A reception in honor of long-time board of education clerk Norma Stinnett drew a crowd Wednesday evening before the formal board meeting at Mary Herbert Education Center.
Board president Mike Crouch presented a plaque and member Glen Strickland gave Stinnett a gift on behalf of the board in recognition of her 33 years’ employment by the school district. Stinnett tallied more years as clerk of the board — 30 —than any of her predecessors.
Stinnett retires Wednesday.
The meeting was a farewell, too, to Superintendent John Heim, who resigned to accept a job as executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards. His last day of work also will be June 30.
During the action meeting, the board approved district academic goals for the 2010-11 school year, with changes.
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning George Abel told board members that he had amended verbiage for a goal that had stated that 95 percent of kindergarten through third-grade students would be able to read on grade level using current reading assessments to measure ability.
The revision states that by July of 2011, the percentages of those students not reading on grade level will be reduced by 50 percent. Currently, 26 percent are not at grade level; that will be reduced to 13 percent by next summer.
Abel explained the rationale behind the change.
“We’ve got 100 percent of our kindergarteners scoring at grade level — because you can’t score below kindergarten,” Abel said he was told by a district teacher.
Board member Angie Schreiber said she would like the target to be that by the end of third grade, 100 percent of the students would be reading at grade level.
“Well, which of those third-graders or which of those kindergarteners are we not going to target?” she asked of the 50 percent improvement goal.”
She described that age group as the “magic age” when solid reading skills are developed; if they are not, the youngsters have a more difficult time catching up to the goals.
Member Brent Windsor suggested that math skills also may need to be added as a 100 percent goal.
Heim suggested the board consider going more in-depth on the 100 percent goals as part of the board’s strategic goals, which could be developed later.
Board member Grant Riles moved to add a strategic goal of having 100 percent on grade level by Grade 3.
The board also approved a memorandum of understanding with Emporians for Drug Awareness.
The MOU included terms that EDA would not alter the office space provided by the district without advance written permission from the board; the EDA would pay the cost of any repairs required as a result of the groups’ use of the office space; and that EDA would maintain workers’ compensation insurance for its employees and general liability insurance for loss or damage. The latter insurance would have to be with an insurance company qualified to write such insurance in Kansas, with limits of not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence.
Board member Mike Helbert reiterated his assertion that the board needed to develop a policy using objective criteria of whether space would be available for outside entities.
“What we’re dealing with is public property,” Helbert said.
He questioned what expertise is available through EDA that the local school district does not have.
EDA director Teresa Walters said that she is a certified prevention specialist.
“I feel like because I work full-time at that, I have more time than, say, a teacher or counselor, who is often pulled in different directions,” Walters said.
Heim said that the KASB, of which he will become director, could be a source for drawing up that criteria.
“We might be able to get a policy or something like that,” Heim teased the board.
“When you’re going to have private agreements with private entities on public property, you’d better have some criteria for that or you’re asking for trouble,” Helbert said. “That’s my opinion.”
The board also approved salary schedules for licensed professional, administrative, classified and classified-exempt employees.
The proposal kept those salaries at their current levels for the 2010-11 school year. Certified staff salaries were frozen at this year’s levels when the board met earlier this month.
kseyetie (anonymous) says...
Well done, Norma and good luck Dr. Heim. You have both served the community well.
June 25, 2010 at 3:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )