Monday May 11 USD 273 Board Of Education Meeting

Unified School District 273

May Meeting – May 11, 2015

By Terry Bailey

The Board of Education of the Unified School District 273 conducted their monthly meeting on May 11^th. All members were present as was the Superintendent of Schools, Jeff Travis.

The meeting opened with three representatives from the Solomon Valley Community Foundation present to award a $750 grant to the Parents as Teachers program. Representing the Foundation were Jim Gates, Bob Severance, and Amanda McGuire. McGuire said they had applied for the grant through the Dane Hansen Foundation and had been successfully awarded $750. The Parents as Teachers staff want to use the money to provide books to children when they make their home visits. Because of funding issues some groups have not been able to continue this valuable service.

In his Superintendent’s report Travis told the Board that the Kansas Legislature is in the “Veto” session. The Legislature over road a veto of a bill by Governor Brownback for the first time since he had been in office. Travis also reported that the Kansas Department of Revenue has a large pile of tax returns that are as yet unopened because their Department did not have the budget authority to hire part-time workers to help process the returns.

According to Travis the Legislature is looking at a wide range of possible taxing sources to find ways to balance the budget. He said it is difficult to get a grip on what avenues they will use to raise the needed money.

Travis said the building addition at the Elementary School continues to show progress each day. A grant for $48,000 had been submitted to the Dane Hansen foundation to help fund the technology center that will be a part of the addition. While they did not get the entire amount they hoped for, the district did receive a grant check from the Hansen Foundation for $25,000. The will help equip the center with up to date hardware and software.

R.J. Jackson, President of the Beloit High Student Council, was present to officially hand over the gavel to the newly elected president for the 2015-2016 school year. Jackson presented the Stuco president’s gavel to Colson Reiman who will lead the STUCO next year.

Athletic Director Casey Seyfert reported that the Jr. High League Track Meet would be held in Russell on Tuesday, May 12^th. This will conclude a highly successful track season with the 8^th grade and 7^th grade boys and girls teams finishing in either first or second place, mostly first, for all the track meets thus far in the season. Beloit will host the League Track Meet this Friday and will also host the Regional Track Meet on Friday, May 22^nd. Beloit will also host the Softball Regional tournament which qualifies teams for the State Tournament. The boy’s baseball team will travel to Lyons for their Regional.

Karen Niemczyk, Director of the Beloit Special Education Cooperative, advised the Board that the Special Ed teachers work closely with their students to teach them visual cues that help the students interact successfully with their environment. These cues are readily recognized by general education students but are a challenge for the Special Ed students. Niemczyk said that by helping their student with these cues, the Special Ed students can gain appropriate methods of communicating needs and feelings.

Karen Pahls shared with the Board the updated job description for the position of Executive Director of the MCPC to better reflect the current duties of that office. She also provided a job description for the Preschool Director. Each building must have its own director and she said at least one, if not more, of the teachers in each building would qualify.

The Board unanimously approved an Employee Council survey which would be completed by teachers to provide feedback for administrators. The surveys would be completed by the teachers and collected by the Employee Council. The Council would then forward surveys of its choosing to the administrators.

Elementary principal Byron Marshall told the Board that about 250 people attended the 5^th grade program on April 30^th

Marshall reported that field trips are going on this week and next. He wanted to thank the PTO and the parents for making these learning activities possible.

The intermural track meet for students in the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade classes will be held on Wednesday May 13^th at Trojan track at 8:30 a.m.

Fun Day races are Wednesday, May 21^st at 1:30 p.m. at Trojan Field.

$100,303 was appropriated for textbooks for the 2015-16 school year. The majority of the money will be spent for elementary school textbooks that are in dire need of updating.

Tech purchases for the upcoming year including replacement Chromebooks for the high school and new ones for the technology center at the Elementary school. A total of $32,046 was allocated for those purchases.

Driver Education instructor contracts were approved for Brad Mason and Terri Engelbert. The ten-day classroom segment of the class will begin on May 26^th followed by the driving segment. Beloit Auto Truck Plaza will once again provide the driver ed vehicles at no cost to the school. The cost of the class is $122 for Beloit Jr. Sr. High and St. John’s students. Out of districts pay a fee of $202. There are not out of district students this year.

August 21^st will be the first day school for the 2015-16 school year.

High School principal Darrell Moore reviewed the policy that all Chromebooks are to be turned in for the summer. Moore reported that members of the Student Council had made a very intelligent and well thought appeal to enable students to keep their Chromebooks over the summer. They proposed a loan agreement between the school and the students and their parents. A number of students enroll in summer college classes and would use their Chromebooks very heavily for this purpose. Moore noted that a significant number of students do not have access to such a learning tool like a Chromebook. He felt this would keep all kids on a level basis in their attempt to access information.

A fee of $50 has been suggested for the rental of the Chromebooks for the summer months. Moore presented a Summer Loan Agreement detailing all the provisions of the summer rental process for the Board’s review. Moore readily acknowledged that kids will be kids and some will push limits since that is what kids do, but the long term advantage to a significant number of students would offset the negative points.

After a discussion regarding the merits of such a program the Board voted 7-0 to approve the summer rental program.

End of the year staff movements were as follows:

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA