RE-1 Board Meets to Receive Status Updates
March 21, 2003
The Kiowa County School District RE-1 Board of Education met in regular session February 24 with board members Bill Woelk, Larry Watts, Ralph Berry, Marty Miller, Debi Hadley and Marlynn Eikenberg present.
David Kraft presented the board with an overview of the district bus fleet’s status. Bus 14, which formerly served the Haswell route, has been parked due to engine and transmission problems. The manufacturer has gone out of business and parts are difficult to obtain. Kraft expressed various lesser concerns with the remainder of the fleet, and stated that, as an average, each bus covers 1,050 miles per month traveling routes. Superintendent Glenn Smith stated that the district was on schedule to order a bus next year.
Smith submitted a written report to the board. In it he stated that he had been working with County Health Nurse Renay Seifried on Medicaid reimbursement, which allows the district to be compensated for services incurred by students on Medicaid. In the past, BOCES administered the program, however the district can save $3,000 per year administering the program itself. The revenues will be used to upgrade health equipment and/or purchase services.
Smith also stated that the 15 passenger van had been sold for $11,500, and the old vocational agriculture pickup sold for $4,000 at the FFA auction. The new pickup has arrived. A report on building lighting, heating and cooling, compiled by John Canfield of the Governor’s Energy Efficiency office, is expected within 30 days. Due to time constraints and conflict, there will be no organized local science fair, though students would be encouraged to participate in the regional science fair.
Miller reported that three accountability sub-committees met during the previous week. One is looking at open vs. closed campus issues and increasing the number of students eating lunch. The attendance committee met to discuss ways to stress remediation instead of punishment for attendance issues. High School Principal Christy Graham stated that the handbook review committee will meet to check consistency, and the policy review committee will meet to review district policy. Miller stated that the committee also went over the accreditation process.
Smith reported a committee had been formed to work on grade level expectations, and is looking at the framework that the CSAP test is based on to come up with a list of things that children will be expected to learn, and develop a report profiling what each child has learned.
The meeting was closed to the public from 7:55 to 8:48 p.m. for an evaluation of the principal and personnel assignments. The board took no action upon returning to open session.
The meeting adjourned at 8:53 p.m. The next regular meeting will be held March 25.