Arthur Community Unit School District 305 Board met March 21.
Here is the minutes as provided by the board:
The regular meeting of the Arthur Board of Education was called to order by President Jake Kamm at 6:00
pm on March 21, 2018 in the Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond High School cafeteria with the
following members and administrators present: Jon Day, Monica Green, Jake Kamm, Ed Miller, Kristie
Mechling, Ryan Nettles, Beth Wiley and administrators. Visitors were also present.
Recognition of visitors and receipt of communications: Jake Kamm welcomed visitors.
The following made statements in support of Dale Schuring – Erica Carter, Austin Romine, Julie Kinert, JJ
Carter and Josh Stack.
A motion was made by Jon Day seconded by Beth Wiley to approve the consent agenda as presented. Upon
roll, all members voted yea. Motion carried.
Discussion was held on attendance centers. Beth Wiley - there are a lot of unknowns, especially with
transportation. Kristie Mechling - there is a lot to consider, what are other options. We need to keep
exploring. Monica Green - There are many educational benefits and the board needs to keep working on it,
but there is no need to rush into it. Jon Day – How do we go forward? What is the next step? Mr.
Schwengel – If the board decides to continue, they need to set a timeline. Ed Miller – we cannot rush into
it. Monica Green – we need to go back to the drawing board and see what the most important challenges
are. Ryan Nettles – is there anything we can do to help better answer questions? We need to be able to
speak to specific concerns. Kenny Schwengel – Obviously this will not happen next year. Jake Kamm –
we will revisit this next month.
Sage Hale reported: April 5th Open House - Come join a night of fun for with our K-5th grade students
from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Book Fair - Our Annual Book Fair Fundraiser will be open at 5 p.m. Students will
be able to check out the books during the day as well. Wax Museum - will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be
located in the Junior High wing. 3rd Annual Knight Vision Dinner Fundraiser for AGS - You won’t want
to miss it!!! Dinner is from 5 -7:30 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door. There will be no pre-sale tickets
this year. Dinner includes: Spaghetti, green beans, Lynn Marner’s homemade roll and dessert. Tickets are
$7 for adults and $4 for kids. Top Knights - Congratulation to the following students that wore their
“ARMOR” for 3rd Quarter: Cameron Chupp - Crossman (K) Cayden Miller - Lumsden (K) Karissa
Gingerich - Kingery (1st) Aubrey Lawson - Parsons (1st) b Coewn Condill - Checkley (2nd) Shawn Miller
- Perkins (2nd) Nicholas Rafferty - Ponstein (3rd) Nathan Rafferty - Rhodes (3rd) Blanca Briseno - Eads
(4th) Karaline Vanausdoll - Kauffman (4th) Treva Gingerich - Punches (5th)
Amelia Shonkwiler - Russell (5th). AWARD - A Writing and Reading Day - We celebrated this day on
March 16th. Our committee had fun activities for all our students, such as Kahoot (all about books),
Storytime (peer reading young/old), Tongue Twisters, Flashlight reading, My Shelfie, and “I’m Lucky”
activities. 36th Children's Art Exhibition at Tarble Arts Center at EIU - The reception for the exhibit is on
Sunday, April 7th, our time is at 3:00. The exhibit runs from March 31st-April 15th. AGS Students that
have pieces in this exhibition are: Jase Kingery - 1st grade, Ella Oye - 2nd grade, Sophia Monts - 3rd
grade, Kedrick Chupp - 4th grade, Sara Herschberger - 5th grade, Jody Chupp - 6th grade, Connor Nettles
6th grade, Kaylee Schrock - 7th grade, Jaylon Gingerich - 8th grade, Malinda Herschberger - 8th grade. St.
Jude’s Math-a-thon - $761 was raised for this years Math-a-thon and 14 student participated. Coewn
Condill was our top fundraiser. PARCC - We began PARCC testing on March 14th and will continue
through the 27th. Calendar, March 29- Spring Break begins. April 3 - Students return from break,
5th -Spring Open House - Book Fair, Wax Museum and Spaghetti Dinner 5-8pm, 16-20 - Skating Week,
20th - 4th Quarter Midterms.
Brandon Stone reported: Enrollments - Pre K – 31, Kindergarten – 28, 1st - 15, 2nd – 18, 3rd – 24, 4th –
16, 5th - 27, 6th – 11, 7th – 35, 8th – 25, DDC-1, TLC – 1, Bridges – 1, Total – 233. PARCC is completed
in our building and students were rewarded for their efforts by having a sock hop in the LGS gym on
Friday. Students and staff both worked very hard the last couple of weeks to accomplish this goal. I would
like to thank the Uphoff family for making a donation to the LGS scholastic bowl team. This will be used
to purchase a much-needed new buzzer system. This kind gesture is much appreciated. LGS had early
Kindergarten registration on 3/6. Had a good turn out and are expecting approximately 23 students in the
class next year. Students of the month Feb. - Lyla Sutton (2), Makailyn Martin (3), Andrew Jeffers (7)
Upcoming events: Mar. 29-Apr.2 – Spring Break (No student attendance)
Kristin Nall’s report: Attendance - Pre-K-30, Kindergarten-28, 1st grade-22, 2nd Grade-32, 3rd Grade-26
4th Grade-33, 5th Grade-38, 6th Grade-21, 7th Grade-31, 8th Grade-20, TLC-4, DDC-1, Beacon-1. Total286.
Upcoming Dates at AHGS - March 19-23-PE week, March 22-Preschool Round-up
February Top Knight - K-2 Winner: Dustin Snyder, 3-5 Winner: Jewelyonna Hutchcraft, JH Winner:
Destiny Bradley, Pre-K: Lilah Ellis. Jump Rope for Heart - Congratulations to our school for reaching our
Jump rope for Heart goal. We raised a total of $6,158.00. The students voted that if they made their goal
they wanted Mrs. Coleman and myself to dress up like monsters. So, on Tuesday, March 13 we surprised
them with Elmo and Cookie Monster. Classroom Activities - We finished PARCC testing on March 16.
The students worked very hard throughout the tests. We are glad to be resuming normal activities in the
classroom. 5th grade enjoyed a trip to the Engineering Open house on Friday, March 9. They joined Arthur
and Lovington in the trip. Thank you to the teachers and parents that chaperoned! March 16 we had a lot of
special activities planned for the students. Students enjoyed yoga, karate, nutrition, ag in the classroom,
dental, and hand washing activities throughout the day. We were promoting ways to stay healthy! Thank
you to the March 16 committee for planning this day for us. March 19-23 we are holding PE week. Mrs.
Coleman is preparing a fun week for families to come in and join in on the PE classes. Students will be
demonstrating games they have learned and parents will be invited to play with them. First grade is doing
their annual president project. Each student has a president to find out info on and then they report back to
the class. They work with multiple teachers for this project and make it cross-curricular with computers,
library, and art. Mrs. Kerley had the 5th graders research inventors/scientists to go along with the Max
Axiom book in reading. Each student presented a Google Slide presentation with information about their
person. Mrs. Vanderkloot’s 2nd grade classrooms received some new math games and have been enjoying
using them in their math stations. They range from sequencing, subtraction, and addition. Mrs.
Hollingsworth’s 8th Grade History classes designed and wrote the Tweets for the big bulletin board for the
month of March! They represented women’s history month. Speech Contest - Mrs. Sullivan took 18
students to the State Speech contest in Taylorville on February 17. The participated in 22 events including
poetry, solos, duet, small groups, and improv duets. We had 14 first place rankings, 7 second place
rankings, and 1 third place ranking. They held their awards night Friday, March 2. 10 of the first place
scripted events performed in an encore “show” during the potluck. I want to personally thank Beth Sullivan
for the time and dedication she has given to this program. These students have enjoyed the chance to
participate in this activity.
Steffanie Seegmiller reported: Mrs. Hart is hosting two parent meetings on Thursday, March 22nd.
Sophomore parents will meet from 5:30- 6:15 and Junior parents will meet from 6:30-7:30. Discussion
items will include dual credit opportunities, preparing for the SAT/ACT, college planning, etc. A meeting
for senior parents will be held early in the fall. SAT and testing day … April 10 - Juniors will take the
SAT, freshman and sophomores will take the PSAT 8/9 and PSAT 10. Seniors will have alternative
activities. Mr. Keown participated in Shadowing a Student for a day. He said, “It was a great experience.
Didn’t realize how tiring a day as a student is. Made me much more empathetic towards my students.” This
is an activity that is done nationally and was offered to all of our faculty. The Student Council held their
Spring Blood drive. They had 36 donors, collected 32 units and saved 96 lives! Student Council is hosting
their Annual Badminton Tourney on Saturday, March 24th. Drama Club is performing the play, “The
Unusual Suspects” on Saturday, March 24th @ 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 25th @ 2p.m. FFA will be
hosting activities the week of March 19-23 to celebrate National Ag Week. Ag Olympics will be held on
Friday, March 23rd as their culminating event. FFA members that competed in District Proficiencies were
Katie Gingerich (Swine Production), Zane Crist (Poultry Production) and Makenna Green (Grain
Production Entrepreneurship). Congratulations to all three members for their hard work and dedication.
And special congratulations to Makenna Green for being named District 4 Winner. She will compete at the
state level on Saturday, March 24th! #Whatsyour17 is being sponsored by a group of our students along
with the High School Student Council. They are planning activities for the week of April 16-20 to honor
the students from Florida and other schools impacted by school shootings. We had 69 out of 81
students/parents attend Freshman Orientation in February for a total participation of 85%. We had every
department represented with approximately 80% of our faculty and over a dozen different
clubs/organizations/sports opportunities present. Upcoming Dates: March 29, 30 and April 2 - Spring
Break, April 10 – SAT, April 19 - NHS Induction, April 24 - Chris Herrin (Basketball Junkie and ESPN
Unguarded) event @ Tuscola High School with Douglas County Schools @ 1p.m. and Community event
@ 7p.m., April 25 - CEO Trade Show, April 2-May 3 - Senior Trip, May 5 – Prom.
Jared Vanausdoll reported: HS Baseball Numbers – 20, 0-3 record, HS Softball 15 girls – 0-3 record
HS Track – Boys and Girls Competed at EIU on 3/10 and 3/17. Kenli Nettles won High Jump with a jump
of 5’8”, Kenli and Logan Hall will be competing at Indoor State Meet on Friday 3/23, JH Scholastic Bowl
begin conference on March 13 - Conference Tourney at LSA on 3/27, JH Boys Track – 31 total out, 8 - 8th,
14 - 7th, 9 - 6th, JH Girls Track - 29 total 13 - 8th, 11 - 7th, 6 - 6th, JH Girls VBALL – Congrats on a great
year – 7th Grade won Conference Tourney! High School Band – performed in LOVC Band Night on 3/15
in Niantic. Congrats to LOVC All conference selections: Marissa Herschberger – 1st Team, Hannah
Wallen, 2nd Team, Kyla Carson and Janette Comstock – HM. Congrats to LOVC Boys All Conference
Selection – Colton Romine and Will Cohan – 1st Team, Kobe Well – HM.
Board comment – Monica Green stated she loved the shadowing between teachers and students. Freshman
Orientation was great. Kristie Mechling agreed the Freshman Orientation was great.
Board adjourned into break at 6:50.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Ryan Nettles to enter executive session at 7:00 pm to
discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific
employees of the public body. All members present voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley seconded by Jon Day, to leave executive session at 8:53 pm. All voted
yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Monica Green to accept executive session minutes as read
in executive session. Upon roll, all members voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Jon Day to accept the resignation agreement with
professional educator licensed employee, Arlene Denning. Upon roll, all members voted yea. Motion
carried.
A motion was made by Ed Miller, seconded by Kristie Mechling to dismiss/non-renew an
extracurricular/coaching employee, Dale Schuring as head football coach, effective at the end of the 2017-18
season. All members voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Jon Day seconded by Beth Wiley to dismiss/non-renew an extracurricular/coaching
employee, Dale Schuring, as head basketball coach, effective at the end of the 2017-18
season. Upon roll, all members voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Kristie Mechling, seconded by Beth Wiley to grant tenure to Jessica Coleman,
Megan Brown, Dallas Kirkwood, Dana Tinkle, Kathy Frye and Alex Poe. Upon roll, all members voted
yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Ryan Nettles, seconded by Jon Day to approve the personnel report as presented
which includes: the resignation of Roger Punches as junior high assistant basketball coach and Beth
Sullivan, as AHGS speech coach. The resignations of Christine Porcayo, English teacher at LGS, Andrew
Crause, Sp Ed teacher at AHGS, and Kimberly Conn, Sp Ed teacher at AGS. The resignation of Tim
Caskin, Arthur CUSD #305 band instructor and to hire Ryan Wood as Arthur CUSD #305 band instructor.
Upon roll, all members voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley seconded by Ed Miller to adjourn at 8:56 pm. All members present
voted yea. Motion carried.
http://www.cusd305.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_299780/File/Board%20Minutes/Arthur%20reg318.mtg.pdf
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