The Iola school calendar is still a topic of discussion at USD 257 school board meetings. SAFE BASE director Angela Henry was pleased to inform the board that they received the $100,000 supplemental grant opportunity with 21st Century Grant she applied for in February. The grant will allow for 70 SAFE BASE students to go to Colorado for a week at the end of June. SCOTT Stanley, director of operations, gave an update on security, maintenance and transportation. IN OTHER NEWS:
USD 257 superintendent Brian Pekarek informed board members Monday night of two issues regarding the calendar.
The first dealt with how the district will need to make up one snow day on May 16 with students because the district’s students are short three contact days due to snow days and a missed day at McKinley due to a burst pipe. Pekarek suggested having their snow day on May 16 be a regular school day, which is built into the calendar. This would require students to attend school one extra day because school officially was going to end on May 15.
The second calender issue dealt with the discussion of teacher contract days. Since the district canceled three days for snow, and because the teachers signed a contract requiring them to complete 181 teacher days, only 178 days were completed. Pekarek said options for teachers include work days, possible professional development day, and/or a forgiveness of days.
The board discussed the options but did not take action.
At the previous board meeting the board decided to add one minute to the end of each school day to make up the lost 39 minutes due to snow days of the required 1,116 contact hours with students. However, the district will need the 39 minutes and the snow day on May 16 in order to meet the required 1,116 contact hours because of the loss of four total days.
Iola Middle School principal Jack Stanley was approved to allow early release for the annual middle school track meet on April 9.
Because IMS begins earlier and ends later in the day they are well over the required contact hours and the early release will not affect the snow day calendar issue.
Stanley said he has 46 adults and a number of students volunteering to work the track meet. There are 19 schools attending the meet.
“There will be a thousand athletes down at the park that day,” Stanley said.
IMS will be dismissed at 12:50 p.m. and the activities will begin at 1 p.m. at Riverside Park.
Iola High summer school days were approved for June and Iola elementary schools for July. Discussion of the Iola Middle School, which usually holds its summer school days in August, was postponed.
Stanley said they would like to hold their summer days closer to the beginning of the school year because it causes students who failed the previous year to gear up earlier for classes.
The high school has to hold its summer days at the beginning of the school year because if there are any graduating seniors who failed they will still have a chance at graduating with their class.
“Now we’re like the dog that caught the car,” Henry said. “We have to figure out what it’s going to take.”
Transition of the new bus that was purchased in February has taken place.
Installation of the new security doors in the high school and middle school have begun and full implementation is expected next week.
The new door to the Iola Middle School office has been completed and use of the buzzer system is expected to begin next week.
Monday all doors were locked except for the main door to the office and Stanley said it “went over well.”
The plan for the elementary schools had been tweaked and the estimated time of completion has been set back slightly.
The board approved the replacement of two boilers at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The Friends of the Bowlus and USD 257 will split the cost of the boilers, which will come from the capital outlay fund. The cost to the school district will be roughly $56,000, coming out of its fiscal year 2014 budget. The boilers to be replaced are 48 years old — as old as the fine arts center.
Stanley said there were a few summer projects that will need to be completed that had not been foreseen at the beginning of the year.
The intercom system in the high school will need to be replaced and renovations to the Jefferson main office will be to be made. This bumped the estimated cost from $256,674.88 to $264,056.88.
The driver’s education course was approved to start on May 22 at a cost of $125 per person. The course will be available to the public and will allow bus drivers to take the course in-house as opposed to going out of town, as in the past.
Jack Morrell, the driver’s education teacher, said taking the course after receiving a driver’s license can save the driver 5 to 10 percent on their insurance.
Monday night elementary principals were at the annual kindergarten roundup and did not attend the board meeting.
The resignation of Eric Farmer, high school custodian, Katie Murphy, high school language arts teacher and Bryna Boldra, math teacher, were accepted.
The retirements of Merryl McRae, physical education at IMS, and Loretta Ellis, kindergarten teacher at McKinley, were accepted.
Allison Banner was accepted as substitute cook, pending a background check.
Weather plays havoc with calendar
