The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – The Dayton School Board met for its regular meeting on September 7, 2022. Present in the high school auditorium were board members Zac Fabian, Jeffrey McCowen, Korinda Wallace, and Superintendent Rich Stewart. Grant Griffen did not attend, and Aneesha Dieu arrived during the “Character Strong” presentation. Participation was also available on Zoom.

The Board approved the Consent Agenda, hiring Cole Kenney and Elizabeth Sutton as Elementary Paraprofessionals and Jeremy Trump as a volunteer Middle School Football coach.

There were no public comments made during any part of the meeting.

Stewart said the district had budgeted for 330 full-time equivalent (FTE) students; however, at the time of the meeting, nearly 358 FTE students were enrolled. Stewart characterized the increase as “good news.”

Sarah Reser gave a presentation on the “Character Strong” program, designed to promote school spirit, build community within the school district, and improve the learning experience. Students participating in the program plan to purchase bi-monthly advertising in the Walla Union-Bulletin. Their first use of this space will be to showcase students who typically aren’t showcased, such as students who aren’t on the football team or are not high academic achievers.

Stewart said the ads in the UB would help sell or market the school district.

The Superintendent recommended student representatives on the Board be increased from one to two, one Junior and one Senior. He spoke at length about the opportunity for students, particularly the student representatives, to visit Olympia to watch the legislative process and view the workings of the Supreme Court.

The Board also discussed efforts to develop a strategic plan.

Stewart asked what the Board planned to do about hiring a Superintendent and what the position would be. He recommended that his replacement be identified by May.

Dieu suggested advertising the Superintendent position before hiring a headhunter or professional employment service to save money. Stewart said that in his experience, it was best to hire an expert in search consulting first because they have “strands into a lot of different areas.”

He emphasized the need to determine whether the new Superintendent will be part-time or full-time. He reminded the Board that the school district could not afford a full-time superintendent and two full-time principals. Once the position is defined, he said the search consultants would know where to look and advertise to find the right candidate.

Dieu and Wallace signaled they would prefer to keep the organization’s structure as it is now and keep the superintendent position part-time.

To make sure the issue moves forward, Stewart said he would put selecting a new superintendent as an action item on the next meeting’s agenda.

Stewart said, “I have a sense from two of you that the part-time superintendent model would be ok, would be a good thing. So, we’ll need to make sure the whole Board is in support of that. Zac is staring me down. Do you have any comments, or do you want to wait for the next meeting?”

Fabian answered, “There’s a lot going on with this stuff. You know, we probably need Grant here to talk about it a bit. I would like to get an executive session before we take action to talk it through with everybody. That’s my opinion.”

Stewart reminded the Board that the dollars and cents are public information, and discussions about hiring a new superintendent could not be held in executive session unless they were discussing the qualifications of a particular individual.

Stewart closed the meeting by recommending the school district hire an experienced facilitator to complete a comprehensible strategic plan before he leaves his position.