Votes at a glance: South Madison board approves hire, fees, accepts students and upholds expulsion

The South Madison Community School Corporation Board of Trustees approved a set of routine motions at its meeting, including a personnel appointment, acceptance of non-resident students, several district fees and an expulsion appeal.

Personnel: Trustee Valerie introduced Josh Hask and recommended him as the new assistant principal at Maple Ridge. The board moved, seconded and approved the administrative recommendation to hire Hask; his family was present at the meeting.

Enrollment: The administration requested and the board approved acceptance of 10 new non-resident students and granted permission to accept late non-resident applications and enroll students prior to count day if they meet the districts criteria and space is available.

Fees: Dr. Miller presented three fee items for approval. The Chromebook protection plan (optional device-protection insurance) carried forward with no rate change. The district proposed a preschool fee aligned with area rates at $75 per week. The communications fee for PreK'12 was presented as unchanged or slightly reduced (by $1) compared with the prior year. Trustees voted to approve the fees.

Discipline: On case 25-26-06 the board moved to uphold the administrations expulsion recommendation. During discussion an unnamed trustee said, "I believe the length of the expulsion is too short," calling that comment a personal opinion; the motion to uphold the expulsion was seconded and carried by roll call.

Procedural items: The board also approved minutes of the prior meeting and accounts payable vouchers and approved consent items 4.2 through 4.9 as a bundle by roll call.

Vote tallies: The transcript records roll-call 'yes' votes from trustees listed in the meeting record (Honor Blake/Anna Blake, Kevin Ginder, Mike Hannah, Bill Hutton, John Ward, Mark Thompson) on the motions reported in this session; specific mover/second attributions are not consistently named in the transcript speech text for each motion.

Next steps: No formal action was taken on the Elevate SMCSC facilities project at this meeting (that matter was heard as a preliminary determination hearing). The board scheduled a second public hearing on the facilities plan for June 4 at 7:00 p.m.