Arthur Community Unified School District 305 Board met Sept. 19.
Here is the minutes 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 September 19, 2018 in the Arthur CUSD Unit Office with the following members and administrators present: Jon Day, Monica Green, Jake Kamm, Kristie Mechling, Ryan Nettles, Beth Wiley and administrators Kenny Schwengel, Steffanie Seegmiller, Brandon Stone, Sage Hale, Kristin Nall and Jared Vanausdoll. Ed Miller was absent. Visitors were also present.
The Board took a tour of the new biology lab and also met the new teachers.
The English Department and a few of our student coaches joined us to explain the new HS Writing Center opportunity The Writing Center provides a coach or staff member who will help students with writing assignments.
Mr. Kamm called to order the FY19 Budget hearing. There were no questions or comments. The hearing closed at 6:20.
A motion was made by Jon Day seconded by Beth Wiley to approve the consent agenda as presented. Upon roll, all members present voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Ryan Nettles to approve the FY19 budget. Upon roll all members present voted yea. Motion carried.
Mrs. Hale reported: “Be the Nice Kid” Day - September 21st is our first themed day of the year!
Assembly: beginning with reading goals, followed by Motivational Speaker (Bob Silvanik): Speaking about kindness. We will be kicking off our “Random Acts of Kindness” Challenge by collecting donations for The Havens Homeless Shelter out of Mattoon. Items collected are: Dial-a-Ride Tokens (we will accept change/money in the office for these), men’s deodorant, razors (packaged), coffee, milk, bleach, laundry soap, toothpaste, sugar, paper towels, hand soap, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, plastic silverware and personal hygiene supplies for both men and women. Elementary: Reading a book about kindness. Watching at least one video from Kid President about kindness and what it means to be kind.
Jr. High: Watching a video about kindness and making their own videos about what it means to be kind, how we can make our school a more kind environment, creating posters to plaster the hallways with motivation/quotes about kindness. Grandparents Day is Friday, September 28th. This is a 1:15 p.m. dismissal day. Grandparents and parents are invited to attend and travel with their students to different activities from 9 a.m. through lunch only. Students will not be allowed to leave until the 1:15 p.m. dismissal time. Annual Book Fair - This year we are having our annual book fair in September rather than spring. The book fair will be open for purchases on Thursday, September 28th after school until 6 p.m. and on Friday, September 28th during the school day until 5 p.m. after the Homecoming Parade. This fundraiser is a great way to help our teachers get books for their classrooms! AGS Knights’ Reading Challenge - The reading committee (Carla Poorman, Pam Checkley, Jessica Vanausdoll, Stevi Stutzman, Kirsten Perkins, Rhonda Rhodes, Michaela Ponstein, Megan Parsons, and Brianne Eads) have been planning the Knights’ Reading Challenge this year and is excited to kick it off on September 21st at an assembly. Students will be working on meeting their individual reading goals. When they hit a goal they will put up a badge on the display outside the office. As well as individual goals, we are going to have a school-wide goal of 20,180 books read which will be charted on a thermometer. At each level students will receive a ribbon, and if they meet their year goal they will receive a medal at the Awards Ceremony in May. Thank you to the donors who have supported this program! The donations have allowed the committee to purchase the ribbons and medals for the students who met their reading goals. We really appreciate their support. Singer Insurance, Watkins Farm & Trucking, Checkley Farms, Eads Farms, Roselen’s, Chris and Patti Grant, The Ponstein Family. Fun in Science! - I just wanted to share a couple things that Pam Evans, our new JH science teacher is doing this year. GeoChallenge - through National Geographic Education. This year's theme is Tackling Plastic. Students will work in groups on a project to be submitted in January. Students will present them at Open House in March. Symbolic Migration - through Journey North. Students make symbolic monarch butterflies. They "migrate" to southern Mexico along with real monarchs and come "back" to us in the spring. We will receive "monarchs" from all the US and Canada that also migrated. Tomatosphere- one package of seeds is the control, the other package has spent 30 days on the International Space Station. We will look at germination process. Worm Bin - we will have a compost bin with red wigglers. Students will get to feed the worms and watch how they operate.
Resources for the Classroom - We would like to congratulate the following teachers who have received grants and/or received a Donors Choose projects that they wrote.
Emily Lumsden (Kindergarten) - Meemic Back to School Grant $100 through Quill.com- Bought ABC upper and lowercase stamps, dry erase markers and a heavy duty pencil sharpener. Donors Choose Project- Flexible seating options. Was worth almost $600 worth of materials! Still introducing them to the classroom for use. Brianne Eads (4th Grade) Education Foundation Grant for $230 to purchase math and science manipulatives. Kat Burdick (Special Education) Arthur Educational Foundation Scholarship in the amount of $500 used for Reading Mastery Materials. Jann Harris (Title) Arthur Education Foundation grant for around $450 for a new camera for yearbook. Kirsten Perkins (4th Grade) Arthur Education Foundation in the amount of $500 for a variety of items for the classroom: student requested chapter books, IPEVO document camera, materials and activities to enhance science - owl pellets for all 4th graders to dissect, snap circuits kits, rock exploration kit, hydroponics plant growing labs, seed observation station, STEM Challenges set for 4th grade, programming logic activity, circuit maze logic kits, materials and activities to enhance social studies - 50 States and Capitals Interactive book and game, materials and activities to enhance ELA - Word Classification vocabulary game, Guinness Book of World Records writing prompt cards, punctuation and parts of speech classroom resources. Amber Crothers (Speech/Language)
Retired Teachers Association Foundation in the amount of $385 to help purchase items that specifically target language processing disorders - Processing Test 3, Elementary (LPT3 Elementary), will identify those students with subtle language problems who "pass" other language tests. The Language Processing Treatment Activities book is a research-based program training language processing skills in the sequence of neurological development and can be used on students ages 2-15. The final item is the Differential Processing Training Program 3-Book Set. A comprehensive program that trains auditory processing and language processing along a research-based neurological continuum. These items are all approved by the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) and evidence-based practice (EBP) resources. Calendar: September 21-School Improvement 12:00/12:15 Dismissal, 28-Homecoming 1:00/1:15 Dismissal; 2:30 Parade, 29-Homecoming Banquet/Coronation/Dance- 6-11pm. October 8-No School - Columbus Day, 12- End of 1st Quarter, 17-Report Cards sent home.
Mrs. Nall reported: Upcoming Dates at AHGS - September 21: First Themed Day- Fall Safety Day
We will be doing activities to promote Safety. We have guest speakers from Carle coming to talk about Ag/Farm Safety, Stacy Welch will be here to talk to our JH about drug awareness, Bobbi Ward will be holding sessions on restorative practice and character ed. We will also have the local police department and firefighters here to provide activities. Student Council - The Junior High held their student council elections. The representatives are as follows: 6th Grade: Maggie Benedict, Layla Deel, Maddix Stirrett, Skyler Vorck, 7th Grade: Lilly Hart, Brody Louden, Noah Shoemaker, Kaylee Thompson, 8th Grade: Jacob Adcock, Ava Binion, Regann Bowles, Clara Mefford. Junior High Friday Friendzy - In collaboration with our Knight Bucks and our theme of promoting kindness our Junior High students are able to participate in Friday Friendzy if they meet the criteria. Each week the teachers keep track of students grades, behavior, and absences. If students have no C’s, D’s, or F’s, no detentions, no absences, no missing or late work, and no classroom referrals they get to spend the last homeroom in the cafeteria. We have a concession stand, games and puzzles for them to enjoy. This is just one way we are promoting positive behavior in our Junior High. Shining Knight and All Star Knights - Our K-5 is well on its way to becoming All Star Knights. Our PBIS committee organized a bulletin board to display the number of Knight Bucks. Once a student earns 10 Knight Bucks they get a star on the board with their name on it. Then there are different levels and prizes the kids can earn. When a student earns 125 Knight Bucks their name gets put on the All Star Knights Board. It has been a fun way to promote positive behavior. We look forward to seeing it grow throughout the year. Library News - During the past 21 days (6 of which were half days) the AHGS library has circulated 760 items!! Eight percent of those items (60) were requested through the Online Card Catalog and I haven't even taught 3rd graders how to do that yet! Computer News - In 8th Grade Computer class, the students have been learning how to create and edit stop-motion animation videos. They chose an Aesop Fable to animate. Here are the links to a few of them if you want to check them out! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1V A7YO99NdjekHxvnsosKqaCdqwvWPyDMITRKZlQJaDI/edit# slide=id.p https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JvCnyRtJBLbVCr-pfzldeUDQ3vUxsysQQvUas1hfp7Q/edit#slide =id.p https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1altTLIOdzTkXDa_A7tzNpqhsLeCblojEirQ6EGEzwuc/edit#slide= id.p Band - We had 19 5th graders sign up for band. They held their music night on September 7 and received their instruments September 14. Scholastic News - Mrs. Walker was able to get enough “sponsors” in her PreK classroom to provide a free book to each of her students every month this school year. She is planning to teach the book each month in class and then send it home to enjoy with their families. Scholastic Books offered this program to teachers with their book club magazines. Grants:
Erin Barker received a $224.00 grant from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. She will be using that grant money to purchase a Social Development Assessment for our district.
Mr. Stone reported: - Enrollments: Pre K – 18, Kindergarten – 22, 1st - 24, 2nd – 12, 3rd – 17, 4th – 21, 5th - 15, 6th – 25, 7th – 12, 8th – 31, TLC -2 Total -199
Renaissance Learning assessments were completed for the fall. We will administer this in the Fall, Winter, and Spring as we have done in the past. LGS Picture Day was held on Aug. 24. Students and staff looked marvelous. LGS Open House was held on Aug. 27. We had a great turn out for this event. LGS 6th grade students traveled to Walnut Point in Oakland for their field trip. They learned about and experienced nature for the day. Upcoming Events: Sept. 14 – Midterm 1st Q, Oct. 12 - End 1st Q
Mrs. Seegmiller reported: Open House - On August 20 we hosted Open House at the high school. Faculty and staff cooked hot dogs and mingled with parents. The Marching Band provided entertainment and tours were provided by the Leadership Class and Student Council members. Parents and students ended the evening with the opportunity to meet teachers in their classrooms. We had about 65 families attend, which doubles what we have had in the past. Knights Table - We received $11,920 in grant money from Eastern Illinois Food Bank. They set a goal for us to reach 26 students per month which = 1,395 students a year. Mrs. Frye and Mrs. Blesse went for training on Monday, August 20 and brought back a loaded activity bus full of supplies for the pantry. The food pantry has been open 2 1/2 weeks and in that time we have taken 60 orders. Freshman Mentoring - Every incoming freshman is paired with an upperclassman mentor. We have had two Mentor Lunches where conversation was guided around getting to know you and then a check in with how school is going with tips for high school. The Mentors also hosted a Tailgate before our first football game. There were hot dogs, games, a photo booth and prizes. We had 30 freshmen and they received free game admission for attending. FCCLA has started the year off with a bang. They met numerous times over the summer and Chapter President Jessica Renfro represented ALAH High School at the IL FCCLA Leadership Academy in Springfield in July. She spent 3 days meeting FCCLA members throughout their state and worked on leadership skills, brainstorming activities to improve their chapters and completed team building activities. The theme this year is “Explore the Unexplored”. They had over 20 students attend their first chapter meeting. Last week Mrs. Voegel took a Mikala Williams, Adriana Burton, Erin Schrock, Meredith Schrock, Emma Harris and Jessica Renfro to attend their Section & Chapter Officer Training. They were in attendance with approximately 65 other FCCLA members who represented 7 area schools. Their sessions for the day included "Leadership," "Interviewing Skills/Presenting Yourself," "Team Building," "A Little Bit of Everything about FCCLA," and "Achieving your Dreams." Senior Parent Night was held on September 11 and Mrs. Hart had approximately 15 families attend. They covered the college application process, scholarships, testing, admissions etc. A financial aid night is scheduled on October 10th and Lakeland will assist Mrs. Farris and Mrs. Hart with this night. Credit Recovery Class - We created this class for students who are behind a year or more in school, or when traditional school doesn’t work for students due to health issues or factors beyond our control. By providing this class at the high school, we are able to have the goal of moving students back to regular education and ensure they have the opportunity to graduate with their age appropriate peers when these circumstances exist. Courses are on-line and individualized. Students are able to work at their own pace and move through the course that is needed. Some students are in the class for one period a day and some are there for multiple periods, depending what they need. The FFA Alumni Association held a cook-out on Wednesday, September 12th to welcome back everyone. Following the cookout the Chapter held their first meeting, where they participated in the 10 Gallon Challenge. FFA 10 Gallon Challenge Video The 10 gallons of milk helps support our dairy farmers and is then donated to a local food pantry. FFA has also been to the test plot to participate in harvesting at Mr. Davis’ field. On Friday, September 7th Marissa’s Purpose, provided us with a speaker to help educate our students about the painkiller and narcotics/opioid epidemic in our local communities and across the nation. Randy Grimes, a former professional football player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shared his ongoing battle with an addiction to painkillers that he had developed while trying to treat career-related injuries. He used his inspiring story of recovery to help victims of drug and alcohol abuse. Mr. McClarey took Anna Tynan, Walker Baggiani, and Shania Alexander to the Festival Chorus at Millikin University on Monday, September 17th.
Following the workshop on Sunday and Monday, they performed in a concert at Kirkland Fine Arts Center. Millikin Junior and ALAH Alum, Bradley Miller performs in Millikin’s top choir and joined the trio for a picture after the concert. Enrollment Update - HS enrollment is 323. Upcoming Dates: September 19 - HS Picture Day, September 21 - Noon Dismissal and School Improvement Day, September 23 – 29 Homecoming Week. September 28 - 1:00 Early Dismissal, 2:30 Homecoming Parade, 6:00 FFA Pork Chop Dinner, 7:00 FB Game, September 29 Alumni Banquet, Homecoming Dance. October 2 - All Juniors to Lakeland for Career Day, October 8 - No School, October 10 - Financial Aid Night with LakeLand College presenting @ 6 p.m.
Mr. Vanausdoll reported: Football: 1-3 - Congrats to Coach Jefferson on his first win. JV 0-4 - played very competitive game vs. Newton on 9/11. Email from Martinsville Principal - following football game on 9/7 “We would like to commend your team on a well-played game. But most of all, we would like to commend your coaches and players on the class they displayed Friday evening. Later in the game, we were down to 10 players. Your coach pulled a player off the field to play 10 on 10. I thought that showed a lot of class. Then to go one step farther, number 75 approached our players after the game after they had their team meeting in the North end zone. He told our players that he and his teammates had a lot of respect for our kids playing with so few players. He said that he and his teammates were in the same situation a few years ago. Being a very young team that includes half of the team being freshmen, this meant a great deal to them. Please let me know the name of number 75 and the names of the entire coaching staff. I would like to turn this into the IHSA so they can be recognized for their sportsmanship.”
Volleyball – Varsity 8-4, 4th place at Casey - Jv - Won Knights Classic on 9/8 - went 4-0
Soccer – 1-8-1; Cross Country – Some great performances this year. 9/18 - Great Pumpkin Run - Cancelled - Makeup Date on 10/9; JHGB - 7th grade 0-2, 8th grade 2-0 - 23 total girls with 6th graders Marching Band – 1st Competition on 9/22 at Mt. Zion; JH Boys Basketball Numbers: Sign ups - 10 7th graders, 24 8th Graders
Mr. Schwengel reported: Update on summer projects: HS Roof is completed; LGS Driveway - still waiting. The Saturday they were going to do it.it rained. HS Biology Room - we should be able to take a quick tour if interested. Village of Arthur Request - Adjusting the fence at the “Only a Stranger Once.” sign. From what I’ve gathered it is school property but the city is responsible for
the sign. Not to be selfish, but unless it benefits AGS (place for parents to sit and wait for their kids), I’m not sure it is an ideal gathering place for people especially if school is going on and kids are on the playground. Update on transportation software - We’ve had 6 training sessions. Our last session is Sept. 25th. Hopefully, we will be able to run different scenarios soon. We can discuss a plan or timeline moving forward for the attendance center discussion or any other options the board may be interested. With teacher shortages and fluctuating enrollments it may be worth discussing at least bringing all the junior high students together at some point. SB2428 - Hunger-Free Students' Bill of Rights Act - All students receive the same meal regardless of how much money they owe. Also allows districts to pursue “an offset under the state comptroller act” to recover unpaid lunch fees. There is no process in place, however. Park Board - Dan Miller, park board member, called on Friday told Jared we could no longer use the outfield of the baseball diamond for PE classes. Apparently the field can’t stand the wear and tear. They also complained about the school and roofers and a pile of rock in the parking lot by the pool, which the Tim Likens was out of town and had no idea about the situation or Dan calling Jared.
A short break was taken at 7:18 pm.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Ryan Nettles to enter executive session at 7:26 pm under the Open Meetings Act for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the District or legal counsel for the District, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or against legal counsel for the District to determine its validity. 5 ILCS 120/2 ( c )(1). All members present voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Jon Day seconded by Ryan Nettles to leave executive session at 7:47 pm. All voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley, seconded by Jon Day 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 approve the personnel report as presented which includes: Recommend board hire: Haley McGrath as ALAH HS administrative assistant, David Hopkins as high school custodian, Resignation of Audrey Fleener as CUSD #305 administrative assistant/bookkeeper due to retirement in February 2019. Extra-curricular hires: Chris Davis as concession manager at LGS, Lori Jefferson as spelling bee coordinator at LGS, Kara Moffett as LGS web manager, Ashley as LGS yearbook sponsor. Volunteer position: Nicola Pearce to lead a Military Service Club. Upon roll, all members present voted yea. Motion carried.
A motion was made by Beth Wiley seconded by Jon Day to adjourn at 8:03 pm. All members present voted yea. Motion carried.
http://www.cusd305.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_299780/File/Board%20Minutes/Arthur%20reg918.mtg.pdf
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