Speaking to the USD 257 Board of Education Monday evening, Iola High School Principal Scott Crenshaw proposed adopting an incentive program at IHS, which, if approved, would reward high schoolers demonstrating perfect attendance the opportunity to leave school early on certain Friday afternoons — at 3:10 instead of 3:34. Eligible students would also need to meet a trio of additional requirements: they must obtain parental permission; they must maintain a passing grade in all of their classes; and their record must be clean of disciplinary referrals.
The program is meant to encourage greater attendance and punctuality by the student population, and — by not being lashed to a high grade point average (a student needs only avoid getting an “F” to qualify) — would operate as one of the very few reward programs that recognizes value of effort over quality of achievement. “I really think that we need to have something for everybody, which includes the straight-D student,” said Crenshaw, who has seen the program succeed in other districts, “or it just gets too discouraging [for those kids whose grades may never keep pace with their hard work].”
The suggestion was discussed in favorable terms by the board, but a final vote was postponed until a subsequent meeting.
FIRST-YEAR band instructor Ranie Wahlmeier approached the board with a brand new use for old band uniforms.
Currently, there are a number of outdated band uniforms moldering in the closets at IHS, a costume overflow that is creating storage problems.
Wahlmeier’s idea, then, instead of throwing out the old uniforms, is this: turn them into quilts and tote bags and sell them as part of a band fundraiser.
Wahlmeier has already researched the plausibility of restyling the outmoded garments, and has located a number of local, qualified volunteers capable of turning a band jacket, with its fancy cuffs and delicate piping, into a nice bedspread or a Mustang carryall.
Community members would also have the option of purchasing a full band uniform on its own, as is. (Short of finding another town in the country named Iola, whose school needs band uniforms and whose colors are blue and yellow, the resale value on these items is nil.)
However, knowing the sentimental significance of these storied uniforms, explained Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager, I thought the proposal worthy of board consideration.
Any money raised from the project, said Wahlmeier, would likely be used to purchase new music and much-needed instrument repair.
BOARD president Dan Willis, who is the acting point person on the “facilities planning committee,” briefed the board on his group’s progress so far. According to Willis, the committee’s leads have conducted fruitful conversations with the Wichita-based firm of Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture, who has offered to help the facilities committee create a master plan that would take into consideration the ways any prospective bond issue would impact the local community and would advise the committee on best practices for keeping the public up-to-date on the district’s building plans as they take shape.
Hoping to bypass the infighting and polarization that characterized the district’s failed bond proposal in 2014, Willis said he has been driven by two goals since talk of new infrastructure plans reentered the conversation last year: 1) to maintain a united community throughout the entire bond process; and 2) to present the information and prospective plans to the general public sooner rather than later.
