Third lecture examines historical mysteries
The school board held their regular October meeting Monday, Oct. 18.
Scott Perrin read a letter he presented to the school board suggesting some changes to the school breakfasts and lunches.
It appears below this article.
Mitchell Marx of Presnell & Gage was present for the annual auditor’s report. He went over all the opinion letters that are required and talked about a new government auditing standard.
Steve Lamont’s resignation letter as wrestling coach was read and approved by the board.
In facility updates Rene’ Forsmann said she has been working with the architect regarding the lower floor at the high school. The teachers have discussed what is necessary for their rooms. At this point they are on schedule with their time line with construction to start in January. A clean air test will need to be done once the walls are taken down.
Forsmann also reported that the Release Time program called and wanted to know how many classrooms will likely be needed at the Middle School once the Elementary building is closed. Forsmann said she would work with her schedule and figure out what they would need.
There was discussion on several options for the future of the buildings. Forsmann and the other administrators will discuss this and report back at the next meeting.
In administrative reports Randy Brown gave a proposed change for the drug policy. He explained he had a concern regarding the timing of the appeals process.  The outcome of the appeal will stand as a positive or negative reading with the procedure to be done at the hospital and done quickly using the same test used at the high school.
Forsmann talked about teacher evaluations and the requirements needed to get the process approved. The evaluation model used by the Cottonwood School District is aligned to the state minimum standards based on Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for teaching domains and components of instruction. The staff will complete a portfolio that will be part of the evaluation model. On Oct. 29th all staff will meet to discuss this model and the requirements.
Forsmann also reported that on Thursday, Nov. 11, there will be a Veteran’s Day program at the Middle School.
The board adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
The next regular meeting will be Monday, November 15 at 7 p.m.

School Board Members,
Below is a request I wish you to consider in conjunction with our new school administrators. The request may cause some of you to roll your eyes or be annoyed. I also expect some will not understand my reason, but please “hear” me out. The request is this:
Relinquish, when possible, the “free” food during the summer, and abandon or minimize the “same” program during the school year. Below are my reasons. The reasons are not listed by priority. Again, I know you may not accept these reasons or understand the reasons you are about to read or hear, but please consider them. Here they are:
Reason #1: Current results of the free food program is fostering and encouraging laziness and indolence. The premise of the “free food” program, as explained to me, is that this community has many low-income or “poor” families…and they need the food. Is it not presumptuous to label people of this community “poor” and because they are “poor” conclude that they eat poorly? If this is current logic we would miserably fail the proofs of geometry. The ranch-honest truth is “poor” people do not eat poor food, lazy people eat poor food or no food. Take a step back and review the results (not the intention). What do you think?
Reason #2: The program is spending borrowed money…in practical terms, money that doesn’t exist. Spending borrowed money in this case I think is bad behavior to model to students. What if they adopted this spending policy in their lives…that they spent their earnings away to the point they would borrow money for snacks/food. We are buying food with money that’s a load and giving the I.O.U. to the boys and girls so they can pay it off when they get older. We’re so kind. We’re creating future indentured servants to the “state.” Does this “sit” well with anyone? Do we have a right to “enslave” children to pay off our spending policies? Of course this is only one program. My real opinion? I think it is “Nauseatingly Arrogant.”
Reason #3: What work do those who eat the food give in exchange for the food? There are only 2 groups of people that live, honest people and dishonest people, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. God created you, me and what we need to live. He also created the earth in such a way that it only yields its wealth to the man or woman who works. What work do those who eat the food give in exchange for the food? What are we teaching our children? To be sponges and feel “entitled” to money and food that they didn’t work or pay for? Isn’t the goal of the school to help cultivate skills so that individuals do NOT become sponges or mooches?
Reason #4: This program from its implementation here in Cottonwood has been bullying/using (dare I say pimping) children to get money for the district. When little boys and girls 6 to 9 years old, attending elementary school (or other students at the middle school or high school) are encouraged to “touch”/”eat” the food so the school can get money, these boys and girls are being bullied or used for money. Isn’t this a step just above begging, or is it the step below begging. What term would you call it when we use other peoples’ children to get money. It’s almost a kind of pimping. Some people have no shame how they earn money. (Sadly this has happened in the school district. I have personal experience over the years, including last month).
Reason #5: Gross Inefficiency. The actual costs for the free food program is expensive, even though the money may also subsidize other programs. How many salaries are we providing (including all federal, state, and district employees) to feed one child at best a mediocre meal? Work the numbers if you have them; divide the total budget by the number of meals. How much does each meal cost? As a school district are we spending $15 to buy “$1 candy bars?” How many of us go to the store and say to the cashier “Milk is only $2.50…Have a $20?” Sure the money might go to someone else, but let them look like stupid stewards. Just because Primeland has a BBQ once a year…do we attend and eat their hamburgers because if we don’t eat them someone else will?
Reason #6: And probably the most important to the family unit, the foundation of our community. The program attempts to rob the liberty and dignity of parents who want to act on the responsibility they feel inside to provide for their children. (Sometimes children at breakfast say “I’m not hungry, I get the free food at school…don’t worry about preparing anything for me”) Soon, because of convenience, parents don’t bother preparing breakfast, and/or students don’t bother about preparing themselves breakfast if their folks aren’t home. The extension of this is ugly dependency. From the Reader’s Digest many years ago come the story: “Seagulls are Dying even though Fishing is Good.” For many years the seagulls followed the shrimping fleets in our area. They ate leftovers from the shrimping nets. Recently the shrimping fleet moved to new waters far away. Not the local seagulls and the offspring of the seagulls have begun to die even though the regular fishing is great. The local seagulls stopped teaching their offspring how to fish several generations ago. Now we have the offspring of the offspring who are dependent on the shrimping fleet’s welfare nets, and they are dying because they don’t know how to fish.
Now, a concluding word. (I’ve been invited to participate in the program because our family qualifies, but I’ve chosen not to participate.) I know that relinquishing the program doesn’t solve the problem of money. I believe many in the room wish circumstances were different. Can we do better?
Your obedient servant,
Scott Perrin

Cottonwood, Idaho 83522
 

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