BERNE — The Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District is not monkeying around with the possibility of another lawsuit.

Monday, at its monthly meeting, the school board voted unanimously to remove monkey bars from the district’s playgrounds at the Berne and Westerlo elementary schools.

The vote came after a recommendation from the district’s health and safety committee.
Business Administrator Gregory Diefenbach, who is on the committee, told the board the committee voted 18 to 5 to recommend the removal. The district is facing two lawsuits because children who have broken their arms falling from the equipment, Diefenbach said. One lawsuit, he said, "could be potentially in the six figures."

Superintendent Steven Schrade told The Enterprise the lawsuits are still in litigation and are based on accidents that happened in the past year.

Diefenbach explained the reason for the five votes against the recommendation.
"The last thing we want to do is have kids and ourselves live in a bubble," he said. "I’ve fallen off my share of things. That’s the way it is when you’re a kid."

However, he said, the committee felt the possibility of more lawsuits was too great.

A set of free-standing monkey bars will be removed from each playground. The ubiquitous playground apparatus consists of two parallel bars with cross-bars, like the rungs of a ladder, suspended from poles that are taller than most children.

Monkey bars attached to other equipment will remain.

The board speculated that the length of the free-standing sets may be why they are responsible for more falls than the other, shorter ones.
Diefenbach said he doesn’t think he could make it from one side to another of the free-standing bars, even though, he pointed out, "I work out."

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 45 percent of injuries on public playgrounds occur at schools. Fifty-three percent of injuries at public playgrounds happen on climbing equipment and 60 percent of those are from horizontal ladders like the monkey bars, the commission says. Most injuries are due to falling, the commission says.

For now, while the monkey bars are going, the rest of the BKW playground equipment will stay.
"We’ll wait until the next lawsuit," Schrade joked.

Goals

The board reviewed its goals for the 2005-06 school year, which are:

—To pass the budget on the first vote in May;

—To understand and comply with the state comptroller’s five-point plan for safeguarding school finance;

—To increase community awareness and knowledge about the budget process;

—To investigate the need for a course and/or extra help for students in test-taking strategies and skills;

—To expand the district’s mentoring program;

—To bring resolution to issues about valedictorian and salutatorian and weighted grades; and

—To develop a five-year facilities-use plan, including special-education requirements, the Westerlo building, and the feasibility of moving the sixth grade to the elementary school.

Other business

In other business at the Aug. 22 meeting, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board:

—Discussed summer training camps for sports teams. Board member Edward Ackroyd asked if the training is required to be on a school sports team and who pays for it. He said some parents have told him their children feel pressured to attend even if they can’t afford it.
"Some are insinuated so hard, they’re almost mandatory and those concern me," Ackroyd said.

Schrade said he would have a report assembled on summer training camps by the Oct. 3 school board meeting; and

—Held a vote on not adding $47,673 to this year’s tax levy to make up for an assessing mistake made last year by the town of Knox. The vote was a 2-to-2 tie. Board president Janet Finke was absent.

Board member Karen Storm voted against the motion with Joan Adriance.
"The only thing I caution the board against, is if the mistake is made again, we’re setting a precedent," Storm said.
"$50,000 was the difference between approving and disapproving the budget," said Ackroyd, who voted for the motion with Maureen Sikule.

The district scheduled an emergency meeting to vote on the issue with all members present for Thursday at 7:15 a.m.