The school board meeting went along pretty fast last night. There were no major issues to discuss in the meeting. The soccer program was brought up. It was clarified that the coaching position for the next two years would be a non paid position. Then after the two year trial period the program would be re-evaluated.
The board talked about the walk-though of the buildings we did a couple weeks ago. Some of the issues we saw that needed attention were. There is a problem with water coming in the walls around the burm in the middle school. The lockers in the middle school boys locker room are very abused. They are going to be removed and put into the high school locker room, and repaired for the football team to use. The middle school locker rooms have been very abused, besides the lockers there are holes in the walls, a mirror has been torn off the wall and other signs of abuse. It was disappointing to see how bad the students have torn things apart. The maintenance crew has tried to do repairs, but the students keep tearing things up.
The new lights in the elementary look very bright. They were paid for by some outside funds to save energy.
We had a discussion about the high school bleachers. By next month we should have some bids for new bleachers. There is a fund we have to put money into called, the student occupied fund. This money can only be used to improve inside facilities. This fund has been built up over the years to the point where we think we can afford to spend it to replace the forty five year old bleachers. I think that is how old they are. The bleachers are such a safety hazard, if we can afford to replace them we think we should. The old bleachers hold about 1100. The new ones because of the disabilities act will have to be put in a little different and will only hold about 950 people. If all goes well they should be able to be put in during this summer.
We then had a discussion about our first Excellence in Education Committee meeting. Because of conflicts of other things going on we didn't have very many at the meeting but we had a good discussion. We talked mostly about the four day school week schedule. We need to decide by our April board meeting if we want to continue with this schedule. We are going to have another meeting February 23rd at 7:00 p.m. in the high school library. We hope to have more information as to how much we are saving on this schedule. The power will be hard to determine because of the mild winter, and with the much improved lighting in the elementary. There won't be any testing information until this summer so it will be hard to figure out if the students are learning as well. These are the major considerations we have, but will be the hardest to define. We are going to try and find more information from the teachers to see if they think the students are doing as well. It is also hard to evaluate because of the changes that were made going from a six period trimester to a seven period semester system. Jeff Gee thought the extra time in class would help the students better prepare for college. He commented how the teachers were able to go through more material, and better teach the students. Mr. Gee also talked about the challenges of sharing teachers between the middle school and high school. He also talked about how by having less staff makes it harder to offer as many electives as he would like to offer. Three high school teachers each teach two classes in the middle school and I think one middle school teacher teaches two classes in the high school. Mr. Gee has a plan to rotate some electives every other year, so the students have a chance to take them, like physics. Some of the classes are also harder to take because in the past they may have been offered two or three times during the year now they are only once. Being understaffed is a challenge, but I think Mr. Gee is doing the best he can to make things work. I know there are strong feelings for and against the four day schedule. If you have opinions you would like to express you are welcome to share them with a committee member, me or Casey Park, or if you want to you can come to the next meeting and discuss it with the whole committee. I think because of limited information we will have to go a lot by patron opinion, so if you want to be heard let us know.
During the public comment period Neal Yancy with the new soccer program spoke about a fundraiser the soccer girls did. They sold over 120 dozen roses, and made $1800. If they can raise money like this they shouldn't have much trouble funding the program.
We then went into executive session and talked about the administrator's evaluations.
Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you, Brian
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