GRANADA–The Granada Huntley East Chain (GHEC) School Board held its August meeting Thursday night and the agenda included some preparatory steps for the upcoming school year and an extensive discussion regarding an expansion for the school building.

The board approved some changes to the elementary student handbook. Most changes reformatted and refreshed existing information, but there was a change to pick up and drop off locations for students. The new standard has students being dropped off before the school day at the building’s south and southwest entrances and being picked up at the building’s northeast entrance at the end of the day.

After amending the handbook the board went on to adopt health and safety measures for the upcoming year. These measures remain largely unchanged from the previous year. Under the current standards wearing a face mask while indoors is encouraged to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but is not mandatory. The district will continue tracking the number of COVID-19 cases in elementary, middle, and high school students as well as staff. This information will be reported to the state on a weekly basis.

The board also adopted a measure limiting open enrollment in kindergarten, second, eighth and ninth grades for the upcoming year. The measure places a ceiling on class sizes in order to keep them from exceeding their expected enrollment. Under the new policy households living outside the district that wish to enroll their children in designated elementary grades with 25 students, middle school grades with 28 students, and high school grades with 32 students would be placed on a waiting list until a space becomes available.

Later the board approved contracts for Dezirae Blekestad as a paraprofessional and Drue Egeness as an assistant cook. They also approved the resignation of paraprofessionals Jenn Schaal and Jaxen Garlick.

The final item on the agenda was the discussion of a proposed add-on to the school. This add-on would contain two classrooms, an expanded kitchen and an ag shop. Overall the addition is expected to cost roughly $1.9 million dollars. The board hopes to finance this add-on via a building bond. Unlike the district’s current operating levy this revenue source would be eligible for the state’s Ag2School tax credit. According GHEC Superintendent Doug Storbeck this would cover roughly 56 percent of the project. At the same time the district would try and lower its operating levy by roughly $200 per student, supplanting any tax increases caused by the bond.

The board currently plans to hold a work session on Aug. 22 which would be followed by a special school board meeting on Aug. 25. During this special meeting the board would decide whether or not to issue a ballot measure seeking approval for the building bond while lowering the district’s current levy.