By BEN KLEINE

Staff writer

At new principal Tod Gordon’s request, the Marion school board accepted a proposal Monday that would overturn the previous principal’s policy of mandatory study periods for failing students.

The policy, instituted under Brenda Odgers, required students failing one class to attend supervised study sessions an hour before or after school. If a student was failing multiple classes, the required study period was two hours.

Odgers, retired counselor Phoebe Janzen, and other staff members would oversee the mandatory study periods along with a rotating variety of teachers.

“The kids viewed it as a punishment,” Gordon said. “There was nothing in the policy that required you to go to a teacher.”

Gordon said he wanted students to interact with class specific teachers.

“We’re going to write a program that is more positive in nature,” Gordon said.

Hillsboro High School principal Max Heinrichs said for an earlier story that Hillsboro’s policy of academic detention has worked well to curb failing grades.

If a student does not turn in an assignment he or she is required to stay after school until 5 p.m. on Wednesdays to complete the missing work. Academic detention also has been used as a mandatory study period for students who have failed tests.

New Marion Middle School principal Missy Stubenhofer also eliminated the mandatory study time policy from her school’s handbook, also approved by the board Monday.

The change in policy is occurring because the study periods were during the morning and students would only have 10 to 15 minutes with a teacher before class with a different school starting time established last year, former MMS principal Gordon said.

Other MHS handbook changes include:

• Defining tardy as 10 minutes late for any class; after that students would access a unexcused absence for any class, requiring a Saturday School period. The previous policy stated that students late after 10 minutes for a first hour class would receive a Saturday School period and the students late to any other class would receive a detention.
• Using cell phones in class would result in a 30-minute detention on first violation and an hour of detention on all subsequent violations. Students’ phones will be taken away and returned only after they serve the detention.
• In-school suspensions will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gordon said suspended students would be eligible for activity practices but not games or competitions.
• Saturday school classes will run from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Stubenhofer had fewer changes for the middle school handbook:

• The school eliminated locks for lockers.
• The dress code was changed to prohibit skirts that are “unreasonably short”, instead of exactly identifying what that meant.

Contracts

In other actions, the board approved contracts for the 2011-12 school year Monday after a 45-minute executive session.

Shana Joliff was hired to replace Adam Johnson as Marion High School band and music teacher after the former band teacher resigned after the 2010-11 school year.

Johnson said he resigned to focus on learning music compositions and composing some music for MHS vocal teacher David Clark. He also wants to work on his art, elaborate colored pencil drawings.

“It’s kind of crazy thing to a lot of people,” Johnson said. “I’ll see what I’m made of.”

Johnson said he is going to stay in Marion.

“I enjoyed and cherished the time I had at MHS,” Johnson said. “The staff were very supportive; I’m going to miss that part.”

A salary of $72,180 was approved for Gordon. Stubenhofer will be paid $53,000.

Superintendent Lee Leiker’s contract for $91,000 was extended for two years.

Doug Vogel was hired as an assessment assistant for $10 an hour.

Supplemental contracts were approved including Rebecca Hofer who will be a co-head coach with Bethany Carlson for the MHS cross-country team.

Chad Adkins and Jill Hudson will trade places as MHS softball coaches, with Adkins taking over as head coach.

David Hett was appointed as an assistant boys basketball coach at MMS. Jona Neufeld will be in charge of yearbook at MMS.

In other business:

• MHS agri-science teacher Mark Meyer gave a presentation for the Career and Technological Education Committee Board. He proposed that typing or keyboarding should be a required class at the upper-elementary-school level and computer applications should be a required class at MHS. The board did not make a decision.
• A purchase of up to $75,000 worth of computer replacements was approved. The computers will be for a MMS computer lab. Of the total, $31,255 comes from a grant.
• Board member Lyle Leppke said the district would receive $18,512 back from Marion County Special Education Cooperative because the co-op had a surplus.
• A leadership trip August 4 through 9 for seven MHS FFA leaders to Colorado was approved. For transportation costs, the trip will cost the district $600.
• Health insurance amendments required by law for district employees were approved.
• The teachers association did not make any changes to their negotiated agreement from the 2010-11 school year with the school. The board approved the agreement.
• St. Luke Hospital clinic manager Mary Harrison gave the district $190 from 19 sports physicals were performed for physical day at the hospital.
• The board selected 7:15 a.m. June 28 as the district’s end of year meeting date.

The board will convene at 7 p.m. July 14 for its July meeting.