KVSV

USD 273 Monday Dec 12

 

USD #273 Board of Education

 

Monday, December 12, 2016

 

By Terry Bailey

 

 

 

The Board of Education for the unified school district #273 conducted its December meeting at the Board Office Monday night, December 12th. All members were present. Board president Jason Johnson called the meeting to order promptly at 6:30 p.m.

 

 

 

The first order of business was a report on the 2015 audit. The auditor told the Board that their audit did not find anything negative and the school passed with flying colors. He related a story about problems with an audit in another district that his firm covers. Over two years ago it was discovered that an assistant superintendent used the district’s credit card to charge personal item for himself and his family. They are still working through the paper trail to trace the exact sequence of events.

 

 

 

Beloit Jr. Sr. High Student Council president Jarred Long updated the Board with the activities of STUCO. Long announced that the recently completed Food Drive to collect food to donate to the local Food Panty was the most successful in the school’s history. The Senior class was recognized as the class that collected the most food doing the drive. In addition to conducting the most successful food drive at this point in the School’s history, the kids exceeded their goal by over 8,000 points.

 

The FCCLA won the “decorate the halls” contest. STUCO is conducting a 12 Spirit Days of Christmas Contest activity with each day having a dress up theme. Long said they were getting good participation from the student body. Winter Homecoming will be observed soon. There will be dress up theme days, a pep rally, and a dance.

 

 

 

Tara Gray Pruitt gave a report on the activities of the Parent Teacher Organization. Monday night was the Pizza Hut Fundraising night. Pruitt reported that at the last Pizza Hut night, the PTO raised $200 for their organization. A movie will be shown to the student body at the Solomon Valley Cinema with water and popcorn being provided to each student. The PTO made a profit of $700 on their T-shirt sales.

 

 

 

In his Superintendent’s report, Jeff Travis informed the Board that our local House of Representative person, Susan Concannon has been named the Caucus director for the Republican Caucus when the legislature begins its session in January. Elaine Bowers has been named as the Republican Party Majority Whip in the Senate. Both of these positions are quite powerful and indicate the high esteem in which each of these ladies are held.

 

 

 

Travis said the budget outlook for 2017 is quite bleak. The legislature must make up a current shortfall of $350 million before taking up the 2018 budget This was one of the legislatures “kick the can down the road” strategies of dealing with budget shortcomings last session. They are now approaching the can that they kicked down the road and will have to deal with it before they can move on to next year’s budget.

 

 

 

Enrichment academies are gaining favor with school districts across the state. These academies would be held in the summertime and would provide enrichment activities such as Leadership Training to those attending the academy. Travis and the Board believe the academy format has great merit to enhance the student’s knowledge base.

 

 

 

Cassie Kopsa, assistant Director of the Special Ed Coop, gave a report for director Karen Niemczyk. Kopsa reviewed a newly constructed handbook for the Alternative Learning Center. Principals, students, parents and other stakeholders will receive a copy.

 

 

 

Brady Dean, director of the MCPC spoke about data collection efforts to gather pertinent information about student growth. He said he was closely following the developments at the state level that could affect funding for the MCPC. He hopes that the cuts in funding experienced in the past two years will be restored next year.

 

 

 

Dean then put on his hat as the co-principal of the Beloit Elementary School and told the Board about activities in that building. He said “This is program time” indicating all the class programs being held at the school. Last week was the 4th grade school program and this week is the 6th grade program. Dean reported the Book Fair was in progress and would be ending Thursday. All profits realized by book sales will be reinvested in books for the school library.

 

 

 

Casey Seyfert, Beloit Jr. Sr. High Principal, updated the Board on the goings-on at his building. He took time to praise all the valuable contributions made by the Alternative Learning Center when needed for students from Beloit High School.

 

 

 

Seyfert took time to indicate the high level of success achieved by the recent school musical. He said it was the best production in the last 15 to 20 years. He said school programs would be conducted on December 18th, 19th, and 20th. He told the Board the FFA Fruit and Meat sales totaled $28,000 this year eclipsing last year’s total of $21,000.

 

 

 

The Board voted to approve a deposit of $25,497 on the marquee sign to be purchased to replace the current marquee in front of the Jr. Sr. High School. Casey Seyfert believes he has contributions sufficient to pay the entire $33,118 cost of the marquee.

 

 

 

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA