Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs School Board will hold its first meeting Tuesday to discuss policy governance and communication between the board and Superintendent Donna Howell.

The board meets at 8:30 a.m. with Jim Weigel, consultant with the Colorado Association of School Boards, which is the first board meeting since the effort to recall board member John DeVincentis failed.

Howell said reviewing policy governance and how to best implement the model could help resolve instances of miscommunication between her office and the School Board.

"Policy governance helps to differentiate roles and responsibilities of the (School) Board and the roles and responsibilities of the superintendent," she said. "A previous board had adopted policy governance nine years ago, but this current board wants to implement some changes because the clarity of the process and the model is important."

Board policies marked for discussion at Tuesday's workshop include three executive limitation policies, one of which concerns the way Howell communicates and provides counsel to the board.

Governance policies marked for review include board member conflict of interests, board member covenants and committee structure, along with how to handle concerns raised by parents, community members and staff members.

Howell said the board will not present any policy changes for first or second reading, but she noted that workshops with Weigel, who has played an important role in crafting the new board policies, is an important step in the policy implementation process.

"He also helped us clarify the policies under policy governance," she said. "He helped the board look at policies and review them to reflect what the board's priorities and policies are."

Board Member Jerry Kozatch said meeting with Weigel is an important resource for both himself and Board Member Char Rusk, who have recently filled vacated School Board seats.

"There has never really been any very formalized training for School Board members in our district," said Kozatch, who noted the School Board also will continue Tuesday working on monitoring reports, which is the evaluation tool of policy governance.

"Everybody comes in with a huge learning curve," he said. "I hope we are now getting some of this at beginning, and I hope this will keep everybody on a much truer course throughout the year having this background."

The board also will hear from Todd Ficken, the school district's owner's representative for the major school construct project, about progress made in building a new Soda Creek Elementary School, along with construction projects at Strawberry Park Elementary School and Steamboat Springs Middle School.

"The project is moving along and moving quickly," said Howell, who noted Ficken also will update the School Board on project needs that still have to be made.

"We previously went through a value engineering meeting," she said. "All of the projects had add-on alternatives, such as additional things that may be done depending on our budget. Any major decision regarding the project that needs to be committed needs to be brought to the board."