Clearwater-Orchard Boards Discuss Prom Driving Policy

By Natalie Bruzon
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Should students drive themselves to prom? What if prom is held in a neighboring town?
These were some of the questions discussed during Clearwater-Orchard’s advisory boards meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

The boards updated each other on various things throughout the meeting, but the longest discussion was dedicated to prom, which the juniors voted to be held in Neligh. 

Sanne opened the discussion by explaining the juniors have voted to hold prom in the Ag Society building in Neligh, while promenade and post-prom will be in Orchard. 

“I think there’s some concerns with the driving and some issues associated with that,” said Sanne as a way to open the floor to discussion. 

Kristi Schutt, Orchard board’s treasurer affirmed that she had also heard concerns from parents about driving.

“I’ve got some parents concerned with the driving of it,” replied Schutt. She also added that some years ago, when her sons were going to prom, it was held in Norfolk and students were required to take school transportation.

“If we’re going let our kids go to another town or facility I would feel safer having our kids on a bus,” continued Schutt. “And if the juniors choose to do this I feel like the juniors should pay for the bus like they did in the past.”

DeAnna Clifton, Orchard board’s vice-president, agreed with Schutt’s opinion.

“I guess I have the same concern,” said Clifton. “I don’t feel like kids have ever been allowed to drive themselves to a different town, on prom so I was kind of surprised that that decision was made this time.”

Mike Sanne, Clearwater’s principal, clarified that students have been allowed to drive to prom before, referring to the prom held in Summerland Golf Course in Ewing. Clifton added that although that is true, only the banquet portion was held in Summerland, so students were not driving at night, whereas during this school year’s prom, students would be driving back to post-prom late at night. 

Amy Thiele, Clearwater board’s president, commented that administration made the decision to let students drive themselves. 

“I think the junior class did what they were supposed to do this year,” said Thiele. “They planned it out and went to administration and got permission . . . So if we want to change the policy I think it goes into effect for next school year.”

Bonnie Mitchell, Clearwater-Orchards special education instructor and junior class sponsor along with Cecily Thiele, was present at the meeting to add clarity when needed. 

“We did meet today and I tried not to let them get too vocal with opinions because I knew there was going to be discussion tonight,” said Mitchell about the junior class. “But  as a class they’re assessing what’s going on. They really wanted to have this in Neligh and when we talked about it earlier, the kids were kind of defeated. They were like, ‘Oh well maybe we should just have it in Orchard if we can’t drive and we have to have post-prom in Orchard.’ I mean, this is just some kids’ thoughts.”

Superintendent Dale Martin, who attended the meeting as well, explained administration’s’ decision to let students drive and added that the decision was to provide school transportation and allow parents to opt their student out. 

“Mr. sanne and I met with Bonnie, talked about it and what we came up with was that we said that we would provide transportation, just for clarification sake, and that the parents would have to opt their kid out of it,” explained Martin. “Now, maybe all the parents would do that, maybe they would all sing a waiver or whatever it would take to get them out. I can’t really speak for parents. But that’s what we said, we said we would provide transportation but parents then could opt their kids out.”

Aside from the safety concerns expressed by some board members, Candice Hoke, Orchard board’s president, shared her concern for the school’s liability. 

“What liability is there on the school, since it’s a school event?” Hoke asked the board. “My concern is, where our transportation policy on all other activities is so specific, the prom part of the transportation policy is not specific basically because it never needed to be. This is a new issue. Regardless of what parents think, what kids want, what’s the school’s liability? Because it is a school event.”

Another concern expressed by board members was post-prom.

Regina Krebs, Clearwater board’s treasurer and also a parent to an O-C student, said that she saw the issue as a post-prom issue, not a school issue.

“I don’t even have a problem with leaving the policy as is right now and changing it in June,” said Krebs. “I think the biggest decision that needs to be made is if (students) drive to prom whether or not they’re going to go to post prom . . . And that’s not a school decision . . . I think that goes back to the post-prom committee as to whether or not (students) are going to go to post prom if they can’t be accounted for between Neligh and Orchard.”

Clifton expressed the same concern as a parent and post-prom committee member.

“I feel like as a parent at post-prom, it kind of defeats the entire purpose of post-prom, keeping those kids off the road,” said Clifton. “Because now they’re going to have that time of travel in between, and how do we handle that then as workers there. Do you only get to come to post-prom if you ride the bus? Do we do breathalyzers and things at post-prom? I don’t know, that completely changes the look of post-prom as parents.”

The conversation continued for several minutes before Martin added that he had heard enough concern to change the decision made by administration. 

“To me, and this is just my opinion, if there are people that feel strongly enough about this, school provides the transportation and that’s it, you don’t allow anything else to happen,” said Martin. “I would rather err in the safe side than on the other side, that’s where I’m coming down.”

Ultimately, the board decided to revisit the prom policy in the summer and update it. For this year, it was left up to administration to make the final decision as to whether students will be allowed to drive to prom or not. 

Following the meeting, the Junior class decided to hold prom in Orchard. 

During the meeting, Cathy Cooper, Orchard site’s principal, updated the board on how the preschool did on the ECERS assessment. 

ECERS is a classroom assessment tool designed to measure the quality of group programs for infants and toddlers by collecting data through classroom observations and a staff interview. Kim Texel, a representative from the Nebraska Department of Education, completed the assessment on Orchard’s pre-school class, taught by Hannah Marsh.

“Kim Texel from the department of ed came out yesterday and met with Mrs. Marsh and me and went over it and we did very well,” said Cooper. “In fact she sang praises of Mrs. Marsh and our facility . . . basically, it’s unheard of to get a seven and we got a seven in two categories and overall 5.9 was the overall score for EKERS. (Texel) said that was very high and she literally asked Mrs. Marsh if she would be willing to let other people come and observe her and look at the preschool if people are struggling so kudos to Mrs. Marsh.”

The board also discussed their previous decision to provide meat and cheese trays for the teachers on December 20 during their work day. 

They amended that decision and decided instead to provide sub sandwiches, which Tammy Cheatum, an Orchard community member present at the meeting, volunteered to bring to both sites from Neligh. 

The Clearwater Advisory Board’s December 7 meeting was the last meeting vice-president Duane Kester acted as a board member. Starting in January, Brian King will take the seat. 

Sanne addressed Kester and thanked him for his eight years of service on the board. “Thank you, Duane, for your services, I appreciate it.”

The board entered executive session at 7:50 p.m. to discuss personnel.

The board will reconvene on January 2 in Orchard.