School Board Revisits Community Service Motion – DSB Report (9/25/2018)

This past Dresden School Board meeting went over various funding issues and revisited the Community service motion. The Board began by approving two donations from the Byrne Foundation. These donations will fund the band trip to Williamsburg, Virginia as well as the tech director position within the Footlighters program.

Mr. Campbell then presented the board with a complete list of the clubs and organizations currently active at our school and congratulated the members of the class of 2019 who qualified for national merit scholarships.

Mr. Lepene was next on the docket as he briefed the board on a recent, successful, school dance. He also talked about a new skateboarding unit introduced into RMS PE classes.

The board then discussed the community service graduation requirement motion. The minutiae of the implementation of such a policy would primarily be the responsibility of the administration, thus, the board’s concern was mainly regarding whether the policy itself merited actually changing the current graduation requirements. Some members were concerned that not all 501(c)(3) groups qualify as service-oriented according to the particular definition in the motion, however, it was pointed out that the board’s current role was to determine if community service warranted changing the graduation requirements, and that what groups qualify could be discussed later. Mr. Campbell also explained that verification of community service hours could easily be done via PowerSchool. Youth-in-action would also play a critical role in the implementation of the policy and some members of the board were concerned that while administration officials were vetted by the school board, YIA had not been.

A vote on changing the graduation requirements was tentatively scheduled for the November board meeting. The October meeting was suggested as a time for a possible vote but November was preferable due to absences.