Large turnout for school board meeting in Hot Springs

HOT SPRINGS - At noon this past Thursday, the Hot Springs School Board held its annual resigning staff and rehiring staff board meeting in the school library.

The library filled with faculty and administration, and the public, to provide comment and support for the staff up for rehiring, and then to witness the proceedings that would determine the staff at the school for the 2015/2016 school year.

Superintendent Kevin Meredith said, “Every meeting allows for public comment.” He said it is policy that the public can comment on school matters as long as it does not infringe on anyone’s rights to privacy.

Once the staff provided their recommendations and letters of support for selected individuals who’s positions were in question, the first matter of business was the discussion of a teacher who had previously put their name in for resignation. The teacher then decided to formally withdraw the resignation at the meeting. Superintendent Meredith said, “... there will be a recommendation at a later regarding the contract,” referring to the teacher’s request to be rehired. The proceedings then moved on to the rehiring of the administration and the faculty for the school.

The order in which it was conducted was; first, the superintendent recommended a teacher or administrator for a position. A school board member then formally asked for a motion to be opened for discussion, and another board member would second the motion. Once the motion was open, there was a discussion, if the board felt the need, and then there was a vote on whether or not to rehire the staff member. Once the voting was completed, the motion was closed and another one was open for the next candidate for rehiring.

The first staff to be evaluated for rehiring were the elementary and high school administration. It was eventually determined that both new high school and elementary school principals must be found for the school year of 2015/2016.

“Ultimately, the end result was, we had a staff member that teaches half time and [serves] as a high school principal half time. The board ruled in favor of placing that staff member back as a full time teacher, [with] no principal duties,” explained Superintendent Meredith. He then described that the elementary school principal was filling the same positions as a half time teacher and principal for the elementary school.

Superintendent Meredith said, “...that recommendation by me was failed and that staff member was not renewed for this next upcoming year,” referring to the elementary school principal.

As far as finding and filling the two positions for elementary and high school principal, Superintendent Meredith said, “That will be [a] discussion in our next regular board meeting.” He then said that there has been no discussion at this point about any candidates or knowledge as to who will fill the positions.

The board then moved on to both schools’ faculty, and conducted the rehiring process in the same manner as with the administration. The board quickly went through the positions, and voted quickly, taking Superintendent Meredith’s recommendations seriously, choosing each one of his choices.

When the all the positions had been discussed and voted on, the board motioned for the meeting to be adjourned, and it was officially closed. People lingered and discussed the decisions, and for the rest of the day, school was closed for the students, who had been let out prior to the meeting.