Box Elder school shutdown discussed at board meeting

Members of the Box Elder Public School Board of Trustees considered reinstituting drug testing policies after methamphetamine was found late last week in a staff bathroom, causing the building to be shut down for a day for decontamination.

Thursday evening last week an announcement was made that the school would need to be shut down Friday after a "foreign substance" was found in the school, though the release, and those that followed that weekend and on Monday did not specify what the substance was.

The last notice noted that the matter would be discussed at Monday's school board meeting in more detail.

At Monday's meeting Box Elder School Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said the substance was meth and that it was found primarily in a staff bathroom.

MacDonald said there were some initial concerns over how much detail to release when the discovery was first made, fearing potential privacy rights violations, but this information is obviously covered by the public's right to know.

He said there's no indication that anyone was exposed to the dangerous drug, as the contamination was isolated primarily to that bathroom and ventilation in that area leads directly outside, but they shut the school down out of an abundance of caution.

He said a small amount of contamination was found on another hard surface in the school but would not specify where, as he needed to consult with the school's legal counsel to make sure that disclosure wouldn't violate any laws.

School was open as normal Monday, and decontamination has taken place, but MacDonald said they still have the staff bathroom roped off until some followup testing can be completed today, again, out of an abundance of caution.

Local public health and law enforcement were also part of the response.

Board Vice Chair Neal Rosette Sr., who chaired the start of the meeting as Chair Calvin Jilot arrived late, said he thinks shutting down the school was the right call for the sake of the students and the situation was handled well.

Box Elder First Grade Teacher Lisa Kudrna said the incident is unsettling and asked if the school would consider investing in detection devices, similar to the kind they have for vape devices.

MacDonald said they are already being installed.

Kudrna, board members and other school staff at the meeting discussed the possibility of reinstituting drug testing at the school, which no one at the meeting seemed opposed to.

Kudrna said she believes they discontinued the practice of drug testing due to the cost in the past, but she remembers it being done at some point.

Rosette said they would need to discuss the matter with the school's union.

During the meeting the board also heard updates on and discussed more routine matters, like the school's annual report card, which MacDonald said indicates ongoing progress in some areas, but gaps to be filled in others.

He said they set a goal years ago to have the school reach the state average in their academic assessments and in 2019, they came close, but they saw a significant setback with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, one they have yet to recover from.

MacDonald said they have doubled their instructional time for junior high math to try to make up the difference, as well as some reading programs to improve their performance at the elementary level, which is decent but could be better.

One highlight, he said, is that their performance in English Language Arts at the high school level is quite high, so there are some bright spots in the report card.

He said the school had been doing a lot of data collection recently and that, combined with this report card, will inform how they structure classes and address the gaps they are still seeing.

During discussion of school policy, board member Shane Sangrey said there are some new programs for targeted early literacy intervention, which he thinks would be great for their youngest students.

The board also approved a calendar for the coming school year, though not after some discussion about observing Indigenous Peoples' Day.

The calendar that was presented did not feature it as a day off, which Rosette objected to, saying it is important to him and the students as an observance of their heritage and culture.

Teachers at the meeting said that week already has days off in it and observing the holiday would make that week incredibly awkward to teach during, hence why they didn't observe the optional holiday.

Teachers suggested that they have school that day, but focus lessons around Indigenous culture and learning, which many said would be a better way to honor the holiday than a day off anyway.

Eventually the board agreed and approved the calendar.

The board also approved the formation of the travel club, which would facilitate educational trips for its members, including handling the fundraising for said trips.

MacDonald said trips would likely take place every two years, as they are complex affairs to organize.

The board approved the club's formation.

They also approved the purchase of a new payroll system, which District Clerk Angel Colbry said would save school staff a tremendous amount of time, making it worth the investment.

The board also heard an update on ongoing efforts to build more teacher housing near the school, including offers made for new units.

Box Elder Schools has been constructing low-cost housing for certified staff on land it owns near the building in the past few years, an ongoing effort to attract more teachers to an environment district officials say faces a number of unique challenges including an affordable housing shortage.