Student behavior topic with school administrators
Student behavior topic with school administrators
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
What started out as a meeting to set school administrator salaries turned into an opportunity for a school board member to unload.
Daryl Engel, board member, spoke up at a committee meeting Tuesday evening to tell the superintendent and two principals what concerns he hears from the public. Engel touched on a wide range of subjects from disrespect, drug use, parking lot littering and inadequate sports records.
Engel said he encourages patrons and parents of students to voice their concern to the administration. He said, “I wish they would come and talk to you folks more. That’s what I tell them. I say start with the teacher and the principals. From there they’re on their own. Obviously it doesn’t happen.”
Superintendent Steve Brannan encouraged board members on the committee (Engel, Steve Seidler and Jerry Sayler) to accompany parents or patrons to visit with administrators if they are uncomfortable doing so on their own.
Here is the laundry list of Engel’s concerns and the response from adminstrators:
• Engel said he heard of a student who jumped from a second story fire exit during a classroom supervised by a substitute teacher. Principal Mark Larson said it has happened before and, in this case, the student was suspended for three days.
Principal Shelly Fuller said because it’s a public school: “We can’t hand select our kids. We hope we can do the best with them and education, unfortuately, is supposed to fix all of society’s ills.” She continued: “If you were yelled at in the morning it comes into the school, if you were left home alone the night before it comes into the school, if your parents were drinking in the morning, it comes into the school.”
