March BOE Review
MARCH 2019 BOE MEETING REVIEW
Superintendent’s Report
We had a nice crowd at the Peterson Brothers concert Wednesday afternoon and the students appeared to enjoy their presentations to both groups.
Track and golf was supposed to start last Monday but the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating with them.
Kudos to our P-4 students and Alex on their concert Tuesday night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend much of it because of my class, but I’ve heard they had a good performance.
Our junior high students went to contest last Friday in LaCrosse and came home with 4 second division ratings and 10 ist division ratings. Outstanding job.
Carley Chrisler will be inducted into NHS in a few weeks
The elementary school celebrated Read Across America last Thursday with forensics students coming over to read Dr. Seuss stories to them. The day began with the traditional green eggs and ham breakfast served to all the students, faculty, and staff. Everyone was also encouraged to wear their PJ’s to school.
AD Report
Mr. Ostmeyer reported on the beginning of the spring sports. He also reported we will not have enough players for junior high tackle football next year so we will once again do flag football, which 6th grade students are allowed to participate in. All but one of the schools we play have agreed to do the flag football with us. He also reported Sylvan-Lucas no longer was interested in cooping in golf with us this year.
Elementary Head Teacher Report
Mrs. Mettlen reported on the Read Across America Day as well as informed the BOE of upcoming State Assessments. She also discussed with the BOE the possibility of changing our grading system at the elementary to not have 2nd grade students receive letter grades. This is a common practice since at that level, students are made to correct work since we want to be sure they understand the concepts we are teaching. We would go to the same grading practice we already use in Pre-K-1st grade with teachers marking progress on the concepts they are teaching.
Old Business
Ms. Murphy and I have been working on a policy update for our dual credit classes. The policy needed to be revamped due to colleges allowing students to withdraw from a class without a grade up until they take the final test. High Schools don’t have that ability so we rewrote our policy to reflect how we will handle the situation: “Students must drop the dual credit class within two weeks of the class beginning with no consequence. If the student wants to drop the class after that two-week period, they may enroll in a similar class if it is available, for example dropping English Comp and getting into English IV. If there isn’t a similar class they can enroll in, they will receive the grade they have earned up to when they dropped the class. Students who drop a class and cannot enroll in a similar class will be assigned to an elective class they can start part way through the quarter.” The new policy will be added to the handbook for next year.
New Business
The BOE approved the renewal of our contract with KW Lawn Services to fertilize the football field.
The BOE approved the contract for auditing services with our current auditor.
Cambria gave the BOE an update on who will be up for re-election for our current board positions.
The BOE also approved the addition of CPR as a required part of our PE/Health Requirement as mandated by the State of Kansas.
The BOE considered several options for student cell phone use during school hours. I contacted several schools to gather information on what their policies are and they ranged from not having a policy to not allowing them in the building. The Jr/Sr High faculty met the week before during an in-service to discuss what they wanted to propose to the board. Their recommendation was to allow student to carry their phone but they have to put them in a specific place when they enter the classroom. They may use them between classes and at lunch, with the exception of Tuesday at lunch when we have No Tech Tuesday to encourage our students to talk to each other at lunch. The BOE agreed to give this a try for the last quarter and revisit it at the end of the year to see how it worked. Students were informed if we continue to have problems with cell phones, the BOE has the option to not allow cell phones at school. With our 1:1 laptop program we have in grades 6-12, there is no educational value in students having access to their phones. Some districts have a “Bring your own technology” program where students use their phones for research and classroom activities. With every student having their own laptop, that need isn’t a concern.
The BOE also considered and approved a school calendar for next year after hearing feedback from teachers and staff. I will post the new calendar on the website as soon as possible. One change that was made for next year is to attend school on the Friday of Homecoming. Since we went to a four-day week, it didn’t “feel” right to have the parade and activities on Thursday and the game on Friday.
The BOE also accepted the resignation of Jonelle Custenboarder as 6-12 secretary and appointed Shawna Dunlap as deputy board clerk for the remainder of the school year.
