Monday June 8 USD 273 School Board Meeting

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Unified School District #273

June Board of Education Meeting

June 8, 2015

By Terry Bailey

The Unified School District #273 Board of Education met on Monday evening, June 8 to conduct the monthly business of the School District. Brenda Krone, vice president of the Board, presided over the meeting in the absence of Board President Jason Johnson. Five of the eight members were present for the meeting.

Superintendent Jeff Travis reported that the high school parking lot chip and seal project is underway. The workers are currently digging out the cracks in the current surface. They will then fill those holes with cold mix. Once are the cracks are fixed, they will lay down oil and spread rock on top of the oil and roll the rock several times.

Travis said the building project at the Elementary School is progressing well. Various projects are being worked on simultaneously which gives the impression that progress is slow. However, after a few days as the projects come together the progress looks to be fast.

Travis said he would forgo any legislative update report because of the fragmented status of the legislature as it works to find a budget with enough support to get passed.

An extended conversation took place regarding the time and date for the 2016 graduation. Traditionally, Beloit High School graduation has been on a Sunday afternoon. Because the month of May contains many university, college and technical school graduations families are often forced to choose if they have both a high school and a college graduate in the family. An additional factor to the puzzle is that Project Graduation is held on the Sunday of graduation in the evening and late into the morning. Baseball, softball, and golf have their Regional or State competitions on the Monday after graduation. Senior athletes have to choose between attending the late night activities or going home early so they will be ready for competition on Monday. Because of the imperfect nature of our world, no day of the week or time of the day was without potential drawbacks.

A tentative date and time for the 2016 Beloit High graduation ceremonies was set for Saturday, May 22, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. The last day of school for the Seniors will be May 18^th. A final vote on the time and date of the 2016 graduation will be conducted at the July Board meeting.

A plaque was presented to Brenda Krone commemorating her years of service to the Board of Education and the children of the public school system. Krone’s term will expire at the end of the month of June.

Casey Seyfert, athletic director, assistant principal and soon to be Principal of Beloit Jr. Sr. high school gave a run-down of athletic activities and the finishing status of Beloit High spring sports.

Both the Beloit girl’s and the boy’s track teams finished as the Class 3A runners up at the State Track and Field Championships. Seyfert reported that all the Beloit athletes performed at the top of their ability level and everyone came home satisfied they had done their best. The baseball and softball teams finished their seasons as runners up at their Regional tournaments.

Seyfert said that the gym and weight room are very busy every day. Camps are being conducted for the various sports. All in all the kids are showing devotion to getting better and attempting to raise the level of their athletic ability.

The Board examined a proposed lease between the City of Beloit and the old education building at the North Campus. Cassie Kopsa, assistant director of the Special Education Coop, reported that the air conditioning in the building has been problematic in the past and with the current hot weather the temperature in the building is often at 87 degrees or higher. Children in the building find the heat almost unbearable. The heat makes the learning environment virtually unworkable.

Those acquainted with the building know that the system is very old and dated. The heating and cooling comes from the boiler room building 70 or 80 yards away and comes to the school building via a steam tunnel. Parts are hard to find and finding a workman skilled in the repair of such a system is even more challenging. It was the understanding of the Board that the City is making a good faith effort to fix the air conditioning system but some challenges will be faced. The Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the five year contract with the City of Beloit for the use of the Educational Building at the North Campus.

Kopsa also reported that the Well Managed Classroom training will take place June 9-11 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day. Participating in the training will be Amanda Thiessen, Gayle Mahin, Amanda Seyfert, Karen Niemczyk, and Cassie Kopsa. Successfully completing this training will allow these staff members to provide training for additional staff.

The prices of school lunches will go up next school year. Grades Kindergarten – 6^th grade currently pay $2.50 per lunch. They will pay $2.60 next year. Grades 7 – 12 currently pay $2, 60 per lunch and will pay $2.70 next year. Adults pay $3.40 for a lunch and will see a ten cent raise to $3.50 next fall.

Along the same line, the Board voted to renew the food service contract with OPA. All indications are that the students are pleased with the lunches and have no major complaints.

The Board examined the extra duty and coaching assignments for the upcoming school year. Casey Seyfert reported there was a vacancy for a high school assistant track coach, an assistant girls’ basketball coach, and a Junior High football coaches. He told the Board that the head coaches in each of these sports have a process of identifying replacements in their ranks and he believes the positions will be fill by July. One more challenging position is that of a Junior High Cheerleading sponsor. He said the position always get filled but it is usually later in the summer. The Board approved all supplemental contracts that were presented for their consideration.

A co-operative agreement for wrestling was approved between USD 273 and USD 107 Mankato-Rock Hills for wrestling for the next two years.

Next up was contracts for certified staff. The resignation of Byron Marshall as Elementary School principal has created a vacancy in that position. All teaching positions at the Elementary and High school have been filled. Positions with the Special Ed Coop are almost all filled. The Board approved all certified and classified contract for the upcoming school year.

At 8:45 p.m. the Board recessed into an executive session. At 9:05 they entered into a ten minute extension of the closed session.

When the regular session resumed, a motion was made to waive the penalty for late resignation for Byron Marshall. It passed unanimously.

A motion was made to name Superintendent Jeff Travis the principal at Beloit Elementary School. The motion passed

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA