Kalispell trustees consider special-ed committee

The Kalispell Public Schools Board of Trustees may create a committee focusing on topics related to special education.

Currently the board has five main committees covering curriculum and instruction, finance and operation, personnel, policy and communications and technology.

Special education and related federal program funding has a reach into many areas of the district budget and educational programming, which instigated the conversation of a new committee during a board work session this week.

“We can talk about what training are we offering our teachers and staff and supports, how our kids are doing — that was kind of the thought with that committee,” Assistant Superintendent Andrea Johnson said. “Are we up in our population of special education students? What does our student demographic look like?”

In addition to providing information to the board as a whole, the committee would also make recommendations to the board as needed.

A better-informed board is what interested trustee Bette Albright.

“Looking back last year to the whole year, the only contact we had with special education was when there was a problem and people came before the board,” Albright said.

Johnson later added, “The thought was we can be more proactive rather reactive.”

Trustee Don Murray suggested expanding the topics covered by the potential committee to include children living in poverty.

“While we know children coming in from poverty may not be in special education, they have special needs,” Murray said. “It’s becoming a bigger issue for public schools every day.”

The board also discussed establishing a governance/board development committee with the goal of ensuring the board is fulfilling the district mission and goals while looking at training for trustees, according to trustee Lance Isaak.

“We talked about a governance board with the idea that this would be a committee to help keep focused on what our goals are and that we’re making decisions based on what those goals are,” Isaak said. “There seemed like a lot of benefits for a governance committee to take us to a new level.”

The conversation on committees comes after several trustees and administrators attended a workshop at Flathead Valley Community College on Sept. 11 titled “The High Performing Board: A Best Practices Conference for Board Members and Staff Leadership.”

Also on the work session agenda was consideration of surveying staff, students and community members to determine the district’s strengths, weaknesses and areas for growth.

Johnson said a comprehensive survey would set a baseline to track public perceptions over time and develop strategies accordingly.

“Sometimes without that perception check we think we have an understanding of what people are feeling but we may not,” Anderson said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.