School board briefs

NESPELEM — The Nespelem School board of directors Monday night approved the appointment of Zekkethal “Val” Vargas-Thomas as a director in Position 1, the seat just being vacated by Patrick Marchand, who did not seek re-election.

It was the last meeting for Marchand, who has chaired the board since the resignation of long-time board member, the late Jeannie Moon.

“I am sorry to see him leave and his leadership will be missed,” Superintendent Rich Stewart said.

• In other business, the board was updated on the purchase of 16 new Chromebooks and a charging cart for about $7,500. Chromebooks are a type of laptop computer that runs only on Google’s Chrome operating system, with all documents stored in the cloud.

• This district has also ordered new guided reading books for kindergarten through third grades, plus another set for the library, at a cost of about $9,500.

• Stewart was directed to work with former on-staff teacher Rudy Christianson on his appeal for more pay for a long-term substitute assignment from 2014.

COULEE DAM — Grand Coulee Dam School District board members re-elected Joette Barry chairman of the board Monday night. George LaPlace was elected vice-chairman and Barry was re-elected as legislative representative for the board.

• The average student attendance for December was 681.97, the school board learned Monday night. The number of students for the same period a year ago was 716.44. The number of students budgeted for this school year was 680.

• The board Monday night approved three hires and one resignation.

Hired was Pete Adolph as eighth-grade girls’ basketball coach; Jesse Utz, SHARP Teens PM program leader; and Karrie Utz, SHARP Teens AM program leader. Resigning as middle school head track coach was John McNeil, who stated that he would be moving out of the area.