Teachers Speak Up; Board To Re-visit Policy
By Jessica Wald
Several teachers from NPS attended the regular monthly meeting of the Napoleon School Board last Monday morning, September 8 to express their concerns about new policies put in place. Board members in attendance included Shawn Puklich, Corey Schumacher, Derrick Leier, along with admins; Superintendent Rich Bjerklie and Elem. Principal Whitney Weigel, while HS Principal Chad Berger was absent. Puklich subbed in as president over the meeting, as President Taylor Grunefelder and Vice President Tori Gross were absent.
Staff attending the meeting included spokespeople, Christina Gross and Kriss McCleary, along with Brian Schneider and Loretta Haas. Gross said the staff learned of the new policy changes just a few days before school started, at a PD (professional development) day. “It changed the morale in the building; there was a big shift in the building,” the group noted, as they said their voices were not heard, when the board approved the policy changes without the staff knowing of the suggested changes or even being able to voice their concerns, as the last meeting was held when the staff also had a meeting/inservice.
Gross said one of the policies has the teachers starting the work day at 8:00 a.m., instead of 8:15, since it was approved that doors open at 8:00 a.m. for the option of breakfast. But the teachers were not notified of the change until just days prior to the start of school. She noted adding the 15 minutes to each day, equals 45 hours throughout the school year, which to the teachers on salary, is unpaid time, whereas the paras or extracurricular staff members who clock-in the extra 15 minutes, do in fact get paid for the extra time. She also noted the extra time is also extra time teachers need to pay daycare, if they have kids in daycare, so extra compensation would also help waive the difference.
McCleary noted the earlier time start was not noted during. . .