Monday January 11th USD 273 Board Of Education Meeting

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USD #273 Board of Education Meeting

Monday, January 11, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The school board of USD 273 conducted their first business meeting of 2016 on Monday evening, January 1¹^th.

In his superintendent’s report, Jeff Travis highlighted a few important points for the Board to consider. The month of January is School Board Appreciation Month. He read a Proclamation regarding the appreciation of the work done by the local school board members. It read, in part:

“Public School Board Members Create a Future for Every Child”

“Our board of education is comprised of seven individuals whose decisions impact the future of every child in our school.

They bear responsibility for an annual budget of 16.7 million dollars, 826 students, 243 employees and 5 buildings.

We are grateful to have this opportunity to formally say “thank you” to each and every one of them.

The men and women serving USD #273 and their years of service are : Brent Budke – 7 years, Jason Johnson – 7 years, Sharra Odle – 9 years, Tyler Odle – 1 year, Mike Riemann – 9 years, Greg Shamburg – 11 years, and Monte Wessling -3 years.”

Travis reminded the Board that the Governor’s State of the State message will be delivered at 5:30 p.m. on January 12^th. In an unexpected change of procedure from the past, Brownback’s address will not be televised. Wichita-based public television station KPTS has broadcast the State of the State message for the past decade but was unable to raise the money to cover this year’s broadcast.

The governor’s office announced a solution for the lack of coverage of Brownback’s address by saying his speech would be live streamed on www.Kansas.gov for those interested in listening to the governor outlining his plan to solve the state’s economic woes and finding a way to fund public education in Kansas.

Thus far in each month of the current fiscal year, tax revenues have fallen short of their projected numbers.

Colson Rieman, President of the Beloit High School Student Council, gave his monthly report to the Board. Student council members delivered Angel Tree items to about 90 households. They manned the visitors booth at the Isle of Lights one night. They are selling T-shirts and wrist bands to raise money for Down’s syndrome. The Winter Homecoming dance and festivities will be held on February fifth.

Representatives from the Site Council and the Parent Teacher Organization were not in attendance to provide a report on their activities.

Brady Dean, vice-principal of Beloit Elementary School, reported that the book fair took place from December 8^th until December 18^th. They took in $9,055 during that time and will be able to keep $1,982 of that amount. The money will go to the school library for purchase of books.

The school Geo Bee was held on January 8^th. The winner of the contest was sixth grader, Sarah Zimmerman. Fourth grade student Noah Gertsner was the runner up. The state GEO finals will be held in Abilene. Sara will take an online test with the hopes of scoring high enough to qualify for a trip to Abilene.

The Winter AIMESWeb reading and math assessments are being given in yet another round of testing for the students.

Important dates on the calendar are:

Jan. 13 – School Spelling Bee

Jan. 22 – No school

Jan. 25 – Third grade program

Feb. 11 – Parent Teacher Conferences

Feb. 12 and 15 – No School

Feb 16 – March 10 – Kansas Performance Assessments

March 16 –May 12 – Kansas Assessment Window

Dean then put on his other hat as the MCPC Executive Director and briefed the board on the activities of that program.

Testing was also taking place with the staff administering the winter common measures assessments with 141 students being tested.

Assessment results indicated:

Literacy

Fall - 37% met standards and 65% below standards.

Winter – 51% met standards and 49% below standards.

Math

Fall – 73% meeting or almost meeting standards and 27% below standards

Winter – 83% meeting or almost meeting standards and 17% not meeting standards

The testing showed improvement in both categories. No one asked the question “Why are the literacy rates outlandishly lower that the mathematics scores?”

Dean presented one final topic to the Board. He said that high turnover rates for the staff at MCELC has presented problems in program continuity at the school. He asked that the Board approve an Employee Childcare Discount Policy as an incentive for employees to continue their employment with the facility. Many of the staff have children that attend the MCELC.

Staff working full time with children at MCELC will be eligible for the first tier of childcare discounts after they have successfully completed the 20 day probationary period.

Staff who have been continuously employed at the MCELC for at least 18 months would qualify for the second tier of childcare discounts for staff.

The Board approved the plan proposed by Dean.

Karen Niemczyk, Director of the Beloit Special Ed Coop, alerted the Board to the provisions of the Extended School Year program. The Extended School Year Program will provide services for children with disabilities. Members of the student’s IEP team meet and discuss the needs of a student for the extended school year program. This is not summer school. The need for the ESY program must be decided individually with the IEP being the document that indicates the needs of each student, how these needs will be addressed, and the length of each student’s extended year program.

Casey Seyfert, Beloit Jr. Sr. High Principal, reported to the Board about the activities at his building.

The State Assessments will be administered sometime between February 16^th and March 10^th.

A large crowd attended the band concert on December 21^st. This past weekend band members went to Salina for KMEA auditions.

The Scholar’s Bowl team participated last week at the Southeast of Saline meet and placed 3^rd out of 24 teams. On Jan. 10^th they participated at the Clifton/Clyde competition and will go to Washington this Thursday.

Seyfert conveyed the staff’s appreciation to the Board of Education for the Christmas dinner in December.

Upcoming events for the Jr.-Sr. High School:

Junior High League Basketball Tournament – Jan 16^th.

KSU String Fling – Jan 16^th – 17^th

Beloit Wrestling Invitational – Jan 22^nd-23^rd

Sterling Basketball Tournament – Jan 18-22

Fort Hays Recognition Night – Jan 25^th

Winter Homecoming –Feb 5^th

Community Orchestra Concert – Feb 7^th

KU Honors Program – Feb 8^th

In other action the Board:

Named Jay Rowh as the instructor of Homebound Students

Approved the FFA trip to the National Convention next fall in Indianapolis

Adopted the Emergency Safety Intervention Policy

Approved a contract extension for Brady Dean which will run through the end of the 2017-18 school year at a rate of seventy thousand dollars per year.

Approved a contract extension for Superintendent Jeff Travis which would run through the 2018-19 school year. Financial compensation numbers for ‘Travis’ contract were not provided.

Having addressed all the items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA