NL School Board Approves a Full-Time SRO

The New London School Board met in regular session with all members present. They approved the agenda and the consent agenda.

Three spoke during public forum. First was Brittney Lerner. After explaining what happened concerning a bullying incident directed at her son, she shared steps she would like to see taken to stop bullying at the school. She hopes it will be a learning experience and will never happen again to any other student. She was unhappy with Superintendent Wahls’ handling of the situation and made it clear she wanted change and was acting as her child’s advocate.

Chris Olsen was next. She questioned the sharing agreement that was approved last month (contingent on W-MU’s approval) with W-MU for 0.2 positions of Special Education Director and Human Resources, and why the recently-hired district secretary has already quit. She was interested in what’s going on.

Jesse Howard spoke last. He was urging the board to hire a full-time School Resource Officer (SRO.)

Student Ambassador Morgan Jones addressed the board. She felt the new cellphone policy was going OK, not a huge difference, but wishes there was an allowed lunch time use. She also discussed some of the activities in fast-approaching Homecoming celebrations.

Elementary Principal Todd Palmatier was next. He summed up the start of school. The elementary is FAST testing. He touched on Homecoming and that dress-up days would be a little different from the MS/HS. The Clark dress up days can be found on the school’s Facebook page.

Scott Kracht, secondary principal, feels the cellphone policy is going really well. The new attendance policy is being shared with parents. National Honor Society (NHS) students are working in the food pantry. Student Council is planning Homecoming.

Superintendent Wahls reported that EMC will be here to do a traffic study of pick up and drop off traffic patterns. Hopefully they can make some suggestions for improvement. He will also be part of Henry County Action Plan at Mt. Pleasant later in the week.

The board approved several fundraisers: cheerleaders, performing arts, HS student council, and Clark Elementary book blast.

The board approved the purchase of one used school bus. It has roughly 30,000 miles on it at a cost of $74,862 out of the PBEL account. All the District’s buses have over 100,000 miles.

They approved the sharing agreement with Danville CSD for agriculture classes, either in person or on Zoom. Four NL students are taking the classes. There is a minimal fee to New London. They discussed New London having its own program and the issues it would involve.

The board discussed an SRO 28E modified agreement with the Henry County’s Sheriff department. Henry County supervisors must also approve it. Mike McBeth had some issues with hours worked. The hours were set at full-time, and he said the board hadn’t approved that. He made a motion to approve the 28E agreement with modifications to determine maximum hours worked, full-time or part-time, and maximum pay. It was approved.

After much further discussion, McBeth made a motion for the SRO to be part-time at $40,000 for protection and put the extra money toward mental health concerns. It died due to lack of a second.

Jen Loyd made a motion for a full-time SRO, seconded by Lindsay Porter. It was approved with McBeth dissenting.

The board approved the following personnel:

The board approved its second reading of board policy 501.09 chronic absenteeism. This is based on days missed, not hours. A letter was sent out to New London parents explaining the new policy.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:14 p.m. The next regular meeting of the New London School Board will be Oct. 21, 2024 at 6 p.m. in the north campus boardroom.