GRANADA – On Thursday evening, the Granada Huntley East Chain (GHEC) School Board attended its first meeting of the school year and during the course of the meeting discussed the progress made so far this year and made plans for the coming weeks. I was.

Shortly after the meeting began, the board received a report from the middle and high school principal, Taylor Topinka.

Topinka reported successful teacher training and student orientation. Since last year, the district has resumed her two-week school workshops and switched from a numeric grading system back to a traditional letter grading system. Topinka also highlighted improving access to college-level courses as one of his goals for the school year. The principal said he was pleased with the results so far of the district’s newly implemented cell phone policy, but said it was still very early in the school year.

Regarding the start of the school year, Topinka said, “We have been consistently impressed with the excellent student body and community support we have received, and as we head into the next year, we are understandably excited to move on.”

Topinka announces the addition of a new school-based treatment option for GHEC students. Beginning September 13th, mental health professionals will host therapy sessions for students who may not be able to access counseling or other mental health services. The provider is not a full-time employee of the school district and he conducts one day a week session at the school.

Following Topinka’s report, superintendent Doug Stoubek updated the board on the school district and its elementary school division.

The school district has yet to obtain the 21 missing Chromebooks that were in maintenance when the company that maintained them went out of business. The district expects to eventually receive these devices, but has planned to order replacement devices to maintain the size of its existing inventory. Storbeck also announced plans to discard and replace some old or damaged Chromebook cases.

Storbeck also said the total number of registrants remained about the same. Across the district, he has five more students enrolled in K-12 than this time last year.

After receiving the report, the Board moved to discuss action items.

The Board approved the long-term agency agreements of kindergarten teacher Niki Lewis and parapro Melissa Engel for the current school year. They also designated a 6:00 p.m. school board meeting on December 8 as a public hearing to discuss the district’s budget and property taxes.

The board decided to approve the district tax collection certificate for the maximum amount that could be requested. This was to ensure that the district would have sufficient funds if the upcoming ballot measure rejected the building bond submission request. If the action is successful, the district could lower the levy later this year.

After approving the action items, the Board will consider potential meeting times for information sessions on upcoming ballot measures, amendments to dropping students off at the beginning of the school day, and the possibility of expanding school parking spaces. and plans to attend future staff leadership meetings. The Board took no further action on these items.

Now that the school year has started, student representatives are expected to attend all subsequent school board meetings.