Anna Jonesboro Community High School District 81 Board of Education met Nov. 21.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
The Anna Jonesboro Community High School held its regular meeting on November 21, 2022, it was called to order by President Dr. Blakely. Upon roll call at 6:01 p.m. the following members were present: Dr. Blakely, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Hughey, and Mrs. Thompson. Mr. Vosburgh arrived at 6:34pm.
On motion by Mr. Bailey and seconded by Mrs. Thompson to approve the Agenda. All members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Hughey and seconded by Mr. Bailey to approve the Consent Agenda which contained the following items: approval of board minutes on 10/17/22 and 10/27/22; approval of closed session minutes; approval of payment for bills, accept resignations of Cody Roberts and Sumitha McCauley, and acceptance of financial reports. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
Mr. Hughey was recognized as a Distinguished Board Leader.
Recognition of Visitors and Correspondence: a thank you note from Mike Lohstroh was read.
Student Council: Good evening, I am Madelynn Eastman, the blood drive coordinator for student council. Last month, on October 26th we collected 70 pints of blood from 98 people that tried to give. The next blood drive will be February 22nd. On November 3rd Student Council officers and a few additional seniors went to the Little Egypt District of Student Council Fall Workshop in Benton. There were over 500 students and 20 schools who participated. We are excited to announce that we are the Champions! For Veterans Day we gave cards and Little Debbie treats to the Veterans home to thank them for their service. With the help of Mrs. Fitz’s classes Student Council put up and decorated our Christmas tree in Union Hall Lobby for all to enjoy during the Holiday Season.
Teachers Notes: Julie Lewis and Jessica Howell took 10 seniors to Springfield on Thursday November 17th. They toured the Lincoln Museum, went to his tomb, and then enjoyed a horseshoe sandwich at Darcy’s. Ms. Lewis wrote a grant and received $100 from PAST to help with the students’ expenses and Anna-Jonesboro National Bank paid for their dinner. The museum does not charge for small school groups. Mrs. Vancil took 9 students to compete in the annual Chalk Art contest in Harrisburg. One of the groups was awarded a Teacher’s Choice award for their tribute to Escher’s Drawing Hands Lithograph. (Sophie Loomis, Elliot Isaacson, and Reagan Brough) A 2nd place trophy was awarded to the group consisting of Sydney Waun, Alexis Nekola, Jada Buck and Kosie Tripp. The Annual High School Art Exhibit is on display at the Anna Arts Center through November 26th. The public may view this show during the Arts and Crafts Expo. Students who won awards are: Allison Frick 3rd and Kosie Tripp 1st for sculpture. Alexis Nekola 2nd in painting, Carmen Smith 1st for photography, Jada Buck 1st Sydney Waun 2nd, and Morgan Casey 3rd in drawing. The Art Club will have a booth at the annual VFW Auxiliary Arts and Crafts Fair on November 26th in the lower gym. Students will give away unwanted ceramic pieces for donations. Many vendors participate in this every year. AJ celebrated American Education Week November 14-18 with dress-up days. Many clubs and organizations provided lunches, treats and goodies for faculty and staff. Thank you to all who participated. As of November 10th, seven of our seniors are CPR certified! Ms. Stokes’s English III and English IV classes are enjoying some stories written in the 1950s. She would like to give a big round of applause to our history teachers. The seniors love to teach me history and their perspectives are enlightening. So far, a third of the senior class has completed their FAFSA applications. Mrs. Miller & Ms. Webb have been working with our ISAC representative, Amelia Blakely, to assist students and families with this process and would like to thank her for her continued presence in our school. In other senior class updates, according to our records at least half of the senior class has completed at least one college application, and they’ve earned close to three quarters of a million dollars in scholarships so far. Mrs. Miller & Ms. Webb would also like to congratulate this year’s Illinois State Scholars: Jolie Barger, Avery Osman, Will Poulos Keller, Jessie Sartin, and Isabel Tehandón. Ms. Webb, with the help of our administrative assistant, Niki Barlow, coordinated with The Fowler-Bonnan Foundation and Shoe Sensation to get shoes to AJ students in need. To date, upwards of 100 students have received a pair of shoes, and we are still waiting on fifty more pairs to be delivered. Ms. Webb & Mrs. Miller are also collecting money to purchase Christmas presents for AJ students in need through the sale of candy-grams, and are excited to be able to provide a little joy to those students and their families. Finally, Mrs. Miller and Ms. Webb were able to attend the recent Illinois School Counselor Association state conference in Tinley Park. In addition to receiving a variety of exciting new program information and attending several sessions that led to great networking opportunities and ideas for further development of the AJ school counseling program, Mrs. Miller and Ms. Webb were honored to be asked to present a session on the need for mental health services in rural schools, which was met with quite a bit of encouraging positive feedback. Their presentation was one of only two given by school counselors serving in districts south of I-64, so it was great to represent the southern half of the state in that way. Auditions for the 2023 spring musical production of “The Wizard of Oz” will take place Monday and Tuesday, November 21 and 22. Mrs. Vancil and the crew have already started working! We look forward to another great rehearsal season! Ms. Cleghorn’s classes have been very busy. The Culinary Arts classes have had several catering jobs this semester. They catered the Golf Banquet, both nights of Parent/Teacher conferences, and made muffins for the ROE institute day. All classes are currently making and building Gingerbread Houses. Ms. Cleghorn and Mrs. Hase are starting to work on the Annual AJ Teacher Appreciation week. We are looking to have this sometime in March. We will also tie in the AJ Faculty and Staff party like we did last year at Christmas time with dinner and music at the end of that week. Ms. Maze’s classes have been learning about their First Amendment rights. They are currently looking into different types of speech to determine what speech is not protected through our First Amendment by studying events in history. Mrs. Treece’s classes aided The Derek Harvell Memorial Foundation Thanksgiving food drive in collecting much needed food items for the Shawnee Development Food Pantry. Mrs. Treece offered to provide a pizza party for the class that brought in the most items. Second Hour PE won with a total of 239 items to claim the pizza party. Overall Mrs. Treece’s classes brought in over 600 food items to be donated in honor of Derek Harvell. Mrs. Treece would like to thank all students, staff, and community members that help make the food drive successful. Mrs. Treece and her students created a Fall Sports Display leading into the Cafeteria to recognize all AJCHS Fall Athletes. With Winter Sports now in full swing they are working diligently on getting all Winter Athletes represented on the walls leading into the cafeteria. Winter sport displays should be complete by next Wednesday 11/30.
Curriculum Director Finders spoke about Illinois School Report Card Information and the Staff or Faculty member of the month.
Principal Detering spoke about failure reports, discipline, and the Illinois State Scholars.
Superintendent Wright reported on our energy contract, tax rate comparisons of other schools, our maintenance grant application for student services has been approved, Dongola wanting to Coop for football, and information on our marquee.
Public Comments: Paula Hasty, Ryan Dodd. Hannah Maze, Cody Roberts, and Sumitha McCauley all spoke to the Board in closed session.
On motion by Mr. Hughey and seconded by Mrs. Thompson for the Board to enter into closed session at 7:07 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) Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives, or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. 5ILCS 120/2(c)(10) On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Bailey and seconded by Mr. Hughey to return to regular session at 8:24 p.m. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Bailey and Mr. Vosburgh to approve Resolution 22-11-21A Regarding Estimated Amounts Necessary to be levied for the Year 2023. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
Information was presented on the FY22 School District Audit.
Information was presented on the Illinois School Report Card.
Annual Report on the Annual Review of the Emergency Operations Plan was presented.
On motion by Mr. Hughey and seconded by Mr. Vosburgh to approve Memorandum of Understanding regarding pay for ticket takers. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
A Facilities Improvement Plan was presented to the Board for discussion and input.
First Reading of Board Policy Updates.
On motion by Mr. Vosburgh and seconded by Mrs. Thompson to approve the following winter and spring coaches: Wrestling: Mike Delashmutt (Volunteer), Girls Soccer: Mark Boomer (Head Coach), Chelsea Reinier (Assistant), Evan Keller ( Volunteer), Keiler Dillman (Volunteer), Baseball: Aaron Roberts (Head Coach), Thomas Corbit (Assistant), Justin Richardson (Volunteer), Nathan Guined (Volunteer), David Frank (Volunteer), Dalton Goddard (Volunteer), Softball: Rodney Seip (Head Coach), Eric Osman (Assistant), Erin Suggs (Volunteer), Track: Michael Eudy (Head Coach), Matt Denny (Assistant), Kyle Kueker (Assistant). On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Hughey and seconded by Dr. Blakely to approve Dan Owens as EOC Aide. On roll call, all members present voting yes. Motion carried.
On motion by Mr. Vosburgh and seconded by Mrs. Thompson to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 9:38 p.m. All members present voting yes. Motion carried.
https://aj81.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/November-2022-Minutes.pdf
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