By JONAH LOSSIAH
ONE FEATHER STAFF
The first June meeting of the Cherokee Central Schools (CCS) Board of Education was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Monday, June 3 with Chairperson Charlotte Saunooke; Vice Chairperson Gloria Griffin; Secretary Jennifer Thompson; board members Isaac Long, Karen French-Browning, and John Crowe; Superintendent Dr. Michael Murray; Assistant Superintendent Dr. Beverly Payne; School Board Assistant Sunnie Clapsaddle; and HR Director Deborah Toineeta present. Tribal Council Representative David Wolfe and Tribal Council Alternate Representative Bo Crowe was the only absentee for the meeting.
Opening prayer was led by Karen French-Browning and the minutes from the May 21 meeting were approved.
Then, the agenda for the current meeting was approved.
The Board then welcomed their only guests of the meeting, the Cherokee Boys Club (CBC) Board of Directors.
Greg Owle, general manager of the CBC, called the meeting to reconnect with the CCS Board regarding the plan to move the CCS reserve account into the hands of the EBCI Investment Committee. This move was spoke about in length at the CCS Board’s May 6 meeting.
“We just gave Corey [Blankenship] permission to move that money. He came and met with us at four today, and we gave the Investment Committee the right to move that money. It’s going to be moved.” said Vice Chairperson Griffin.
She also cited an ordinance, Section 16C-9 from 2017, that the reserve fund was to be handled by the Investment Committee. It was a law that the Board had not put into place until now.
The two boards also discussed their contract situation. The CBC’s contract with CCS ends on July 1, so there is a sense of urgency with negotiation. The CCS Board requested to have a breakdown of the CBC expenses, and exactly where the $980,000 in administration fees is going regarding CCS. It was agreed that there would be further discussion with CBC Board once the situation had been reviewed, and that it was most likely to be discussed at the next CCS Board Meeting.
Another part of the meetings agenda was to address many open positions to be filled.
The consent agenda was made up on 41 resolutions, with all but two of these filling assistant coach positions for the 2019-20 school year. One resolution was pulled for further discussion. The rest were quickly passed.
The first two resolutions approved Kayla Smith to fill a teacher position for Cherokee Elementary Schools and Tiffany Grindstaff to fill a SPED teacher position for CCS SPED Program. The following coaching positions were filled with the next 38 resolutions:
- Brett Robertson, JV Assistant Football Coach
- Carl Anker, Varsity Assistant Football Coach
- Chase Sneed, JV Assistant Football Coach
- Craig Barker, Varsity Assistant Football Coach
- David Pringle, JV Assistant Football Coach
- Jason Littlejohn, JV Boys Basketball Assistant Coach
- Ethan Clapsaddle, Varsity Basketball Assistant Coach
- Johnny Mitchell, Varsity Assistant Football Coach
- Matthew Maney, Varsity Assistant Football Coach
- Maggie Jackson, Assistant Track Coach
- Nellie Stephens, Assistant Track Coach
- Norman Beck, Varsity Girls Soccer Assistant Coach
- Norman Walkingstick, Varsity Assistant Softball Coach
- Landon Hunt, Assistant Track Coach
- Tye Andrews, Assistant Cross Country Coach
- Charmin Welch, Cherokee Middle School (CMS) Softball Assistant Coach
- Andrew Griffin, CMS Co-Ed Soccer Assistant Coach
- Doug Reed, CMS Baseball Assistant Coach
- Kelsey Owle, CMS Volleyball Assistant Coach
- Tye Andrews, Assistant Track Coach
- Tye Andrews, Assistant Indoor Track Coach
- Nellie Stephens, CMS Girls Basketball Assistant Coach
- Ethan Clapsaddle, Varsity Baseball Assistant Coach
- Gary Maney, Varsity Baseball Assistant Coach
- Taylor Brooks, Assistant Track Coach
- David Pringle, CMS Boys Basketball Assistant Coach
- Mike Parker, Varsity Assistant Softball Coach
- Langston Wood, Varsity Assistant Football Coach
- Landon Hunt, Indoor Track Assistant Coach
After approving the amended consent agenda, the Board went into a closed session to discuss the pulled resolution. No report was provided of the session.
In other discussion, resolution 19-341 was read aloud. This resolution would approve Aaron Hogner has the new CCS Athletic Director. The vote passed 4-1. Chairperson Saunooke was absent for this portion of the meeting, and Gloria Griffin was the lone vote against.
Several pieces of new business were brought forward.
Slight changes were made to the job description for the role of security guard. That change was to have the security guard report to the Security Network Administrator. This edit was reviewed and approved by the Board.
Next, the Board approved Amendment Three to the EBCI Governmental Retirement Plan. This amendment, which was passed by Tribal Council, changes the vesting schedule for all eligible employees hired after Dec. 31, 2019 from five years cliff vesting to 10 years.
The final piece of new business was establishing the Board’s meeting schedule for July. Given the timing of breaks, the Board will meet just once in July, that being on Monday, July 22.
The meeting was adjourned after confirming that the next meeting would be held on Monday, June 17.
