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Three more seek to fill vacant TSD Board seat Scott Stuntz TVN Staff The Teton District 401 School Board has more names to consider to fill Carol Dansie’s vacant seat. She stepped down since she and her family are moving to Jackson. Former board member David Heinemann joins Victor resident Cathy Thomas, Sue Muncaster and Ben Kearsley on the list of Heinemann names to be considered at the board’s special session on April 10. The board scheduled the meeting to review candidates and the new member will be appointed at the regular meeting April 14. Heinemann lives in Victor and served on the board until last year when he lost his seat to Dansie. One of the main Sue Muncaster issues in the race was a debate on whether the district should move to a four-day school week. No Heinemann opposed the Photo move and was criticized after Available he made comments that made it seem that he did not care about student’s opinions. He Ben Kearsley said he deeply regrets the words he chose, but is still against a four-day week. Other than that mistake, he said he has “very few regrets on any decisions I made.” Heinemann has a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked as the college counselor at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California for five years and spent the past seven as the college counselor and academic dean at the Jackson Hole Community School. From those experiences, Heinemann said he’s learned that students need to be challenged and driven by parents and educators to achieve. “You can push kids and have very high expectations of them, and it doesn’t necessarily create stress,” he said. Dansie served in the Zone 3 board seat as some controversial issues were brought before the board, including the possible changing of the high school’s mascot and public outcry, from different view points, to how the teaching of the book “Bless Me, Ultima” was handled. Heinemann made it clear, though, that it was not any one challenge the board faced in his absence, that caused him to want to resume his position. “Our education system should be such that everyone can unite behind it, and right now, we don’t have that,” he said, explaining that when the district asks residents to support a new bond, voters need to feel confident in the school board. He said a board member’s job includes knowing when, and when not to, bend to public outcry.
County approves largest ever capital purchase from emergency fund Jason Suder TVN Staff The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has approved the largest capital purchase ever made through an allocation of contingency fund money. This comes with an impending $1 million to $3 million county expenditure to repair or replace the faulty landfill cap, according to the last estimates from Teton County Engineer Jay Mazalewski, a project the Department of Environmental Quality may force the county to begin as soon as August. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is requiring the county to do something about the cap after run-off was discovered flowing from an old drain pipe. Although county administrators do not know how the landfill cap repair will be funded, at the March 20 BOCC meeting, commissioners approved allocating $40,000 from the contingency fund to purchase new bleachers at the fair grounds. The fair board had only requested $5,000 for new bleachers in fiscal year 2014 budget, but with the county’s contribution, an additional 1,000 people will be able to attend fair ground events, raising the total spectator capacity to around 1,500. The discussion continued into the April 4 BOCC meeting, as Harley Wilcox, president of the fair board, requested another $6,000 from the contingency fund to make the bleachers up to American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Although initial intent was not to build the bleachers to ADA standards but rather allow handicap access somewhere else onsite, at the recommendation of Mazalewski, they felt it is a worthwhile amenity. The fair board also sits on $247,000 of donated money, as per the FY214 annual budget, that has been reserved to build an enclosed rodeo arena out of the covered amphitheater section at the fairgrounds. At a previous meeting, they approved spending “whatever
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Views on Redskin issue largely unchanged since last year Scott Stuntz TVN Staff When the Teton School District Board of Trustees tabled the discussion on whether to change the Teton High School mascot from “Redskins” last year, they set April as when the board would take up the issue again. However, the agenda for the board’s next regular meeting on April 14, does not list an agenda item for the mascot name change. The mascot is also not set to appear on the agenda for the board’s special session on April 10. Board member Delwyn Jensen said, for him, it is a matter of priorities.
“I think we have better things to talk about that are a little more important and pressing than the cartoon character that runs around the high school,” he said. Specifically, Jensen cited the overcrowding at the district’s elementary schools and the board’s upcoming decision on whether, and where, to build new schools. “We’re wondering where we’re going to stick students next year,” he said. District Superintendent Monte Woolstenhulme, who originally proposed changing the mascot in June of 2013, said, “my position hasn’t changed on the issue, but I take my direction from the board, so I’m going
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