Change in student handbook sparks debate among Altamont school board members

May 10—ALTAMONT — Members of the Altamont Unit 10 school board have approved by a 5-1 vote changes to the student and athletic handbooks.

Board Secretary Alan Kollmann was the only dissenting vote, challenging provisions in the athletic handbook. He said it was common practice to have sixth and seventh graders play in eighth grade games when they are needed.

The handbook revisions would hinder the practice of recruiting from the lower classes to participate in eighth grade competition.

The handbook content was approved at a previous meeting. However, revisions needed to be made to clarify the athletic handbook and National Honor Society descriptions in the book, according to Superintendent Casey Adam.

"When I read through it, I did not see the change," Kollmann said. "I apologize."

Adam said wordage in the seventh grade basketball portion of the book was clarified.

"What we are trying to do is make the sports requirements for each sport as uniform as possible," Altamont Grade School Principal Doug Hill said.

"So, at no time can you bring a seventh grade kid or sixth grade kid up to play eighth grade basketball?" asked Kollmann.

Hill said the only exception would be if there would be a tournament and they had less than 10 players on the team.

"The reason I question this is because it's been done in the past," Kollmann said. "I don't want us to put something in writing and then we go back on it, because it's what you say you're going to do ... and don't do it."

Kollmann said the practice of sixth and seventh grade students playing in eighth grade games has been allowed for several years.

"Now we are saying we are not going to do that. That is it. Now we are stating in black and white you're not allowing that to happen," he said.

Hill said it would be allowed for teams that had less than 10 players.

"We've always had 12-15 kids in eighth grade basketball," said Kollmann.

"That's trying to clarify that. Seventh graders play seventh grade basketball and eighth graders play eighth grade," said Hill.

Kollmann asked again if they really wanted to spell that out in black and white in the handbook.

"That's so there is no controversy in the future," Hill said. "When that has happened, there has been controversy."

"Because of?" Kollmann asked. "Feelings got hurt or what?"

"Eighth graders' feelings got hurt," said Hill.

"As long as the coaches understand this and it's clear, it will become policy next year," said Board President Dale Laue.

Meanwhile, Altamont Community High School Student Council members Madison Splechter, Noah Stanley and Brooke Evans gave board members an update on student council activities.

Stanley said he is area representative for the district on the student council.

"Every month we have a district meeting in Effingham and discuss different topics. Lately, we've been talking about UNICEF, Ukraine and lots of other topics," Stanley said.

"Last week was Teachers Week, so the Student Council got treats for the teachers. Some of the treats included Dunkin' Donuts and one morning there were candy bars with inspirational quotes put in mailboxes," said Evans, Student Council secretary.

She said some students wrote notes to teachers to show they cared.

Splechter, who will be president of the Student Council next year, updated board members on student leadership week.

"On Tuesday, we played music during passing periods. On Wednesday, we had an inflatable obstacle course for the leadership students in our school and Thursday we sent out a survey to all of the students asking what they wanted us to do for the school next year so we can start planning events," Splechter said.

She said they attended a state convention last week to learn more about leadership and listen to four keynote speakers. They were broken down into discussion groups.

"Our discussion group talked about how to help struggling people," said Splechter. "They had some cool ideas. They let us know even though we are leadership people in our school we still have things we struggle with."

In other discussions, School Board President Dale Laue said he and Unit 10 Transportation Director Mark Holland inspected the bus garage to see if they could add some extra length to it for the district's longer buses.

"It's going to be very hard to add on to that building," Laue said. "If we go to the north, we go real close to the road (East Division Street) and I'm not sure the city would want us to be building that close to the road. If we go to the south, we would be losing so much driveway it would be hard for buses to maneuver around."

Laue said he asked Holland to get bids for an eight-bay bus garage to be located east of the current bus garage in the former track area. He said so far Holland only had one proposal for the new garage. The dimensions of the proposed garage would be 51 by 136 feet and 14 feet high on a concrete foundation.

"Once all the bids come together, we can have more discussion," said Laue.

In other matters, the board:

—Approved a 2% pay increase for Transportation Director Mark Holland and Unit 10 Nurse Amanda Dust for the 2022-23 school year.

—Approved a pay increase for crossing guards to $13 an hour.

—Approved the hire of Klaiton Wolff and Josey Tedrick for summer help.

—Approved the hire of Katie Lurkins as activities director.

—Approved the appointment of Jarielle Cameron to the Building Leadership Team at the Altamont Grade School, replacing the retiring Sally Zimmerman.

—Approved the resignation of junior high girls basketball coach Grace Steppe.

—Approved the hire of Robin Verdeyen as substitute bus driver.

—Approved three overnight trip requests: State track meet in Peoria, FFA state convention in Springfield and Girls basketball camp in Indiana.

Charles Mills can be reached at charles.mills@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300126.