MONDAY FEB 8 USD 273 BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

USD #273 Board of Education Meeting

Monday, February 8, 2016

By Terry Bailey

The Board of Education for the USD #273 School District met on Monday evening, February 8 to conduct the business of educating the children of our district. All members were present with the exception of Jason Johnson.

The meeting began with Superintendent of Schools Jeff Travis giving the Board a legislative update. Travis was at the State Capitol last week to hear testimony on school consolidation. Representative Bradford, sponsor of Bill 2504, testified about the many and varied positive points he believed the bill contained. There were 2 other representatives that testified in favor of the bill to consolidate school districts to save money for the state. After they were done, eleven people testified against the bill and pointed out the negative aspects of the bill.

Travis believes the bill has been killed for this legislative session, although it is hard to say for sure. Without a doubt this type of legislation will surface again next year. Travis pointed out that when a bill is introduced in the legislature, the cost is a minimum of $30,000 when all the costs associated with a bill are considered. Representative Bradford has introduced several bills.

Superintendent Travis also said that there are numerous bills that keep surfacing to bail out the budget deficit by defunding educational programs, especially early childhood education. Those who understand education understand the long range value of early childhood educational opportunities.

A grant had been submitted to the Dane Hansen Foundation to help purchase a new piano for the vocal music room at the Jr. Sr. High School. The piano was new when the building was constructed. Unfortunately the grant proposal was denied. Travis said they will look at other ways to raise the $22,000 needed to purchase a piano.

School nurse Tammy Roberts reported to the Board about the Wellness Challenge. This will involve all students and staff with the goal of adopting positive wellness activities.

Student Council President Colson Rieman gave an update to the Board on that groups activities. He said Winter Homecoming activities went well but they needed to work on the dances. David Cherry, Assistant Executive Director of the Kansas High School Activities Association will attend the home basketball game next Tuesday night, February 16^th to present Brennan Eilert with her STUCO Advisor of the Year award.

Kristin Kadel spoke on behalf of the Site Council. She said their group was working on some radio spots for Character Education. She reported than after due consideration the idea of having an honor roll for 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders would be dropped at this time. They are developing a new school volunteer program for adults who are interested in donating their time and expertise at the school. Finally Kadel said there seems to be more than a little congestion in front of the school in the morning when parents are dropping off their children. Because there is just one entry into the school, the drop off area on the east side of a school gets busy and traffic backs up. Possible solutions to the logjam are being considered.

Karen Niemczyk, Director of the Beloit Special Education Coop, spoke the mandate on Maintenance of Effort. This is the requirement placed on federally funded grant programs that the amount of state and local funds expended for Special Education do not decrease from the amount expended in the previous year. Significant documentation must be provided by the Special Ed Coop to validate the expenditure of money from year to year. Because the Special Ed Coop receives in the neighborhood of one million dollars this could have significant effect on their budget.

Brady Dean, Executive Director of the Mitchell County Partnership for Children and Assistant Principal of Beloit Elementary School, reported on activities on his two buildings. He spoke about how vulnerable early childhood education programs are because they are very dependent on grants. If the legislature defunds early childhood grant programs, they could lose a lot a money. As with much affected by legislature, time will tell.

Dean explained results for the first through sixth grade students that were tested with the AIMESWEB math and reading program. He was very pleased because the students showed significant improvement in both the math and reading categories. Additionally the Kansas State Assessment will be administered soon. Parent-Teacher conferences will be held on February 11^th.

Eric Burkes, President of the North Central Kansas Tech College, was present to provide his yearly update to the Board. He said the college has about 500 students at both the Hays and Beloit campuses. Burkes reported that the Technical College and the City of Beloit have had a long standing history of maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship.

This school year the Technical College began offering Dual Credit College classes for students at Beloit High. First semester 54 students took 335 credit hours of college level classes. Second semester 46 students are enrolled in 260 credit hours.

In reports furnished by Casey Seyfert, Principal at Beloit Jr. Sr. High and Kyle Beisner, Activities Director:

Parent Teacher conferences will be held on Thursday, February 11^th.

Kansas State Assessment tests begin on February 17th.

Beloit Rotary has donated $500 to the purchase of a new piano.

Senior Night is February 16^th.

KU Honors program in on February 22^nd.

Regional Wrestling at Beloit High on February 19^th.

The NCAA league wrestling tournament was held at Beloit High. Blayne Harris, Caden Emmot, Carter Wessling and Blaine Burkes were league champions in their weight classifications.

Mr. Beisner want to extend his appreciation to the volunteers who made the Beloit Invitational and NCAA League Tournaments successful. As a first year Athletic Director he was very impressed with the quality of the volunteers who make things happen smoothly.

After a 45 minute executive session the Board voted to extend the contracts of Casey Seyfert, Kyle Beisner, Karen Niemczyk, and Cassio Kopsa.

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA