COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL AUGUST 8, 2018 11A
School board sets tone for the upcoming year
Board works on coming together as a team, collective values
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Aft er an emotional fi rst day of
the South Lane School District
(SLSD) school board retreat,
day two saw the conversation
focusing on the board’s mission
and role in the district.
Th e second four-hour spe-
cial session of the week, Th urs-
day’s conversation started with
reviewing South Lane and 4J’s
mission statements to see the
parts that stood out to them.
Working in pairs, they were in-
structed to focus on fi rst fi nd-
ing the themes that the board
should be focused on before
getting caught up in specifi cs of
the language being used.
Th ere are currently three
parts to the SLSD mission state-
ment that state “children come
fi rst;” “children learn best when
they want to be at school;” and
“decision making is student cen-
tered.” Th e themes that were re-
iterated by the board last week
echoed what is already in place
and focused
on the idea
of
learning
and growing;
respect and
care; children
fi rst and that
motivation
matters.
“Th ere have
been
times
when we’ve been faced with hard
decisions and it was good to fall
back on children fi rst as a rea-
son to give people why we made
this decision. It was because we
have that in mind fi rst,” said
board member Tammy Hodgk-
inson during a discussion.
Th e board then focused their
attention on value statements
that went over ideas of care,
respect, continual learning, ba-
language used before anything
is offi cially changed.
During the second half of the
meeting, the conversation shift -
“Th ere have been times when we’ve been faced
with hard decisions and it was good to fall back
on children fi rst..."
-Board member Tammy Hodgkinson
sic needs, safety, security and
dedicated staff members. Th e
conversation about mission
statement and guiding beliefs
are currently in the early steps
of the process. Th e board will
be receiving input about and
working on the details of the
ed to looking at how any author-
ity the board has is as a collec-
tive and not as individuals. And
especially not as individuals just
out in the district.
“I get this argument a lot
across the state, it’s like, ‘Well,
Steve, I’m a board member, I’m
privy to that information.’ No,
you’re not,” said Steve Kelley the
Director of Board Development
for the Oregon School Boards
Association. “It goes back to…
as an individual board member
you have no authority.”
Diff erent situations were then
discussed such as how to get an
item on the agenda, communi-
cation with the superintendent
and a reminder of the nature of
board meetings.
“It’s a meeting in public, it’s
not a meeting with the public,”
said Kelley in regards to public
comment at meetings. He also
reminded that meetings are not
open forums for the audience to
join in on the conversation.
General ways of carrying one-
self in meetings, with a focus on
body language, were discussed
with a reminder that the board
sets an example for the rest of
the district. “If you can have a
good debate where the opinions
and diff erent perspectives are
out there and you make a deci-
sion and you can all support it,
that is the heartbeat of an eff ec-
tive board,” said Kelley. “And it’s
when you are passionately in
two diff erent corners – not in
things that matter a little bit to
you or things that are milque-
toast – it’s when you’re ada-
mantly in two diff erent camps
and you can show the public
that you can have the right con-
versation and then support the
decision aft erward.”
At the conclusion of the meet-
ing, the board then went on a
tour of the new Harrison Ele-
mentary School.
Some fi re
restrictions lift ed
Cooler temperatures have al-
lowed Lane County Parks to less-
en some fi re restrictions placed
last week. Now, campers at Rich-
ardson Campground on Fern
Ridge Reservoir and Camp Lane
on Highway 126 are allowed to
have campfi res in already estab-
lished fi re pits.
Due to the continuing risk
of fi re in our area, Lane County
Parks will still be enforcing these
restrictions at several parks:
·No open fl ames are allowed in
Lane County parks, including no
campfi res, warming fi res, cooking
fi res or ceremonial fi res unless
noted otherwise in this press re-
lease.
·Gas-powered barbeques and
cooking stoves using liquid or
bottled fuels are allowed where re-
strictions prohibit campfi res, but
are restricted to use for cooking
purposes only.
·Open fl ames are prohibited
at day use areas in Lane County
parks.
·Tobacco use and vaping are al-
ready prohibited in Lane County
parks.
·Any other spark-emitting op-
eration not specifi cally mentioned
is prohibited.
Not included in these restric-
tions are coastal Lane County
parks located west of milepost 18
on Highway 126, including Archie
Knowles Campground and Har-
bor Vista Campground.
Lane County will continue to
monitor weather conditions, to
determine if further restrictions
become necessary.
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