District One Governing Board Meeting at a Glance
The governing board representing Yuma Elementary School District One convened on April 9 for its monthly meeting. Here’s what you need to know.
High Five employees & Teacher of the Year nominees
The meeting kicked off with Luciano Munoz, executive director of human resources, introducing this month’s High Five employees: Roosevelt Elementary School teacher Barbara Hernandez, Dorothy Hall Elementary School paraprofessional Linda Wright, preschool instructional coach Eugenia Smith, Woodard Junior High School teacher Madison Law, and Learning Services instructional coach Stacy Melton.
Immediately afterward, Munoz introduced District One’s 2024 Teacher of the Year Nominees. All in all, there were 29 nominees. To celebrate and honor these educators, who hailed from a variety of different schools across the district, Munoz presented them each with a plaque.
These 29 nominees will be among the local educators attending the Education Foundation of Yuma County’s Teacher of the Year Banquet on April 25, where the 2024 Yuma County Teacher of the Year will be announced.
School Lunch Hero Day
District One Director of Child Nutrition Lisa Thrower later took to the floor to introduce School Lunch Hero Day, which the district will celebrate on May 3.
“School nutrition employees must balance many roles and follow numerous federal, state, and local regulations to ensure safe and healthy meals are available in schools,” Thrower said. “School Lunch Hero Day provides the opportunity for the community to thank these hardworking heroes for their dedication to fueling our students for success in Yuma School District One.”
Call to the Public
During District One’s Call to the Public, Lauren Heitzman took to the floor to discuss his petition calling for “bathrooms, locker rooms, women’s, and men’s sports teams (to) be assigned and used according to their biological sex at birth as listed on their original birth certificate.”
After declaring that he believes “the majority of people in Yuma County are for this,” he encouraged the audience to vote for people who identify as “born again, savedby-grace Christian(s)” to usher in “changes for the better.”
Military Child Resolution
With April being the Month of the Military Child, Superintendent Jamie Sheldahl introduced a resolution, which President Faith Klostreich read.
“The Yuma Elementary School District No. One Governing Board recognizes and salutes military children by recognizing the month of April 2024 as the Month of the Military Child and April 19, 2024, as Purple Up Day.”
Approval of new Ron Watson Middle School principal
The governing board then officially voted Audrey Corners, the current assistant principal at Desert Mesa Elementary School, as the new principal of Ron Watson Middle School (effective July 2024).
“It is an honor to be selected for this position. There was an outstanding pool of applicants that were considered for the role. I am very thankful,” Corners said after the vote. “Having been a prior assistant principal at Ron Watson Middle School, I’ve had the privilege of working with Mrs. Donna Franklin – the OG, one and only principal that’s been there for the last 20 years. I’m just thankful for the lessons I’ve learned from her, and I’m excited to lead the school into the next chapter.”
Discussion on agenda posting
Finally, the evening wound down with the governing board continuing the issue of posting meeting agenda outlines one week in advance, which board member Keith Ware brought up at the March meeting.
“The public gets 24 hours, and I don’t think that’s sufficient for the public as far as transparency and keeping communication with the public,” Ware said during the April meeting, adding that he’s heard members of the public express that they “didn’t have much time to prepare” with the agendas being posted 24 hours in advance.
In turn, Klostreich noted, “I think the only time that we’ve heard anyone ever say that they didn’t have enough time to get ready was the one time when we had bathroom and gender issues on the agenda.”
However, Klostreich proposed that, rather than opting to post “an informal draft a week in advance,” the governing board could post the agendas the Friday before the meeting as opposed to 24 hours prior.
Ware and Sheldahl agreed with the proposal, and the board decided that, moving forward, meeting agendas will be publicly posted the Friday before the meeting.