By Jolene FarleyThe Hills-Beaver Creek School Board approved changes to the Little Patriot Academy, elementary and high school handbooks at a Monday meeting. Superintendent Dave Deragisch explained changes in the deficiency list policies in the high school handbook to the board. A committee of the superintendent, school board members and staff studied the deficiency list policy this spring."Before, we had the week-by-week deficiency list, and we had some problems," Deragisch said.Students could not turn in important assignments, make the deficiency list one week, and not be on the list again because consecutive assignments were turned in on time. Students could fail a class if the missing assignment was a large portion of their grade.Now, a notice will be sent home to parents if a student fails to turn in homework or fails a test in any class during the week. The notice will not place a student on the deficiency list, but is a warning to students and parents that work for the week wasn’t up to school standards. Students in seventh through ninth grades will now be required to attend study table sessions or individual sessions with teachers if they receive one deficiency warning. Students in the 10th through 11th grades will have the same requirement after two deficiency warnings. "My goal is to watch and observe this (the new policy) for the first quarter," Deragisch said. Other changes in the handbook include a section that students must sign up for activity buses by noon the day of an event. If fewer than seven students sign up, the bus will be canceled. This change came about because of budget cuts. The dress code was changed to prevent students from wearing spaghetti strap shirts, tank tops and anything the superintendent or dean of students deems not appropriate."There were times at basketball and football games I wasn’t real proud of how our kids dressed," Deragisch said.Elementary Principal Todd Holthaus reviewed the proposed changes for the Little Patriot Academy and elementary handbooks with the board. The only change in the Little Patriot handbook was that the required birth date for students attending the Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes was changed.This change ensured that the oldest students at Little Patriot Academy would attend the same sessions. The attendance policy in the elementary handbook was "tweaked" by Holthaus. "I was trying to make sure we catch those kids that are falling through the cracks," he said. Other minor changes tightened procedures for the district. "It’s trying to be consistent and making sure we have a paper trail to come back to," he said.Holthaus stressed that the changes to the handbook are meant to be proactive, that the district hasn’t had any specific problems. Holthaus plans to review the handbook with students and their parents at the elementary open house planned for Monday, Aug. 30.Students and parents are asked to sign when they have read the handbook. The changes in the handbooks make things easier for those disciplining students, according to Deragisch. "This is the violation, this is the consequence," he said. "Here’s the offense, this is what I have to do."Superintendent contractDeragisch’s contract was renewed until June 30, 2007. His previous contract expired June 30 of this year.The superintendent’s salary will increase, from the current $79,000, by 3-percent each of the three years of the new contract.A clause allowing 20 working days of annual paid vacation was omitted from the contract by mutual agreement. Deragisch currently has 30-to-40 days out of the 240-day work year off. A clause allowing the superintendent to accrue up to 120 days of sick leave replaced a clause that allowed only 15 days per year, with the 15 days lost at the end of the year if unused.Another clause concerning severance pay for unused sick days at $100 per day not to exceed 75 days was also removed from the contract because of retirement allowances made in other areas of the contract.The changes to the contract removed contradictory language and further clarified the employment contract, according to Esselink.Fuel oil and gas bidsThe board debated asking for fixed or sliding scale bids from vendors for fuel oil and gas for the 2004-05 school year.Deragisch told the board it was difficult to compare apples to apples last year when the bids came in differently. "Probably to be fair, since we have a number of vendors in our community, it would be better to have an even playing field," Esselink said. Bids will be accepted until 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9. Milk and bread bidsThe board passed a motion to cooperate with the Luverne district for milk and bread purchases. Buying in larger quantities gives the districts more pricing leverage, according to Deragisch.