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   In one of its longest meetings in several years, Plainview’s Board of Education had probably six persons present Monday evening concerned about the Board’s direction on administration in the future.
    The discussion took up over half of the evening’s meeting – some 90 minutes.
    It appeared that some of the visitors had come with a wrong impression. They appeared to have the belief that sharing a superintendent would be quickly followed by consolidation of schools.
    Actually the Board had discussed sharing of services, sharing of administration, hiring administration personnel half-time and other topics for several years. It was always the result of dwindling student population. It came more to a head in recent months when the population dropped by over 50 students. While the school district is operating fairly well at present financially, the dwindling enrollment, the possible lack of state aid in the future and other economical factors resulted in the Board having such discussions.
    Visitors in attendance were concerned over what duties would be done or not done in the school system if an administrator was present only half-time. They also wondered whether such a sharing would result in priority or lack of priority for the individual with two school systems to watch.
    Board members, however, pointed out that such a sharing might bring more expertise to a school system. Later, Principal Randy Klooz indicated he was sharing ideas with personnel from Creighton to work up a method of teacher evaluation.
    Currently the local system is administrated by a secondary principal and superintendent that also serves as K-6 principal. Some duties have been added to the classroom duties of two teachers to assist in this method. Originally the elementary had a full-time principal, but with the resignation of Corey Dahl, the Board opted to not replace him and have its superintendent, David Hamm, also serve as elementary principal. Randy Klooz remained as secondary principal.
    Faculty members in the elementary, however, as well as some or all of the Board members, feel the need for a full-time elementary principal.Add to that the previous resignation of David Hamm as superintendent effective at the end of the current school term, the Board needed to begin taking some action for the future.
    They were not ready for that action yet, however, which had also confused the visitors. Two members of the local Board of Education, Dan Stelling and Krista Hanks, had a meeting recently with representatives of the Creighton Board of Education to discuss if there were benefits or disadvantages or possibilities of some type of sharing. The Creighton board was to discuss this Monday evening, but at the time it was not know what their reaction was.
    Supt. Hamm had proposed several routes for the Board to study, but gave no recommendation or priority for any of them. Those proposals were:* Contract for superintendent services from Creighton, or another district, which would require having two very solid building principals as the day-to-day operations of the District would fall on their shoulders.* Hire a new superintendent and a new elementary principal, which would conflict with efforts to reduce administrative costs with enrollment declines.* Hire a new superintendent to also serve as elementary principal, which was currently being done, but would not address the teachers’ wish to have a full-time elementary principal.* Hire a new superintendent to also serve as Pre-K-2 principal and have the present secondary principal serve as the 3-12 principal, which would reduce the requirements on the superintendent, similar to what Neligh is currently doing.* Hire a new superintendent and have the secondary principal serve as the Pre-K-12 principal, which Randolph is currently doing, putting a lot of time constraints on the principal.
    Later in the discussion, another avenue was indicated as a possibility – hiring a retired superintendent for part-time duties, expertise of many years of experience, and at the same time have two full-time principals.Near the end of the discussion, a Board member indicated that he felt the Board was doing what was necessary to explore and that nothing definite had been done yet.It was mutually agreed by the Board’s members to pursue discussions involved in sharing a superintendent, possibly Creighton if they were to be so inclined, and bring back to its next meeting a report on how such a sharing would affect each school district, as well as the costs of such an operation.
thus bringing in the that would be covered in the student handbook.
* Learned that work was being done to increase course offerings through online courses.
* That a project had occurred with Creighton principals to formulate a teacher evaluation process.
* Information is being gathered from surrounding schools to help revise the student handbook.
* A demonstration will be held on the 1-to-1 program which provides a computer for every student.
* Bids are still being sought for security cameras.
* Were told that a 1959 or 1960 class is interested in buying and installing additional trophy cases in the secondary school.
* Learned that the new copy machines have been installed.
* Learned that there may be a chance for a change in the district’s “locked” in price on natural gas.
* With David Hamm as president of the NENAC Conference, he had received requests from Fullerton and Twin River (Genoa) for membership. Board members gave “thumbs down” for that proposal.
* Were told that, as a result of a faculty survey, that efforts will focus on school climate in in-service dates at the elementary building.
* Welcomed John Anderson and Jeremy Hampton on being elected to vacant-to-be positions on the Board and congratulated Dan Stelling on his re-election. They will begin their new terms at the January meeting.* Noted a thank you from the choir for the Board’s support to their fund for choir robes.
* Agreed to study the formation of a school foundation, possibly within the realms of Plainview Pride and named Janyce Warneke to investigate that possibility.
expertise of many years of experience, and at the same time have two full-time principals.
    Near the end of the discussion, a Board member indicated that he felt the Board was doing what was necessary to explore and that nothing definite had been done yet.It was mutually agreed by the Board’s members to pursue discussions involved in sharing a superintendent, possibly Creighton if they were to be so inclined, and bring back to its next meeting a report on how such a sharing would affect each school district, as well as the costs of such an operation.

Questions requested on topic
    The Plainview Board of Education discussed the future administrative structure of the school system at its monthly meeting on Monday, and decided to seek out some public communication about the issue.
    The Board first agreed that they all felt it was important to have a full-time principal in both the elementary and high school buildings.
    In addition, the Board also has decided to look into either the possibility of sharing a superintendent or hiring a superintendent back full-time.
    “However, we want to make sure that the lines of communication between the School Board and the patrons remain open and transparent,” said a release from the Board members. “If anyone has any questions about this process or the decision to look into the possibility of either sharing a superintendent or hiring a superintendent full-time, we would ask that you please submit those questions.”
    Questions can be submitted to Krista Hanks and/or Dan Stelling on behalf of the school board. Contact information is as follows: Dan Stelling, stelgen@plvwtelco.net or Krista Hanks, kkhanks@yahoo.com. “Once again we would like to thank everyone for their support in continuing to make Plainview Schools a great place to educate our children,” said the release.

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