to change with Labor Day?”

“No,” Koenig replied. Chad Verbeten had the next question. “If things change and we go to five days?” he asked.

“It’s going to move to the 2nd and stay the 2nd,” K-12 Director of PLC and Instruction David Ludy said. With a motion by Carlson seconded by Boie the calendar shift was made. Later on in the meeting, the board found Koenig “in compliance with exceptions” on agenda item 5.2 “SL 7 Financial Administration.” Verbeten noted that the exception was due to “unique circumstances” related to the pool. Namely, the superintendent had sought board approval for certain upgrades, but then the district had run into insurance issues. Koenig is limited to approving individual purchases of $10,000 or less. Before the board let out they discussed the book chapter homework.

“I know we’ve had some heated discussions at times,” Geist shared, but there hadn’t been backbiting amongst board members in the community from these. With still more chapters to read and highlight, the learning curve continues at Stanley-Boyd Schools.