BOE Meeting Overview 10/9/2017
The USD #399 Board of Education met in their regular meeting October 9th with several important issues to discuss. The meeting was moved to the commons area to facilitate a large crowd of community members and parents at the meeting to discuss the BOE policy concerning school employees serving as volunteer fire fighters and EMS personnel leaving their buildings to answer emergency calls. I appreciate the large number of people that showed up at th meeting to discuss this issue because it is alway good to get input into decisions directly from those it might affect. After searchng through minutes and policies from years back, (1998 & 2000) it was discovered there was already a policy adopted in 1998 allowing for emergency personnel to respond to calls during the day. Some concern was expressed about the safety of their students if these people were allowed to leave the building during the school day. Just as a point to consider, neither I nor the BOE would ever create a situation that we can control that would have a negative impact on the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. Of course I understand the concern parents might have and appreciated their input as well. After a lengthy discussion BOE president Brad Murphy thanked those in attendance and informed them we would be discussing this issue later in the meeting with no changes being made until the November meeting so those interested would have time for input before a final decision was made. Later in the meeting the BOE retired to Executive Session to discuss the policy and after coming out of executive session decided to continue with the policy already in place and asked me to add the policy to the Classified Handbook I am currently working on to be considered at the November BOE meeting for approval.
The BOE then accepted a gift of $1200 from Southwind Bank for the purchase of a subscription to Huddle for our coaching staff to utilize.
The next issue on the agenda was the consideration of bids to remove the remaining asbestos from the access tunnels and boiler rooms in both buildings. Two bids were received for the project. One from ACM in Wichita in the amount of $40,445 and one from GPAC out of Kearney Nebraska in the amount of $71,300. The BOE accepted the bid from ACM with instruction to me to bring a proposed scheduel for the work to be completed to the November meeting. The BOE is considering moving ahead with several projects to improve our heating and cooling effeciency and possibly constructing two perminiate classrooms at the elemntary to replace the portable classrooms currently housing our pre-kindergarten and music rooms. We can't move forward with anyh projects until we remove the remaining asbestos from the tunnells. The tunnells are sealed at the present time so there is no danger of exposure to our students and staff. Regardless of if we move forward with any projects, it's something that needs to be done.
The BOE approved the contracts for Deb Christopher as head cook, Kristi Grafel as an at-risk para, and Vicki Roberts as assistant cook.
The final action taken by the BOE was to approve 8 1/2 days of sick leave to be transfered to the Sick Leave Bank. By BOE policy, the sick leave bank has to maintain 100 days in it to be viable. The teachers are responsible for donating days towards it and the BOE can donate up to 25 days a year to maintain the bank. The next BOE meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 13.
