School board meets

PLAINS - The Plains School Board meeting took place Monday, where a variety of different topics were discussed such as moving next month’s meeting a week later to Feb. 25.

A big topic of discussion, which took up the majority of time, was a talk about graduation class trips and whether or not they should be done through the school or with no school involvement at all.

It was decided that the eighth grade graduation trip would not be associated with the school. And from the get-go, the parents have run it.

High school principal Larry McDonald said after the decision was made to separate the graduation trip from the school, some parents got busy doing a great job and have stepped up to help organize the 8th grade graduation trip.

“(The parents) are working hard for that class,” said McDonald.

As for the senior class, there was a discussion on whether the school should be involved.

“Once the kids graduate, when they have been handed that diploma technically they are no longer the responsibility of the school,” said superintendent Tom Chisholm. “However, it’s very logical to think that once they’re (on the trip) they are on their own. But they have taken their time and money to plan this trip…and it came to the concern of who’s in charge.

It was decided that because of insurance and liability reasons, the class would spearhead their own graduation trip with the help of parent involvement, removing the school from the process.

In order “to dissolve the nexus between the school and the class,” Chisholm stated that last year the class had to purchase an event insurance policy under their own entity to ensure they are covered and all of the gray areas of involvement were assessed.

“It can be an administrative level decision but we would like to have a school board level discussion and if persons in the community aren’t comfortable with an administrative level decision, we may have to come up to a board level decision,” Chisholm stated.

McDonald was put in charge with the responsibility of sending out letters to the parents of the senior class, informing them that if a trip was to take place, it would be their responsibility to organize it.

“I like the idea of traditions but a tradition started somewhere, maybe its time to change it and start a new tradition,” said Chisholm.

Another topic of discussion was whether to use mail-in ballots during elections.

Chisholm said there is an added cost for mail-in ballots, of up to $2,500. However, the absentee ballot could bring in more votes from those who are unable to make it to the high school to vote.

A furthered discussion on this topic will take place at the board meeting on Feb. 25, where the decision will be made on whether or not to make the switch.