Ironwood school board hears multiple presentations

IRONWOOD - The Ironwood Area School Board of Education heard three presentations during a meeting Monday evening.

The first was from the Junior ROTC students doing their annual briefing for the board. Board member Marilyn Nezworski thanked the students for their efforts out of school, helping many community organizations with many local events.

The second presentation was from Ian Shackleford, from the Safe Routes to School Committee, Shackleford spoke to the board about changes to the action plan and asked that it be approved. He also requested the school give an easement to the city of Ironwood for a new trail located near the intersection of Hill and Hibbert streets.

The board accepted both of Shackleford's requests.

His third request was to have the board help with some of the costs towards the engineering portion of the action plan. The engineering costs are expected to be about 20 percent of the total cost, and are not considered to be eligible expenses for grant funding.

According to Shackleford, the committee is seeking $300,000 in grants to fund the project, including building new trails, updating sidewalks, installing signage and other improvements.

The board tabled Shackleford's request to see how much funding could be given, if any.

The third and final presentation was from parent Randall Kashich. Kashich spoke to the board during the January meeting to complain about the ski, skate and snowboard programming not being available to all children without a cost.

Kashich said not every child could afford the $20 a week fee to be a part of the program.

During Monday's meeting, Kashich presented his concerns on unequal opportunity imposed upon area school children, the emergency contact form and concerns regarding "lack of appropriate leadership."

He wished to also discuss his concerns with student progress reports and a student suspension. Both of those items were discussed in closed session.

Kashich said the board should hang their heads in "shame" and how the ski, skate and snowboard program was "all about money."

The board did not comment on Kashich's comments. Rudy Grbavcich, of Ironwood Township, asked the board to get results and "look deeper into this."

According to Grbavcich, whoever ran the program "dropped the ball," and what had taken place was "shameful."

Other business

The board approved $1,800 to teacher Denise Woodward to take Accent students to Branson, Mo., and $800 to teacher Steve Boyd to bring fifth-grade band students to the University of Wisconsin-Superior for an instruction and recital event.

A bid was awarded to South Shore Oil Company for motor oil. The bid cost was listed as $8.49 per gallon for a drum and $8.01 for a gallon in bulk.

The board also approved the fees for the 2014 summer driver's education program. The cost for Ironwood students is $325 and $400 for non-Ironwood students.

According to instructor Gordy Erickson, rules are in place to make sure students "get the most" out of class time.

The rules include making up class time if a student has an unexcused absence, two unexcused absences result in termination from the program, all absences should be reported to a teacher, if a student misses a drive unexcused they will be terminated and lose the class fee and if a student has completed two days of class and one drive, and decide not to come anymore, they forfeit the fee.

Exceptions include medical family crisis or as determined by the instructor or administration.

The board approved the rules for the driver's education program.