Pope County Community Unit School District 1 Board of Education met Oct. 19.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
Meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm by President Aly and the following members were present: Kizziar, Schuchardt, Hogg, Simmons, Wallace, and Aly. Jeffords was absent.
Motion was made by Wallace and seconded by Kizziar to approve the agenda. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Motion was made by Wallace and seconded by Hogg to approve the consent agenda including the following: 1) Approve Minutes of Board Meetings on 9/21/2023; 2) Approve Closed Session Minutes; 3) Approve Bills for Payment; and 4) Accept Financial Reports. Mr. Fritch stated there is a Glass Doctor bill for replacement windows in the old shop classroom. Bills for mileage reimbursement and drug testing renewal was questioned. With no further comments, roll call vote: all ayes.
At this time, President Aly recognized correspondence from Illinois Association of School Boards of a letter and certificate recognizing our active membership.
Under Administrative reports, Mrs. Allen was absent from the meeting attending the first home basketball game.
Mr. Graves reported the following: 1) Spirit Cards are still for sale. ($10); 2) October 4th we conducted a fire drill with the local fire department; 3) October 4th marked the end of the 1st Quarter. Report cards were mailed out; 4) Parent Teacher Conferences were held October 5th and went well; 5) The faculty attended a conference at Eldorado October 6th; 7) Seniors have placed cap and gown orders; 8) Sophomores have ordered class rings; 9) Our Cross Country Boys and Girls teams both won the Conference Championship at Lake Glendale.
This is the second year in a row!; 10) Jessie Crawford attended the Little Egypt District of Student Councils District meeting October 12th. She will be attending monthly meetings between now and January to run for a Student Council District Officer position; 11) Mrs. Broadway and Mrs. Graves has begun SEL training and will begin collecting data on social emotional needs around the high school soon. (Students and Faculty); 12) Art Club is going to the Sidewalk Chalk Competition at Harrisburg the 27th; 13) October 31st, FFA is leaving for the National Convention for a week; and 14) Enrollment: 171.
Mr. Fritch reported the following: 1) Due to all the damage the van endured from being rear ended and the estimate being over $16,000, it will most likely be totaled. We are back to using a school bus to transport students to Norris City. Once we get a check from the insurance for the van, a new van will be purchased; 2) We have entered into a MOU, along with other area schools, for Career Pathways, which is a grant to fund technical programs offered in high school. This gives us more power to get funds since we are already offering CTE classes; 3) We had a walk-through visit today from the insurance regarding our loss and prevention. He stated we need to install handrails in different areas of the school with stairs; 4) Our new websites are up and running. We have the same web addresses but all new sites. We are in hopes these will be better and easier to maintain and update. Thank you to Paula Baker for making this happen; and 5) Our contract will be up with LifeTouch Pictures. We will need to look at if we want to try another company or stay with them. They also do the Elementary yearbook. We will be looking for other options and see what is best.
Mrs. Allen entered the meeting and gave her report on the following: 1) Student Involvement/Sports; a) Jr. Lady Pirates are Regional Champs; b) Jayleigh Coram qualified for State in Cross County. She finished 76th out of 130, her time was 13:32; c) Jr. High boys and girls basketball is underway; 2) Faculty/Staff/Building Information; a) Bids are coming in for maintenance projects; b) Pirates Cove and Sweet Shoppe are in full swing; c) All emergency drills have been completed for the 2023-24 school year; d) Parent-teacher conferences were held Oct 5. Teachers were very appreciative of the meal catered by the district; e) ROE Teacher Conference @ Eldorado was held on Oct 6; f) Teachers and students wore pink for breast cancer on Oct 11; g) 1st Quarter Attendance Incentive was held on Oct 16 (238 kids); h) District is providing lunch on Oct 20; i) 1st Grade is taking a trip to Ft. Massac on Oct 20; j) Spirit Week will be held Oct 23 – 27; k) School Improvement 2:00 dismissal scheduled for Oct 23; l) 5th grade is taking a
field trip to SIU Stem Center, Sleuths in Science on Oct 27; m) Teachers are planning fall party activities on Oct 31; n) Veteran’s Day program is scheduled for Friday, Nov 10 @ 1:00, grades 3-5; 3) Enrollment is 307.
Motion to enter closed session for the purpose of discussion of personnel performance, procedures, and employment was made by Kizziar and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all ayes. Board entered closed session at 7:26 pm.
Motion to return to regular session was made by Wallace and seconded by Kizziar. Roll call vote: all ayes. Board returned at 8:24 pm.
There was no employment action.
Mr. Fritch stated WOVSED has suggested we add some wording to our Student Handbooks to include special education accommodations for students with IEPs. We will have a draft copy of the addendum at the next board meeting. This was tabled until November.
Motion to approve out-of-state field trip to St. Louis University School of Medicine on December 1 as requested by Chris Ditterline was made by Wallace and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Motion to approve out-of-state, overnight field trip to Indianapolis, Indiana for the FFA to attend National FFA Convention on October 31 – November 3 as requested by Wade Swinford and Melissa Wilson was made by Wallace and seconded by Hogg. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Motion to approve overnight field trip to Bloomington, IL for the FFA to attend FFA Build Conference as requested by Wade Swinford and Melissa Wilson was made by Hogg and seconded by Wallace . Roll call vote: all ayes.
President Aly reminded members of the parent request to offer some kind of discount on admissions to ball games for parents who have multiple student athletes and attend several, if not, all games during the season. There was some discussion on the issue and no action was taken by the Board.
Under Old Business, Mr. Fritch explained there is another maintenance grant coming through and he requested the funds be spent for a new outside walk-in freezer and new flooring in areas with carpet. Motion to approve $50,000 Matching Maintenance Grant for a new outside walk-in freezer and new flooring in areas with carpet was made by Simmons and seconded by Kizziar. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Motion to accept bid from Blake Day for the four used buses at $1,000 per bus was made by Wallace and seconded by Schuchardt. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Mr. Fritch explained the timeframe for the septic project was growing short due to the funds need to be spent by September 2024 and the difficultly with getting the easements needed to run the lines to town. He recommended having the septic system be built on site behind the elementary building. Motion to approve change of plans from running wastewater to Golconda to building on site due to time constraints of grant funding and easement issues was made by Wallace and seconded by Schuchardt. Roll call vote: all ayes.
Under Other School Business, Member Wallace asked about the cameras for the buses. Mr. Fritch stated Mr. Roper has found some and has them ordered. President Aly asked if they could get a Student Representative again to report on student happenings and to just hear from the student body. Mr. Graves stated they will work on getting some students.
With no further business to be discussed, a motion was made by Wallace and seconded by Hogg to adjourn the meeting until the next meeting to be held on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 7:00 pm in the J.H. Hobbs Memorial Library. All members present voted aye.
Meeting adjourned at 8:46 pm.
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