GRANADA – At its meeting on Thursday, the Granada- Huntley-East Chain (GHEC) School Board mulled shrinking from six to five members for the upcoming elections.

Superintendent Doug Storbeck said three of the current board members are up for re-election, and that two are most likely not going to file for re-election. That spurred Storbeck to propose shrinking the school board down to five from its current six. A con Storbeck raised to this idea is they would have to change how they structure and add committees.

“We’d only be able to have two-person committees because three would be a quorum,” he said.

Board Member Jessica Salic asked if they would have to submit something to make this change. Storbeck said he still has to look into the process further.

“I know it is just for the smaller school districts like ours,” he said. “I just wanted to remind people that to put their name in, or if you’re not going to put their name in, we as a group need to be encouraged and talk to some people to become part of the board.”

No decision was made on this issue at Thursday’s meeting.

The school board also considered options for driver’s training moving forward. Rick Uttech, who had been doing it up to this point, will not be continuing after his current session ends. Board Member Ross Gronewald introduced the discussion to the board.

“I want to see if somebody within our staff would like to take some of that, or two of them to share it, at least some driving,” he said. “We’ve talked before, maybe including it into our school day, or look at online options, too.”

Board Member Laura Koch broached the subject of potentially folding it into the school as a class, instead of the current system of a paid extracurricular course.

“I know there’s challenges with some students in our district being able to get there and pay for it,” she said. “That’s hard if they leave and graduate and they don’t have driver’s licenses, and then if they’re not going off to college they still have to find a job. I know they still have to do the behind-the-wheel, but I feel like it would help if we could at least offer something.”

Principal Andy Walden said this is something they could integrate into the school day.

“We could build it into the ninth grade schedule,” he said. “Ninth graders are required to take math, science, social studies and a phy ed/health. That’s five hours. You have your band, choir and study hall kids; that’s six. We could build it into a semester, ‘Hey, this is your semester to take driver’s training.’ They lose half a year of an elective; everyone as a ninth grader is getting driver’s training. The key component is finding an individual [to teach].”

With this added component, Board Member Brad Mattson cautioned about the extra attention students would need for driver’s training and the extra responsibilities that would put on the teacher.

“It’d be harder to find somebody that wants to take nights and weekends for everybody,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be bad to teach it,” Koch added, “But to do all those hours with each kid.”

No decision was made on driver’s ed moving forward, as it was only a discussion item.

In other news:

— Curriculum and Instruction Director Bethany Maday said targeted services for students in grades K-7 start next week, with 35 students currently signed up to receive this extra support for two weeks in June and July.

— On the high school side, Walden said credit recovery sessions have now started, with the first one taking place this week. He said there was good motivation among the 12 to 15 students involved, and that program will also run for two weeks in June and July.