School district contemplates drivers ed

Custer School District eighth graders, don’t start your engines.
At least, not yet.
At the June 8 meeting of the Custer School District Board of Education in Hermosa, the board of education held a preliminary discussion of the pros and cons of a possible driver’s education course that, if implemented, would be offered to school district eighth graders.
Potential obstacles—such as the cost of instruction and when to schedule such a course—were discussed, along with the obvious benefits of children learning to drive safely and the ability to get licenses earlier.
“I have a hard time with it because we cut the budget so much and are talking about adding more money into our budget,” board member Sara Barrick said, adding some staff members had hours cut while a staff member such as Hermosa principal Frosty Paris, who recently became certified to teach Driver’s Education, would potentially make more money for his instruction.
“You’re essentially adding a position,” superintendent Tim Frederick said.
Frederick said he was looking for the board’s input on the issue at the outset of the discussion, saying he believes it’s a great concept, while adding there were a lot of questions that came with the concept.
Whether or not the course could be free was discussed, as was a fee of around $400 for the course. The latter would mean revenue to offset the cost but could potentially keep away those who could not afford to take the course or those who did not want to pay the cost, especially since some insurance companies are moving away from giving families discounts or rebates for children who have completed the course.
Frederick said he learned that offering the course should not increase the district’s auto insurance, as it typically does not matter who is driving a district vehicle in terms of coverage.
Board member Larry Baker said he believed there would have to be at least one more staff member certified to teach the course, particularly if it were going to be offered both in Custer and Hermosa. The cost of the certification was given at around $3,800.
Board member Travis Hartshorn wondered what it would take to offer the course as a required class as it once was for freshman. Hartshorn said there was a time when said freshman took health for a semester and driver’s ed for a semester, and the course was taken during the school day. 
“It didn’t matter if you had your driver’s license or not, you had to take the class,” he said.
Frederick said a lot of school districts offer it to eighth graders as an exploratory class—either before or after school or during the summer months—to keep the numbers down, but that can bring about the tuition barrier.
Baker said if it were made a regular class, students could drive during that class period, but Frederick said that would be difficult because the number of students that would be in the class.
He added it would be one thing if a designated teacher was teaching the course, but if it’s a building principal like Paris, that changes things.
“I want to be up front with you guys. It makes me very nervous if I have a building principal out driving kids for an hour and that person is not here,” he said.
The board will discuss the issue further at its July board meeting.
Discussion was also held on the board’s decision to move Wildcat Time to the middle of a school day rather than the beginning of the day. This is being done due to input from parental advisory meetings as well as an uptick in absence in terms of students not coming to school during the Wildcat Time.
Baker asked what happens if a student decides not to go to Wildcat Time at the high school in the middle of the day, with Custer Jr./Sr. High School principal Tobey Cass saying not going to Wildcat Time, which is roughly 30 minutes, would not be an option.
In the past, Wildcat Time has been the first hour of the day, and students are not allowed to leave campus during the time unless they are seniors who have their work done and get senior privileges.
Frederick said the change of Wildcat Time will be a big one. He said he has parents call his office concerned about the first period because they send their child to school on time for Wildcat Time, but they don’t show up.
“It’s a credit to the high school administration and teachers they are addressing it,” he said. “That’s the positive thing of this. We are going to have more students on task with instructional time.”
The change also has potential to allow students to participate in some courses that can be offered at that time they might not have been able to fit in before.
In other news from the June 8 meeting, the board:
• Heard from district business manager Sarah Wedge, who went over the district’s monthly cash flow, saying student travel is already overspent compared to what was budgeted, with more credit card bills still coming in. Skyrocketing fuel prices are the culprit for the overspending, she said.
“I don’t know we could have ever dreamt fuel would have done what it did this year,” she said.
• Amended an already-approved school meal price list to have reduced meal prices removed.
During the last legislative session the legislature approved HB 1082, which in part states that if a student is eligible for reduced-price meals, the board cannot impose a charge on the student for any of the meals.
This means students will either pay the full price for any meals, or will not pay at all. The state will reimburse the school district the money it would have collected for the reduced-cost meals.
• Approved moving over $1 million in funds out of a savings account into a savings account with other money to continue to accrue interest on the money, as it has since it first received the funds.
Wedge told the board when the district asked for $8 million in capital outlay certificates for the construction of its Career and Technical Education building it actually received $8,515,000, and the extra $515,000 not needed for construction has accrued interest sitting with the $8 million. As that $8 million was spent on the building, however, it began to accrue less interest. 
Wedge said after the meeting it is a better financial decision to combine the remaining CTE fund with the regular savings, and since the funds do not need to be designated as CTE any longer, combining the two accounts is a better accounting and financial decision. 
The initial $515,000 is now over $1 million, and can be utilized at any time for a purpose for which the board sees fit.
• Learned a $1,000 donation from the Custer American Legion and $500  donation from an anonymous donor cleared unpaid student meal balances. In addition, another donation of $1,000 was made to an Angel Fund for students in need.