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minutes meeting date 2025-08-20 · fetched 2026-09-16 · 22977 characters · official file · plain text
Snake River School Board of Trustees
Held at Snake River Community Library
924 W. Highway 39, Blackfoot, ID 83221
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
1.
CALL MEETING TO ORDER
Chairman Lon Harrington called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Other board members present were Carol Hepworth, Josh
Sorensen, and Larin Mortimer. Toni Ibarra was absent. Also attending was Superintendent Mark Kress and Board Clerk
Terisa Coombs
2.
PRAYER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Carol Hepworth opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.
3.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
A motion was made by Carol Hepworth and seconded by Larin Mortimer to approve the agenda as presented. All
board members present voted aye. Motion passed 4-0.
4.
PUBLIC INPUT
There were no comments.
5. ACTION ITEMS
a. Consent Agenda
Minutes: Minutes of Regular Meeting of July 23, 2025
Resignations: Cassidy McLaughlin, SROHS Teacher
New Hires: Kaylee Garling, HS Special Ed Teacher; Caroline Martinez Calderon, HS Special Ed Parapro; Mary
Corbridge, Riverside Special Ed Parapro; Tonia Mecham, Rockford/Middle School Title I Parapro; Lori Fillmore,
SRO Secretary; Galen Sasser, Bus Driver
Payroll Status Changes: Karrie Jayo, Brandy Ellis, and Maysa Howell.
Budget Report (June 2025), Reconciliation Report (May, June 2025), Payroll, and Claims Payable for July 2025
Alternative Authorization Request: Kaeley Dayley is in need of an alternative authorization to allow her to be a teacher
for SRO K-8 while completing requirements and adding the necessary endorsement to her certificate.
SROHS Trip Request: Principal Scott Corgatelli would like to take about 40 students to Boise for the “Bills and
Thrills” Activity. The students will be spending time at a legislature meeting and doing a mock bill followed by Wahooz
Fun Center. This will be September 11, 2025. Also, on September 3-5, he will be taking 15 students to Camp Taylor in
Pocatello for a leadership conference.
A motion was made by Larin Mortimer and seconded by Carol Hepworth to approve the Consent Agenda as
presented. All board members voted aye. Motion passed 4-0.
b. Bus Routes and Safety Busing
The board is required by law to review safety busing and bus routes for the 2025-2026 school year during its August board
meeting. Gina Dawson, Transportation Supervisor, gave a presentation.
Mrs. Dawson focused on safety, efficiency, and reliability. She discussed reinforced driving training, defensive driving,
student management and emergency procedures. They are focusing on regular inspections and preventative maintenance
for all buses. The district has hired another mechanic to help with the inspections and maintenance of buses.
For safety busing, the state requires that all students who live within a mile and a half of a school walk to school but
because there are highways, railroad tracks, and canals, etc., in our district within that mile, the state allows for students to
use the busing system for student’s safety. Mrs. Dawson re-evaluated each area and has found that nothing has changed
within those areas. She also emphasized that there are no bus stops that require students to cross Highway 26 or 39. Mrs.
Dawson also discussed a request she received from community members to try to reduce the ride time for kindergarten
through third grade students and extend to the sixth grade if at all possible. After reviewing the possibility, they decided
to add a Pingree rerun route. It is a work in progress but she thinks it will be good especially for the younger students.
She feels that it has minimized ride times to about 45 minutes. There are about 36 students on this rerun bus. She has also
worked really hard to coordinate with schools to designate safe loading and unloading zones.
The travel bus should be here about the end of October and there are plans to add a second travel bus with the order being
placed this fall. They are also looking at purchasing older buses from the charter school that closed in town to add to the
fleet to help with the sub bussing needs.
Mrs. Dawson feels that student safety is the heart of every transportation decision and she thanked the board for their
support.
A motion was made by Josh Sorensen and seconded by Carol Hepworth to approve the district bus routes, turn
arounds, and safety busing as established for the 2025-2026 school year. All board members voted aye. Motion
passed 4-0.
Snake River Board of Trustees Minutes
August 20, 2025 (2)
c. Supplemental/Extracurricular Contract Approval
A list of extra-curricular, leadership, and special assignment contracts were reviewed. These are contracts given to
personnel who take on special assignments or do extra-curricular activities. There are no new activities or stipends, just
changes in personnel.
Josh Sorensen moved and Larin Mortimer seconded to approve the supplemental (extra-curricular or special
assignment) contracts for the 2025-2026 school year as presented. All board members voted aye. Motion passed 4-
0.
d. CTE CAT Simulator
Working with Gale Lim and the Heavy Equipment Operator class, the district would like to purchase a CAT simulator.
Superintendent Kress is seeking approval to purchase the simulator for an amount close to $154,000. This would allow
training on a simulator instead of on a very expensive piece of equipment. Gale Lim was present at board meeting and
gave a presentation on the Heavy Equipment Operator class and how there is a huge need in the work force for trained
operators and how this class will help in this area. He has designed the curriculum for the class based on the NCPR
program. He also emphasized how the simulators will greatly benefit the students in the class. After two semesters, there
were about 17 Snake River School District who graduated and had the certification needed to be employable upon
finishing the class and appropriate testing. Purchasing the simulator will allow someone to be trained to drive 3-6 pieces
of equipment. The simulator programs that the district would like to purchase would be for the backhoe and dozer. There
is a three-year subscription/warranty. Mr. Lim stressed the fact that both the curriculum and simulator will be
instrumental in teaching students first how to operate the equipment and second what to do with it once they are required
to operate. Superintendent Kress is also thinking about having the students use the simulators during the day and then at
night have adult education classes. Superintendent Kress and the board thanked Gale Lim Construction for all of their
time and energy and for helping this class be successful.
It was moved by Josh Sorensen and seconded by Larin Mortimer to approve purchasing a CTE CAT simulator
for the Heavy Equipment Operator class in the amount up to $154,000, as presented. All board members voted
aye. Motion passed 4-0.
6.
INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Superintendent Report
1. Back to School Report: Superintendent Kress discussed student enrollment. The brick and mortar schools are
up by 60-65 students. The online school is down about 200-300 students from last year but he is expecting that to
come back. Superintendent Kress also discussed the quote he got from the weight room and the price was
overwhelmingly high at about 2.3 million dollars. He is also looking at other options. There have been many
projects that have been completed including putting newline televisions in most classrooms. Training will be
ongoing and will be continued throughout the year. He also was excited to announce that the travel van is here and
ready to be driven. He discussed qualifications to be able to drive the van.
b. Upcoming Events
1. Auditions for the Junior Play, Alice In Wonderland, begin this week
2. Upcoming Trustee Elections: Lon, Josh, and Toni are up for re-election. The filing window opens August 18th through August
29th. The election date is November 4th.
3. Annual ISBA Conference will be November 12-14, 2025 in Coeur d’Alene
7.
POLICY READINGS
Second Readings (Policy Updates from ISBA)
Policy 1500B-Board Operating Procedure and Protocol: The Legislature passed House Bill 172 which requires that all
consent agenda items be routine in nature. It explicitly excludes fee resolutions, ordinances, or items requiring more than
a simple majority to pass from inclusion on the consent agenda. This update adds the new requirements about student fees
and items that require more than a simple majority to pass. Consent agenda items can always be withdrawn from the
consent agenda and be taken up separately, with discussion, during the meeting.
Policy 1500P-Board Meeting Procedure: Senate Bill 1007, which applies only to school districts, removed a provision in
the required public comment section stating that public comment may be limited to agenda items. School district boards
may still apply rules of order and adopted procedures to public comment, and sensitive items meant for discussion in
executive session are still not eligible for public comment. While public comment on agenda items must still take place
before any motions besides adoption of the agenda are considered, boards may optionally choose to put non-agenda item
public comment in another place on the agenda. This may help the board to stay focused on the business before them and
take public comment on action items in accordance with the law.
Policy 2320-Health, Sex Education, and Human Sexuality: This update changes the name of the Policy from "Health
Enhancement Education" to "Health, Sex Education, and Human Sexuality." More substantively, the updates to this
policy address three different pieces of recent legislation. The most wide-reaching of these is House Bill 239, which
requires parent permission before a student receives instruction in any topic that falls under this law's broad definition of
"human sexuality."
This update also addresses Senate Bill 1046. This new law requires schools to show a video about fetal development in
any class for 5th graders and above that discusses or provides instruction on human biology, contraception, or sexually
transmitted infections. The video must meet certain content and length criteria specified in the law. Because such a video
may fall within the definition of human sexuality, we advise requiring parent/guardian permission before showing the
film. Finally, this update also addresses House Bill 352, which requires that any instruction on sexual orientation or
gender identity be age appropriate, developmentally appropriate, and in accordance with state standards. It also requires
public schools to adopt policy requiring this. This is a required update to a required policy.
Snake River Board of Trustees Minutes
August 20, 2025 (3)
Policy 2320P-Health, Sex Education, and Human Sexuality – Parent Complaints: The new legislation requiring parent
permission for instruction on any topic that falls within the legislative definition of human sexuality also directs
parents/guardians to complain to the board or its designee if such instruction is provided without parent permission. It also
directs boards to adopt a policy on investigating such complaints, but it does not provide much detail on what this process
should entail. We've provided a sample process for such complaints and their investigation. This is a new required
procedure.
Policy 2320F-Parental Permission Form for Sex Education or Instruction Related to Human Sexuality: The new
legislation on human sexuality requires that parents/guardians give permission before a student is provided with
instruction on any topic that may fall within the new definition of human sexuality. As noted above, some of the
components of the definition of human sexuality are broad, not clearly defined, and may apply to instruction beyond sex
education, such as literary discussions of any of the topics listed. This requirement for parent permission does not apply to
any sex education instruction that does not overlap with the definition of human sexuality; opt-out notification is still
sufficient for such instruction. However, because of the broadness of parts of the definition and the difficulty of being
certain which aspects of sex education fall outside it, we have taken the approach of using the parent permission process
for any sex education or human sexuality instruction even though it is only technically required for the latter. It is worth
noting that the new legislation also requires that parents/guardians be provided with notice of instruction related to
"human sexuality" two weeks before such instruction, and permission must be provided within one week before the
instruction. This is a required update to a required policy.
Policy 2340-Controversial Issues: The title of this policy has changed from "Controversial Issues and Academic
Freedom" to "Controversial Issues." Review of this policy was prompted by the new legislation on human sexuality, and
it does remove a mention of sex education, as this topic is addressed more fully in Policy 2320 and its related
items. Additionally, it removes mentions of academic freedom. This was done at the recommendation of the attorney
ISBA consults on policy issues. This is because Idaho law on instruction related to controversial issues is restricted
enough that teachers do not necessarily have much discretion when it comes to what they teach and how they teach it in
these areas.
Policy 2435-Advanced Opportunities: We've updated this policy to reflect that eligible college entrance exams, such as
the ACT, SAT, and PSAT, may be taken more than once using advanced opportunities funds.
Policy 2435F-Advanced Opportunities Participation Form: These edits change the per student amount of funds to the
current amount, and they update the term "Fast Forward" to "Advanced Opportunities.”
Policy 3005-Entrance, Placement, and Transfer: This update was prompted by House Bill 236a, which updated the list of
reasons why a student may be denied enrollment to a public school in Idaho. It updated the code to list convictions or
adjudications of specific crimes, and added a provision that allows the board to deny enrollment to students who were
disenrolled in lieu of discipline in their previous school or district.
Policy 3010—Open Enrollment by Students Who Reside in the District: This update to the district version of these items
was prompted by House Bill 236a, which updated the list of reasons why a student may be denied enrollment or have their
open enrollment status revoked by the District, specifically listing certain convictions or adjudications to the listed crimes.
Policy 3010P—Open Enrollment Procedures: This update to the district version of these items was prompted by House
Bill 236a, which updated the list of reasons why a student may be denied enrollment or have their open enrollment status
revoked by the District, specifically listing certain convictions or adjudications to the listed crimes.
Policy 3265-Student Owned Electronic Communication Devices: This is a small update to a policy we issued late last year
based on an executive order from the governor making grant funds available to boards that adopted a policy on student
use of electronic devices in school. During the recent legislative session, Senate Bill 1032 codified many of those grant
requirements and adds new requirements to limit student use of electronic communications devices in schools as much as
possible. It also requires boards to make their policies on this topic readily available on their websites. It also requires
boards to adopt a policy on this topic. This is a required update to a required policy
Policy 3340—Corrective Actions and Punishment: This is another update reflective of House Bill 236a, which updated
the list of reasons why a student may be expelled or denied enrollment in a public school. House Bill 236a removed any
mention of a student who is "incorrigible" - mostly to remove terms not consistently used - and added a list of convictions
or adjudications of specific crimes that may warrant denial of enrollment and/or expulsion. This is a required update to
a required policy.
Policy 3440—Student Fees, Fines, and Charges/Return of Property: Because the Empowering Parents grant program was
eliminated during the last legislative session by Senate Bill 1142a, this update removes a paragraph about these funds.
Policy 3525—Immunization Requirements: This year, the legislature passed House Bill 290, which codified existing
requirements for immunizations for school children. This update removes language that is no longer relevant, given that
the requirements are statutory and not set in administrative rule by the Department of Health and Welfare. Importantly,
the code section combines the summary of immunization requirements and exemptions together in one place. The statute
also updated information regarding students over 18, who are allowed to exempt themselves using a signed, written
statement. As a reminder, all communication to parents and guardians regarding immunization requirements are required
to be accompanied by a description of the available exemptions to those same requirements. This is a required update to
a required policy.
Policy 4105—Public Participation in Board Meeting: As mentioned above in description of the updates to Policy 1500,
Senate Bill 1007a removed a provision that limited required public comment to agenda items before the board. The
district version of this update reflects that change and provides an option for the board to accept public comment on
agenda items separately from those not related to items before the board for action or discussion.
Policy 4105F—Request to Address the Board: These edits reflect the changes to Policy 4105. They also remove the board
of trustees from a list of steps to appeal a complaint to before bringing it to the board.
A motion was made by Carol Hepworth and seconded by Josh Sorensen to approve the second readings with discussed
changes of Policy 1500B-Board Operating Procedure and Protocol; Policy 1500P-Board Meeting Procedure; Policy 2320-
Health, Sex Education, and Human Sexuality; Policy 2320P-Health, Sex Education, and Human Sexuality – Parent (cont…)
Snake River Board of Trustees Minutes
August 20, 2025 (4)
Complaints; Policy 2320F-Parental Permission Form for Sex Education or Instruction Related to Human Sexuality; Policy
2340-Controversial Issues; Policy 2435-Advanced Opportunities; Policy 2435F-Advanced Opportunities Participation Form;
Policy 3005-Entrance, Placement, and Transfer; Policy 3010—Open Enrollment by Students Who Reside in the District;
Policy 3010P—Open Enrollment Procedures; Policy 3265-Student Owned Electronic Communication Devices; Policy 3340—
Corrective Actions and Punishment; Policy 3440—Student Fees, Fines, and Charges/Return of Property; Policy 3525—
Immunization Requirements; Policy 4105—Public Participation in Board Meeting; and Policy 4105F—Request to Address
the Board. All board members present voted aye. Motion passed 4-0.
First Readings: (ISBA Updates)
Policy 4600 P1, Volunteer Assistance Procedure: The edits bring the policy into alignment with ISBA's
recommendation that anyone who has unsupervised contact with students or who volunteers at the school regularly
enough for such contact to become likely should receive a background check. It also includes other edits for improved
readability and grammar/usage.
Policy 7405, Public Works Contracting and Procurement: This update is based on Senate Bill 1118, which changes
the dollar amount thresholds for different public works contracting processes. It shifts the cost ranges for different
purchasing practices higher, allowing the less complex processes for higher-cost contracts than they were previously
allowed for.
Policy 7405 P, Procuring Public Works, Services, and Personal Property: These edits, like those to Policy 7405, are
based on Senate Bill 1118 and adjust dollar amount ranges for required practices upward. However, these changes
impact public works contracts and procurement more broadly.
Policy 7407, Public Procurement of Goods and Services: These edits, like those to Procedure 7405P, are based on
Senate Bill 1118 and adjust dollar amount ranges for required purchasing practices upward.
Policy 7408, Entering into Professional Service Contracts: Like the other updates to items in Section 7000, these
edits raise the dollar amount thresholds required for different practices to bring them into alignment with new legislation.
This policy and the updates to it relate to selection of public works professionals.
A motion was made by Josh Sorensen and seconded by Larin Mortimer to approve the first readings of Policy 4600P1,
Volunteer Assistance Procedure, Policy 7405, Public Works Contracting and Procurement: Policy 7405 P, Procuring
Public Works, Services, and Personal Property; Policy 7407, Public Procurement of Goods and Services; and Policy
7408, Entering into Professional Service Contracts. All board members present voted aye. Motion passed 4-0.
8. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Under Idaho Code 74-206 (1)(b) To consider the evaluation, dismissal of or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or
charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member, or individual agent; and (1)(c) To acquire an interest
in real property not owned by a public agency, Larin Mortimer moved and Carol Hepworth seconded to go into
Executive Session. Roll call vote was taken: Josh Sorensen, aye; Carol Hepworth, aye; Larin Mortimer, aye; and Lon
Harrington, aye. Motion passed 4-0.
The board went into Executive Session at 8:22 p.m. Idaho Code 74-206 (1)(b) was discussed until 8:33 p.m.
From 8:33 p.m. until 8:50 p.m., Idaho Code 74-206 (1)(c) was discussed.
At 8:50 p.m., the doors were opened and the board returned to Regular Session.
9. CLOSING INFORMATION ITEMS
The next regular Board Meeting will be September 17, 2025 at Snake River Community Library at 7:00 p.m.
10. ADJOURN
Larin Mortimer moved and Carol Hepworth seconded to adjourn.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:51 p.m.
ATTEST:
Terisa Coombs
Lon Harrington
Clerk
Chairman
September 17, 2025
Date
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