MONDAY FEBRUARY 9TH USD 273 BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

U.S.D. Two Seventy Three Board of Education Meeting

Monday, February ninth, two thousand fifteen

By Terry Bailey

Superintendent Jeff Travis opened the February meeting of the Unified School District two seventy three Monday night with bad news on school finance. He followed that with more bad news on school finance. This was followed with some more bad news on school finance.

Travis said the district has been informed that a one and one half percent reduction in their state funding allotment will be made by March seventh. This will amount to approximately a forty-nine thousand dollar drop in state money almost immediately.

Senate Bill Seventy-One is still being considered. Should this bill pass it would result in another eighty-three thousand dollar loss in state aid for the district.

Dale Dennis, Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Education, has alerted school districts they could very well face an additional four to five percent cut in aid. This would result in a loss of funds between two hundred twenty and two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. On top of that it seems that the Local Option Budget will be cut four percent amounting to another loss of thirty thousand dollars. When the smoke has cleared the Unified School District stands to lose between three hundred sixty-five and four hundred twenty thousand dollars.

Travis also pointed out that most of these cuts are projected at time and it is hard to forecast what the legislature will do. He went on to point out, however, that funding of education takes over one half of the state budget and with the Legislature faced with horrific deficits, education will certainly be hit hard.

A legislative coffee will be held Saturday, February 21^st at the basement of the Guaranty State Bank. Representative Susan Concannon and Senator Elaine Bowers will be on hand to listen to concerns of the local citizens. Travis indicated that the larger the crowd, the better.

Erick Burks, president of North Central Kansas Technical College, addressed the board regarding the offering of dual credit classes for Beloit High School students. Cloud County has provided these classes for many years but problems have become evident with Cloud and solutions have been slow to arise. Because NCK Tech can offer dual credit classes equal in every way to Cloud County there is merit in changing the school which provides the classes. Burkes will return for the March twelfth meeting and a final decision will be made at that time.

R.J. Jackson reported on Student Council activities. STUCO members have raised the necessary one thousand one hundred dollars to finance their attendance at the STUC Camp this summer in Emporia. Jackson said the winter Homecoming activities and the dance went well. Jackson lightheartedly told the Board that the Seniors might be willing to knock off a few days early in May if that would help with the budget problems.

Cassie Kopsa reported for Special Education Director Karen Niemczyk. She discussed the Boy’s Town model of Evidence-Based Education and Well-Managed schools. She and Niemczyk have visited Boys Town and were impressed with their program. While they have a wonderful program, they also have wonderful price tag attached to it.

Athletic Director Casey Seyfert reported on the winter sports activities. Jr High wrestling has started with twelve boys. The Jr. High girls won the league tournament and the boys were runners up. February twenty-third is the spring sports Parent’s meeting. Work is progressing on the possible improvement in the baseball field dugouts. Kevin Marozas is providing leadership in the project.

A bid was approved for new tile on the High School Commons and lunch room floor. Ritter Tile Shop, Inc. of Salina will provide the material and do the installation. The price tag for the project is forty-three thousand six hundred dollars.

The Board voted to take a position against new legislation being considered by the legislature. This new legislation would require school board candidates to file with a party affiliation similar to other elected offices with a primary election conducted in August and the final election in November along with national elections. This would require, among other changes, school board to be composed of people with party affiliation.

High School principal Darrell Moore reported that the Jr. High Geography Bee was won by Laney Clark, a Seventh grader. The Mitchell County Spelling Bee will be hosted by Beloit High on Wednesday February eleventh.

Darrell Kelley has assumed the position of the ACT test monitor. This last Saturday, fifty-one students took the ACT at Beloit High. Without Mr. Kelley taking over this job, Beloit students would have had to travel many miles to take the test. The ACT test is given four times a year.

The Forensics team has sixteen students and are in the middle of the season. Mr. Harbaugh took eighteen seventh and eighth grade orchestra students to the String Fling at KSU. Mrs. Vetter took nine students to the KSU Band Clinic in Manhattan. Mrs. Ediger and her students continue to work hard at fund-raising for their trip to Chicago.

In his report, Elementary Principal Marshall wanted to publically thank the Beloit Concert Association for their sponsoring of Oliver and Friends. This was a ventriloquist show that the kids of St. Johns and Beloit Elementary school enjoyed greatly. Two big upcoming events at the Elementary School are the Parent-Teacher conferences and the State Assessment Tests.

The Board adjourned into a forty-five minute executive session at nine p.m. for the purpose of discussing personnel. At nine forty-five they extended the session for an additional thirty minutes. At the end of that time period, the executive session was extended another fifteen minutes.

When the Board returned to open session a motion was made to extend the Special Ed Coop Director, Karen Niemczyk, and Assistant Director, Cassie Kopsa, contracts for one year. The motion passed seven to zero.

Adjournment.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA