BROOKINGS – Monday night was a night of transition for the Brookings School Board, with the board reorganizing for the 2017-2018 school year.

At the start of the regular meeting were the final two items to conclude the 2016-2017 school year. The first of the two was the approval of the 2017-2018 Brookings High School student handbook, which was voted down during the previous meeting so that a few targeted changes could be made to it.

Although it was unanimously approved this time, School Board President Van Fishback recommended that next year, they begin their review of the handbook earlier in the year. “Then we have a little time to litigate some of these things. … We've got to get this thing out right now. This has got to go because (BHS Principal) Paul (von Fischer) needs the document.”

The other agenda item for that school year was supplementing the 2016-2017 budget, a necessary move after Brookings School District Business Manager Brian Lueders had some last-minute bills come in at the end of June.

Once taken care of, the new school board was organized, with Randy Grimsley approved as president of the school board for the next year. Mellissa Heermann was then selected to serve as the vice president. For the past year, Van Fishback and Larry Rogers have served as president and vice president of the board, respectively.

And the board thanked the departing Rogers for his seven years of service as a member of the school board, honoring him with a B.E.S.T. (Bobcats Exhibiting Success and Triumphs) award. He received a plaque that read, “In recognition of Larry Rogers, for his seven years of service in the Brookings School District,” and included an inscription that read, “I move to adjourn.”

That was included because during his time on the board, Rogers would almost always be the one to make the first motion to adjourn the school board meeting.

Fishback thanked him for his dedication to his position.

“The way I operate as president is I meet with Klint a week ahead of time to prepare the board meeting, and I've always insisted that the vice president be present with me,” Fishback said.

“So actually Larry and I have been together quite a bit in the last year, and we've had a lot of good times. We've had a lot of collegiality. However, I'd like to point out that being a board member is not about collegial or about being a good guy. Being a board member means doing what you think is right, and I think that is what Larry has always exhibited during his years of service on the board, and we're all grateful for your service, Larry.”

Before departing, Rogers was thankful, joking, “My final thought is it's my pleasure to have been on the board, even including the time I got voted off it.”

With that done, Jennifer Lacher-Starace, who was elected to the school board in April, took the oath of office, starting her three-year term. She and the others had a full night ahead of them as they heard about a range of topics, most notably discussion (but no action) on the school district's ongoing comprehensive facility plan.

It was for that agenda item that the meeting room was packed to capacity with Camelot Intermediate School staff concerned about one of the options, which recommended converting Camelot into an elementary school building and then reorganizing the four elementary schools into K-5 facilities. That option is now off the table.

An article covering this will appear in an upcoming edition of The Brookings Register.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.