Anna-Jonesboro Community High School District #81 Board met Dec. 13.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
The Anna-Jonesboro Community High School held its regular meeting. Upon roll call at 6:00 p.m. the following members were present: Mr. Osman, Dr. Blakely, Mr. Partridge, Mr. McGrath, Mrs. Ashby, Mr. Vosburgh, and Mr. Bailey. Also present was Mr. Finders, Mr. Detering, and Superintendent Wright.
On motion by Mr. Bailey and seconded by Mr. Partridge to approve the Agenda as written. All members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Osman and seconded by Mr. McGrath to approve the Consent Agenda which contained the following items: approval of board minutes on 11/15/2021; approval of closed session minutes; approval of payment for bills; acceptance of financial reports. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
Student Council: Good evening AJ board members, administration, and guests. My name is Reese Reynolds and I am the treasurer for the student council here at AJ. Jenna Sadler is the Junior Class Representative. To celebrate the holiday season in Union County, the student council members have purchased, wrapped, and will be distributing presents to families in need. To ring in the season here at AJ, we gave each staff member a mug of hot chocolate and candy cane to sip and enjoy. If you take a trip by or through Union Hall, you will also see a Christmas tree that has been shared for all to enjoy this Christmas season. The Student Council would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays with family and friends.
Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Fitzgerald represented the teachers. Students in Mrs. Stevens’s classes filled out index cards for faculty in the building. These notecards were addressed to different teachers, staff, coaches, and faculty members then delivered to mailboxes last week as an early Christmas gift. Notes were meant to be encouraging and hopefully uplifting to many in the building. Students enjoyed sharing why they like and appreciate many staff in the building. FBLA members are gearing up for their first competition in January. Of the 20 members, 19 have signed up to compete in various events. Students took tests for objective events last week, and production and/or team events will take place at SIU on January 9. Students are excited for the opportunity to showcase their business skills! The National Honor Society is selling raffle tickets to raise money to support their service projects throughout the year. The Thorn family has graciously donated a 2 night stay at their Woodland Retreat Cabins and Feather Hills Winery has donated a $50 gift certificate to their new restaurant Fork and Vine as the prize for the raffle drawing. All proceeds will support the NHS service projects for the remainder of the year and possibly into the next school year. We are excited to raise this money to give back to our school and community! Ms. Cleghorn spoke to Mrs. Hase’s Parenting Class sharing her personal story on teen pregnancy and raising a child with special needs. The class gained a whole new appreciation for parents of special needs children and the amount of work and time these parents put in for their child. Chris Duckworth a small business owner and Dave Ramsey financial coach spoke to Mrs. Hase’s classes about budgeting and credit card debt. Mrs. Hase’s Resource Management classes just finished planning their 5 day vacations. They had to create a detailed itinerary and a budget for their trip. Ms. Maze took two students to meet with Senator Bryant on Tuesday December 7 at SIUC. There they met with different speakers and multiple schools before creating their own pieces of legislation to potentially be heard in the spring when they get to visit the capitol building. Students heard from Senator Bryant, Mayor of Murphysboro Will Stephens, Jackson County State's Attorney Joseph Cervantes, and SIUC Chancellor Austin Lane. They then sat down with area schools to discuss legislation they would like to see introduced to our general assembly. On Thursday December 9, Ms. Maze took 4 other students - Beto Vaca Diez, Jayden Perez, Byron Lang, and Alex Little - to meet with Senator Fowler where they also got to meet with neighboring schools in the district. Alex Little’s group proposed a piece of legislation that will be debated in the spring when we take part in our Mock Legislative Hearing at the Capitol. Their group created legislation surrounding the ideas of mental health training for our police force. Those who attended Senator Fowler’s YAC heard from the youngest alderman in the state of Illinois Dylan Chambers from Massac County, Superintendent from GHS Steve Webb, SIUC Chancellor Austin Lane, and Jeff McCoy from the center for learning support services and exploratory student advice. Mrs. Misener was awarded the Classroom Empowerment Grant. The grant will be used to purchase two Vernier probes and accompanying lab guides. These probes will allow the students to collect data that would then be displayed in graphical representations on their computers. Students in Advanced Biology I, Advanced Chemistry, and Principles of Biomedical Science classes would all be able to use these probes. Some of the topics that could be investigated using these probes include cellular respiration, respiration of sugars on yeast, the effects of temperature on cold-blooded organisms, lactase, and photosynthesis and respiration. The goal of this project would be to engage students in multiple investigations using new technological approaches. Auditions for the 2022 Spring Musical were held November 29 and 30. We had 25 students audition this year and believe we will have another wonderful performance! Stage Crew started in November and Mrs. Vancil has had about 10-15 kids show up regularly. The Art Club held its annual Christmas Party in the cafeteria on December 7th. The club members had a great time playing Pictionary, eating and exchanging gag gifts. The students also collected Toys and donated them to Marlee Smith’s annual toy drive for Cardinal Glennon and Friends of kids with Cancer. AJ student artists have entered 29 works for consideration to the Scholastic Art Awards. We are anxiously waiting for the results of the judging to see which works will be admitted into the exhibit. The AJ FFA Chapter had four students participate in the Section 24 Grain and Poultry Fair. Senior Jace Huckstep displayed pictures from his work on the farm this summer. Junior Timothy Plott showed corn and soybeans raised on his family’s farm. Junior Carmin Smith showed a dozen eggs laid by her chickens and she showed her Silkie Rooster. Sophomore Jason McAlister showed corn, soybeans, wheat and straw that were all grown on his family’s farm. All students received an A rating on their projects. Abigail Dahmer, Jason McAlister, and Lawson Bigham competed in the Section 24 Agronomy CDE on November 16th. On November 23rd, nine FFA members went to Lincoln Elementary to assist the Union County Farm Bureau and Union County Ag in the Classroom with a lesson on pumpkins in the first grade classes. All of the students enjoyed interacting with the younger kids and can’t wait for the opportunity to hopefully go back again. The Welding Lab is fully functional and being used by the Ag Construction Students. AJ Physical Education students in Mrs. Treece’s classes had the extreme pleasure to have Sargent Wiseman of the Army National Guard and fellow soldiers provide an archery deer hunt in the lower gym on November 22nd. With November 22 being Mr. Finders birthday, he was invited down and participated in the hunt also. Students learned proper technique in shooting a bow and arrow. The activity is played with protective face mask and has rules much like the traditional game of dodgeball. Students along with Mrs. Treece volunteered to be the deer. Tons of fun and laughs were had throughout the day. Huge thank you to Sargent Wiseman for the opportunity and to Mr. Finders for being such a good sport. After school was dismissed on December 1st Mrs. Treece traveled to Tinley Park, Illinois where she attended the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Convention, “The Power of You,” on December 2nd and 3rd. Mrs. Treece attended classes both days 8:15-4pm which included classes in Social Emotional Learning, tech for PE, IHT Heart Monitors & assessments, Optimizing Evaluations 2 and 3 Danielson Model, Strength and Conditioning, fundraising, and more. Mrs. Treece has scheduled a meeting with Mr. Detering and Mr. Finders to share information from the convention along with ideas of how to implement high quality SEL into Physical Education to ultimately reach students one a higher level. Mrs. Treece would like to thank Mr. Wright and the board for approving to reimburse the fees for conference registration and for providing the substitute for her classes while she attended the convention; it was a very informative and insightful experience. In the spirit of giving and the Holiday season, Mrs. Treece’s classes adopted a child from the VFW Angel Tree directed by Mrs. Linda Jackson. Students meet Mrs. Treece at Walmart to pick out items for the child with the information about the child given by Mrs. Jackson. Funds to purchase the items were generously donated by Treece farm Specialties and Mrs. Treece’s AJ Physical Education fund. Funds in the PE account are raised through fundraisers throughout the year and by generous community donations. Students who participated in shopping included Alex Little, Megan Wright, Nash Oxford, and former student Brylee Oxford. Though not all students were able to attend many tried to send monetary donations, but Mrs. Treece assured them that though their beautiful kind hearts were in the right place and their act of kindness was much appreciate she felt it best for students to be the shoppers, wrappers, and gift givers and let the PE fund and donation purchase the items to help support the community that has so graciously supported Mrs. Treece’s program the last 3 and half years. Ms. Maze’s government classes took part in a mock judicial hearing. Students argued the case Texas V. Johnson, where students had to prepare an argument to determine whether burning the American Flag in a means of protests is protected by the First Amendment or if there should be a constitutional amendment put into place to protect the flag from acts of desecration. Ms. Cleghorn’s Culinary Arts classes planned, prepared food, and decorated for the AJ Christmas Party which was held at 3D Auction Barn. Steve Hornbeak and Eric Massey provided entertainment with their Dueling Piano Show. Everyone was very appreciative and fun was had by all that attended. We hope to continue this tradition and make it an annual event. Steve Wiseman from the National Guard came into Ms. Cleghorn’s Culinary Arts classes and did a version of Chopped with MRE’s. The students had a lot of fun and were surprised how tasty some of the MRE’s were and could be with some added ingredients. The Seniors in Spanish 4 and Spanish Club traveled with Mr. Recuero to SIU for World Language Day just before Thanksgiving. They were able to attend 5 cultural sessions of their choice that varied between informational presentations about other cultures and languages to interactive activities like Salsa dancing and language lessons through virtual reality. Afterwards the cultural immersion experience continued with lunch at Abans Kitchen, a Yemeni restaurant in Carbondale, and a trip to La Panaderia, the Mexican bakery in Carbondale. On Friday, December 10th, Spanish club students learned to prepare a popular Latin American dish called maduros (sweet, fried plantains). In Mrs. Richbourg’s Advanced Bio 2 classes, two of the research groups from the Planting Science project earned STAR Project nominations and one of the two groups WON!! The two projects were nominated by our research mentor Dr Devesh Shukla from the National Botanical Research Institute of India. The group that was nominated was Sydney Waun and Isabel Tehandon with Addi Hadley. They will receive a certificate of nomination from Planting Science. The group that won a STAR Project was Brylen Suggs, Malik Groh, and Evan Ray! They will be receiving certificates, t-shirts, and other prizes!
Mr. Finders reported on items as Curriculum Director; he spoke about Wildcat Academy, Grants, and the Teacher of the Month Initiative.
Principal Detering reported on Failure Report, Discipline, and Academic Intervention for the 2nd semester.
Superintendent Wright presented his administrative report. He updated that the School Maintenance Grant was approved for the roof replacement over the shop area. Members from the Building and Curriculum/Tech committees met and discussed projects for the future. Mr. Wright will get a list together by the January board meeting so they can update the 5 year plan.
On motion by Mr. Vosburgh and seconded by Mrs. Ashby for the Board to enter into closed session at 6:40 p.m. for the following reasons (1) The purpose of appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public to determine its validity 5ILCS 120/2(c)(1) The placement of
individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students. 5ILCS 120/2(c)(10). On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Bailey seconded by Mrs. Ashby to return to regular session at 7:52 p.m. On roll call all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
Mr. Wright distributed Superintendent Evaluation materials.
On motion by Mr. Partridge seconded by Mr. Osman to approve the Certificate of Tax Levy. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. McGrath seconded by Mr. Osman to approve the quote from Byrne & Jones for track improvements. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Vosburgh and seconded by Mrs. Ashby to approve quote from T & I Office Equipment for the purchase of a new copier. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
The First Reading of Board Policy Updates.
Superintendent Wright updated the Board in regards to the district’s architectural services.
On motion by Mrs. Ashby and seconded by Mr. Vosburgh to approve hiring Paula Beckham as hearing interpreter under the terms of contract as presented. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Bailey and seconded by Mr. Vosburgh to purchase a 6 seat golf cart. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. McGrath and seconded by Mr. Osman to approve district participation in the newly legislated TRS 457b plan for the AJCHSD 81 employees. All members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Osman seconded by Dr. Blakely to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 8:30 p.m. All members present voting yes. Motion carried.
https://aj81.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/December-2021-Minutes.pdf
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