The Yankton School District (YSD) school board discussed elementary school changes at its regularly scheduled board meeting Monday night.

Melanie Ryken, Webster School principal, discussed several changes to the elementary school handbook, which board members approved.

“Last summer, we really revamped the handbooks so there are not too many changes we have to make this year,” she said. “One of the changes we’re making has to do with how inclement weather announcements are made over the new system we have at YSD.”

Other changes to the handbook address parent-teacher conferences and the dates they are held and the visitors policy, which requires visitors to the elementary schools to sign in at the main office upon arrival.

“We decided to hold parent-teacher conferences after the first quarter, in addition to having them between the second and third quarters,” Ryken said. “When we used to have them after the third quarter, we thought they were being held too late in the year.”

She also discussed a pilot study for Webster School during the 2013-14 school year that will deal with holding recess before lunch for students.

“For the longest time, schools throughout the country have been holding lunch before recess,” Ryken said. “(YSD child nutrition supervisor) Sandi Kramer and I have been talking about doing this for about the last 15 months.”

She added that the concept of holding recess before lunch is becoming a trend among schools nationwide.

However, there were several issues that had to be worked out before the plan could be put into place for Webster School.

“We had to get a number of issues working out including schedules with our teachers and custodial staff,” Ryken said. “We also have to deal with the issue of allowing kids to wash their hands after recess. We decided on using sanitary wipes for students which are quick, easy and effective. They’re also pretty cheap and each pack of wipes will only cost us about 1/2 penny.”

Despite the issues Ryken had to work through, she said the program should have a number of advantages.

“The national trend of recess-before-lunch programs shows that kids will eat more and waste less food,” she said. “There have also been trends that show these programs have less problems with students out on the playground during recess.”

Ryken said the staff at Webster School is on board and excited for the pilot.

YSD superintendent Joe Gertsema said he hopes the program has a positive impact and hopes it works.

Also on Monday’s agenda, board members authorized former school district employee Joyce Wentworth to research and index historical records of YSD.

“The project of doing historical work for the Yankton School District has been on my mind for about the last 13 years,” she said. “I’m passionate that the school district should save and archive its history and that kids need to be able to understand the history of the district they attend.”

Also Monday, board members:

• approved a one-time discretionary stipend for all classified and administrative staff who were employed with the district under a work agreement or contract prior to Jan. 1, 2013;

• approved contracts/work agreements and classified professional salary plans for a number of employees;

• accepted the resignations of eight employees;

• approved an addendum to new superintendent Wayne Kindle’s contract to pay him $4,022 for nine days of service in June before his contract takes effect July 1;

• approved Kindle as YSD’s representative for all federal programs for the 2013-14 school term;

• awarded the Prime Food Vendor contract to Food Service of America, as recommended by Kramer;

• approved the 2013-14 official textbook list;

• approved Jennifer Johnke as the Yankton High School principal with the contract salary of $75,665 for the 2013-14 school term.

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