Board approves TechSmart CTE contract, personnel recommendations and one student expulsion

The Springfield Public Schools District 186 Board of Education approved several consent and personnel items at its Sept. 2 meeting, including a continuing contract with TechSmart to provide coding courseware and teacher training and routine personnel recommendations; the board also approved the recommended expulsion of one 11th-grade student.

Why it matters: The TechSmart contract expands career and technical education offerings in computer science—Python courses—for Lanphier, Springfield and Southeast High Schools and is paid through a CTE grant. Personnel approvals and discipline decisions are regular board actions that affect staffing and student placement.

Superintendent Gill explained that TechSmart will provide training and digital courseware for Python 1–4; teachers new to Python will receive training in the entry-level courses and teachers who have taught Python 1–2 will receive training for Python 3–4. She said the district worked with the regional office and a grant to fund the contract.

On roll calls the board recorded seven aye votes to approve the consent items and the personnel report. The personnel report carried as presented. On the discipline matter the board voted to expel one eleventh-grade student from Lanphier High School for the remainder of the 2025–26 school year with an assigned program.

The board also reminded the public the next regular meeting and the public hearing on the tentative budget will be held Sept. 15.