LPOSD welcomes new board chair

PONDERAY — As of last Tuesday, the Lake Pend Oreille School District board of trustees has a new chairman.

Each year, the district holds its annual summer meeting with the official business of dissolving the current board and reestablishing the chair and vice-chair. Geraldine Lewis, who served as board chair for the past year, nominated Cary Kelly for chairman, which was approved unanimously by trustees. Lewis was then nominated and voted in as vice-chair.

"I would just like to thank Geraldine for being the chair for the past year," Kelly said, also thanking the trustees for voting him in as chair.

Other appointments remained unchanged, including Kelly Fisher as board clerk, Lisa Hals as board treasurer, and Superintendent Shawn Woodward, Hals and Fisher as authorized agents for the district.

Also on the agenda for the July 17 meeting was the first reading of Policy 2700, during which Lake Pend Oreille High School Principal Geoff Penrose requested changes to the physical education graduation requirement for LPOHS students.

Penrose said LPOHS has had a difficult time filling the P.E. instructor position. In the past, LPOHS was able to fill one period of P.E. per day with part-time teachers from other schools in the district. The half-time counseling position was cut in the fiscal year 2017 budget, he said, and the school has not been able to fill that position consistently. The counselor also served as the P.E. teacher.

The challenge, Penrose said, is finding a teacher with the required qualifications willing to work part time, and without proper P.E. facilities at the school.

"And our P.E. program is kind of non-traditional anyway," Penrose said. "We try to focus on getting kids outside and moving, and making healthy choices that are going to last all their lives, and not on competitive sports."

The district policy listed three options for students to obtain P.E. credit, including classes at Sandpoint High School, an approved activity or club sport, or 80 hours of athletic activity documented and signed off weekly by an adult. While those options remain intact on the policy, Penrose added a fourth option that, at LPOHS, the requirement may be fulfilled by two credits of fitness activity.

Fitness activity is typically described a single subject, Penrose said, such as an aerobics class, a cycling class or a hiking class.

By adding the option, Penrose said the kids could be taught by anyone with a valid secondary certificate rather than the required P.E./health endorsement. This would broaden the applicant pool and allow the some of the teachers at the school fill in if needed, Penrose said.

"This is a fallback position," Penrose said. "My hope is still to hire a teacher with a P.E. endorsement and teach full P.E."

Woodward agreed that it has been a difficult position to staff and said he supports the change to the policy.

Also to help increase the applicant pool, Penrose said Woodward agreed to adding paraprofessional hours to make it a full-time benefited position. The paraprofessional hours will be focused on assessment coordination and data crunching, which Penrose said will be a "big help" to the school as well.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.