School board addresses incident where autistic child was forgotten at bus drop-off

White County School Board had their regularly scheduled board meeting Dec. 11, and there was a strategic plan meant to help assure safety and efficiency in the school district in the future school years.

A parent also stepped forward to share an unfortunate incident that she felt was unacceptable and required a change in the way the school board handles buses for Special Education students. There was also, once again, discussion about the volunteer fire departments in the county.

Karen Stafford’s child, a nonverbal, autistic child that always rides the bus, was forgotten at the drop-off at school one morning. He was not discovered until the driver reached the bus yard, and the driver had to transport the child back to school in the driver’s personal car. Stafford, however, claims she was never notified of the incident at all until the afternoon by the student’s teacher. She felt this was unacceptable and left her in the dark when her child could be at risk.

Stafford said, “I’m not here to criticize anybody. I’m here to demand policy change because children like mine don’t have a voice, and I will be that voice.”

Chairman Bob Young responded first with an apology, saying, “On behalf of the board, we do deeply regret the situation that happened. I appreciate the fact that in our conversations that you just wanted to encourage us to look and revisit policies and procedures to see what ways we could mitigate risk.”

Chairman Young said the safeguards were all in place, but the issue was a result of human error on the standpoint of the driver not checking for the children at the school, as is regulation. He said that, as chairman, he will look to speak with the director of transportation to find ways to assure something like this never happens again.

It is one of the main duties of the school board to come up with a strategic plan for their districts, and the board approved a new one that will lead into the 2026-2027 school year. The school board had undergone a SWOT initiative, which means to identify Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The strategic plan is as follows, said by Chairman Bob Young: “The White County School Board is committed to a traditional of excellence in the educational process we provide to White County. Our vision of what excellence looks like is students know that teachers, administrators, parents, and guardians are invested in their education. In order for that vision to be realized, our mission will be to create a cultural shift that leverages parents, guardians, and educators’ engagement in the students’ education. Our strategic objectives, based on survey results, from September 2025, is to move stakeholder engagement from a perceived weakness to a strength for our district. We will work with our Director, administrators, PTO organizations, teachers, and support staff, parents, guardians, and students to achieve this objective. That will include coming up with tactical objectives in preparation for our 2026-2027 school year and implement those objectives through the 2027-2028 school year. During this time, we will have reports and survey results to measure the effectiveness and efforts in order to reach this goal.”

Some of the board members also thanked parents and others in the district for filling out the survey that would help identify potential weaknesses the school board should evaluate. The motion to approve the strategic plan passed unanimously.

The school board had an update on the information with the fire departments, such as BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department, and the issue of their facility and school property. Cassville, Central View, and BonDeCroft all have their fire departments on top of school property, and, in the past, this prohibited BonDeCroft from securing grant funding for their organization.

Chairman Young proceeded with a motion for the school board to draft a lease for all fire departments on their property. It would be a five-year lease drawn up by Director of School Kurt Dronebarger in coordination with the county’s finance director, Chad Marcum. The lease would provide the volunteer fire departments a legal document, so the grant issue should hopefully not occur again. Board member Jayson McDonald asked what the monetary value of the lease is, if it’s a $1 lease or less. Chairman Young said he feels it can just be an agreement with no monetization, but if the board wanted to go forward with a value, it should not exceed a dollar.

The motion to approve the initial draft passed unanimously, and there should be an update in January for the school board to vote on a finalized plan on the lease.

Principal Shauna Hicks from Cassville was present for the meeting, as the board recognized talented artists from the school. After a brief presentation congratulating each student, a photo was taken of the group to commemorate.

Principal Hicks said, “I feel like it’s so important to be able to bring to you all the best version of Cassville Elementary and the best kiddos we have.”

The student representatives, Isabella Sackett and Callie O’Dell, gave their report at the meeting. During the report, three student-athletes at White County High School were recognized for continuing their athletic career in college.

Sackett said, “We’re incredibly proud of these student-athletes for their hard work and dedication, both on and off the field and court.”

O’Dell then went over the success on their End of Course exams, as well as the departure of early graduates at the high school. She also announced a few new clubs, such as Club America, WCHS Fantasy Football Club, and Conspiracy Theories and Unsolved Mysteries.

During Director Dronebarger’s update on the district, he gave the floor to RTI Supervisor Farrah Griffith. She gave a presentation updating on RTI, or the response to intervention. The purpose of RTI is to assist in students that struggle academically and behaviorally. Part of this included a recent award the school district won due to its efforts with behavioral intervention.

The next scheduled school board meeting is Jan. 8, 2026, at the board of education. The meeting will start at 6 p.m., and all meetings are livestreamed on YouTube at White County School Board.