October BOE Review
OCTOBER 2018
BOE MEETING OVERVIEW
The USD #399 Board of Education met at its regular meeting October 8th in the IDL room at Natoma Jr/Sr High. One addition was made to the agenda and that being the resolution to continue working with Smoky Hill Education Coop in Salina for the next five years.
The BOE approved the consent agenda after reviewing several bills listed on the treasurer’s report.
The BOE entered into executive session to discuss personnel issues.
Back in open session, I gave my report on several issues including a discussion I had with the students about what ideas they had to make our school better and what we could and could not control on their wish list.
I also discussed the crisis drills we are not required by law to have each year. The Kansas Legislature passed into law last session a bill that requires all schools to have four fire drills, three tornado drills, and nine crisis drills. Before the new law, we were only required to have a fire drill each month and three tornado drills a year. Most schools, including ours, had crisis drills already but they are not required. We have practiced several different drills over the last two months and will continue to do other drills throughout the year. Crisis procedures are not made public for obvious reasons so I will not go into much detail about them. However, USD #399 has a very good crisis drill and all employees have been instructed on the procedures they are to follow in the even certain situations present themselves. The District Crisis Plan has also been shared with local law enforcement agencies in the area so they are aware of what our procedures are if they need to lend assistance.
I also discussed the end of the first quarter was last Friday so we are already into our second quarter.
I also discussed the low number of girls we had interested in playing basketball this year. It isn’t so much of the girls not wanting to play but we only have eight total girls in our high school so that limits the number of athletes we even have available to play.
I also discussed with the BOE a new program I wanted to start called “Chew & Chat”. This program will be during lunch and every week I will invite different groups of students to have lunch with me and discuss current issues at school and get the student’s perspective of how things are going at school.
I then informed the BOE we found a small termite problem under the stage at the elementary school that we had already addressed. It doesn’t appear there is any structural damage yet so I think we caught it in time.
I informed the BOE we now have Senior Passes available for any of our patrons 62 or older. The passes can either be picked up at either of the schools or patrons can pick them up at the gate before our games. The passes allow free admission to any or our home activities with the exception of league tournaments we might be hosting.
Under old Business we discussed the need to replace the HVAC system in the Vocational Ag building since the furnace no longer works and the units are 13 years old. Bids were reviewed and the bid was awarded to Glassman Corporation from Hays.
The BOE approved adding five days to the teacher sick bank. The BOE has the option of donating days to the bank to maintain the number of days available per year at 100 days.
I asked permission to let school out early on November 1st as we have in the past to host our Scholar Bowl tournament. School will be dismissed at 2:00 pm that day.
A correction was made to the student handbook to put the percentage students needed to be eligible at 65%.
Two gifts were accepted by the BOE: Bob Miller Construction donated $2,500 back to the school to help pay for the cubbies and shelving we provided for the new building; Perfect Print also donated $2,289.84 to the school athletic fund from the Labor Day 5K run.
The BOE then approved the resolution to remain in the Smoky Hill Education Coop.
STEM was discussed with the BOE as a possible addition to our science and math curriculum. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and is a program available for schools to use. However, the cost is very prohibitive and Mrs. Mettlen shared that we already do STEM projects as our elementary without paying the high fees related to getting the entire program.
The BOE approved the resignation of Teresa Brandenburg as science teacher at the junior/senior high school. Teresa has been offered another position outside of education and the BOE released her from her contract so she can take the other position. Taylor Murphy will take over teaching science for our 6-11 students with the exception of Chemistry class which our two students will take online.
The BOE also approved the negotiated agreement with the Natoma Teachers Association.
The meeting adjourned after this action.
