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Board approves curriculum development
The USD 234 Board of Education has approved moving forward with K-12 curriculum development starting next school year.
During its Monday meeting, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush for curriculum development, implementation and evaluation services for the 2015-16 school year.
USD 234 Superintendent Bob Beckham said the agreement comes after "several months of negotiating" and will be a "good, needed step for our district." He said the curriculum development was one of his visions for the district when he became superintendent in 2014.
"We'll have someone working two-and-a-half days a week helping us to organize and develop our curriculum," Beckham said. "We're going to review, develop and align our curriculum district-wide, K through 12. For the first time in several years, it's a chance for someone to devote all of their time when they're here to development of that curriculum."
Starting in August, when the new school year begins, the district will work with Greenbush representative Nicki Traul. Beckham said Traul's "full role will be working with principals, instructional coaches and staff."
"We will pay Greenbush a daily rate for her services, roughly 100 days next school year," Beckham said. "We will provide office space for her. She will work with our leadership team to help us develop K-12 curriculum."
For the agreement, the district will use Title II money, which Beckham said is "flow-through money from the state we get for staff development," and not money from the district's general fund.
"We'll earmark some of that money to pay for this much-needed service," Beckham said. "It's a one-year deal we signed on. We may re-up next year for another deal."
Beckham said the district will work toward developing curriculum that includes a combination of the Common Core Standards, a nationwide educational initiative, as far as college readiness, and local standards.
"This is great to get help with curriculum," board vice-president Gary Billionis said.
"This is a good thing for the district with all of Greenbush's experience," board member Justin Meeks said.
According to the agreement, the term of the memorandum of understanding is for the period starting July 20 and expiring on June 3, 2016. USD 234 will provide a fee of service at the rate of $285 per day, payable to Greenbush.
Other business
* The board approved the consent agenda, which included bills and claims, the $1.2 million April payroll and times and dates for baccalaureate and graduation, which are both scheduled to take place Saturday. Baccalaureate will take place at 4 p.m. in the high school gym while graduation will take place at 8 p.m. at the district stadium.
* The board also approved a $1,015 payment to Agriculture Engineering Associates, Inc., for soil investigation at the football field.
* Amber Toth, Fort Scott High School debate and forensics teacher, and some students in the program gave a presentation. Students thanked the board for their support of the program throughout the school year.
"We've had a great season," FSHS junior Garrett Tatro said. "We started the year with very few kids who've done this before, and to have this successful of a season. We have kids now competing at the state and national level ... this program does change lives."
FSHS freshman Darby Toth presented her oration persuasive speech, which she wrote herself, to the board. She also thanked the board for their support of the program.
Board members congratulated the debate and forensics team on their success.
* Bert Lewis, representing the Fort Scott chapter of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), spoke about the relationship between the board, district officials and teachers in the FS-KNEA during the ongoing negotiations process.
"The best thing is the relationship has evolved," Lewis said. She commended the efforts of the board and Beckham "to hear both sides" and said she was pleased with the "working relationship we have."
* Outgoing board member Justin Meeks was recognized during his last official meeting on the board. Meeks, who has served eight years, did not seek reelection in April and said he will not be present for the board's June meeting. His replacement, Vanessa Poyner, will take the seat in July.
Beckham and board members thanked Meeks for his service to the board. Beckham presented Meeks with a plaque honoring Meeks for eight years of "dedicated service to the board."
"You have an open-minded compassion for students and teachers, and that's sometimes a slant we need to hear," Beckham said.
Meeks said he was "grateful" for the honor to serve on the school board.
"I spent my 30s on the school board," he said. "It was a good eight years. There was a lot of bad, too, which was mostly legislative and out of our control. I'm happy the bond issue passed. I'm grateful. I learned a lot. I voted the way I needed to over the years."
Board President Jordan Witt said it was an "honor" having Meeks on the board.
* Board members approved the right for the district to levy budget authority of 30 percent in the district's supplemental general fund, or local option budget (LOB), which generates local dollars. Beckham said this allows the district the "opportunity" to move the LOB up to 30 percent in next year's budget if needed due to the block grant legislation passed by the Kansas Legislature, which cut some LOB state aid from the district this year.
"If we don't request authority, we can't do it," Beckham said. "This is notifying the state so we can budget for it and keep the same level (of local funding). They won't let us budget for it down the road if it's not requested."
Beckham said the LOB is currently at 30 percent in this year's budget.
"We're not going to raise taxes. We're at 30 percent now so there's no change if we stay where we are," he said. "But next year, if we hadn't declared to do this now and for some reason there's a windfall and we could reduce the mill levy and back off the 30 percent, we could never go back to 30 percent without permission. We needed the state to grant us authority to continue doing what we're doing now."
Beckham said pushing the LOB to 33 percent would require a local election and while some districts are doing that, "We're not going there."
* The board approved payment of an invoice for Hollis and Miller Architects of Overland Park for the company's services related to the school bond projects.
* Approval was given for the purchase of $13,980 in football equipment using high school gate receipt funds.
* Student and faculty handbooks were approved.
* A list of scheduled 2015 summer camps also was approved.