The Ketchikan School District seal is on display at the superintendent’s office. (KRBD file photo by Leila Kheiry)
Ketchikan’s school board selected a new board president Wednesday — by a single vote.
Newly-elected member Kim Hodne was elected president by a slim majority, according to the school board’s clerk, who kept records of the meeting.
Hodne was nominated by Diane Gubatayao. Outgoing Board President Bridget Mattson did not seek another term in the role. Instead, she nominated Jordan Tabb. Hodne bested Tabb 4-3 in the final vote. The president runs the school board’s twice-monthly meetings.
Sonya Skan will continue as the board’s vice president — she was unopposed. Mattson won a 4-3 vote over Gubatayao to become the board’s new clerk-treasurer.
The clerk did not disclose how individual members voted. KRBD has filed a records request for a fuller account of the balloting.
Once the board got down to business, it gave final approval to three policy changes. Board President Hodne objected to one of those, which removed a requirement for school administrators to have an alcohol and drug awareness program.
“If we take this line out, that establishment of a drug program is gone,” Hodne said.
Other board members, including Paul Robbins, Jr. and Jordan Tabb, argued the language was redundant — another part of the policy says the superintendent is required to inform employees of the district’s drug and alcohol policies. Robbins said he didn’t want to micromanage how administrators communicated those with teachers.
“Maybe it’s annual training, maybe it’s quarterly training, whatever is best decided, but the requirement that all employees know about this and the repercussions of it is listed in part one,” he said.
The drug and alcohol policy change passed 6-1. The other two policy tweaks passed unanimously.
In other business, the board also discussed the district’s protocols for students who show symptoms of COVID-19. Students who display two or more symptoms of the disease are sent home. Board members said they were concerned that it wasn’t clear to parents or students when children could return to classrooms after being sent home.
Superintendent Beth Lougee clarified that students can return to classrooms after 10 days in quarantine or a negative COVID-19 test. A doctor’s note would also suffice, she said. Lougee said roughly 24 students are sent home each day across the district’s eight schools.
