Southern Illinois News

Pope County Community Unit School District 1 Board of Education met Oct. 17.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 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 Simmons 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 9/19/2024; 2) Approve Closed Session Minutes; 3) Approve Bills for Payment; 4) Accept Financial Reports; and 5) Publication of Annual Statement of Affairs. Mr. Fritch stated there were some bills from Central States for repairs to one of the older buses. Sheyann Broadway had received some grant money which they used for upgrades to the teacher’s lounge and weight room. Everything else was normal monthly bills. With no further comments, roll call vote: all ayes.

At this time, President Aly recognized Danielle Kizziar, PTO President. Mrs. Kizziar introduced herself and had the leadership introduce themselves, Brittany Wallace, Shay Hamilton, and Jessi Green. Mrs. Kizziar explained what the PTO has done in the past, what they are currently doing, and what they would like to do in the future. She also explained how they help teachers, students, and classes with their needs by providing funds. Their long-term goal is to get new playground equipment for the elementary school. They asked to meet with Mr. Fritch to help gain information on the legalities of the project. They will keep the Board updated on their progress with planning, bids on the equipment, fundraising, and getting the community involved.

Under Administrative reports, Mr. Graves gave Mrs. Allen’s report due to her absence. Mr. Graves report the following for her: 1) Student Involvement/Sports; a) Jr. High boys and girls basketball is underway; i) GEC Conference agreed to move game times up to 5:30 PM start for the 2024-2025 basketball season; 2) Faculty/Staff/Building Information; a) Family Movie Night – over 100 individuals were in attendance; b) All emergency drills have been completed for the 2024-25 school year; c) Parent-teacher conferences were held Oct 10; i) Teachers were very appreciative of the meal catered by the district; d) ROE Teacher Conference @ Eldorado was held on Oct 11; e) Teachers and students wore pink for breast cancer on Oct 16; f) 1st Quarter Attendance Incentive will be held this month (nacho party); g) District is providing lunch on Oct 18; h) 3-5 grade are traveling to Fort Massac on Oct 18; i) Teachers are planning fall party activities on Friday, Nov 1; j) Veteran’s Day program is scheduled for Friday, Nov 8 @ 9:30 AM, grades 3-5; and 3) Enrollment; October 2023 306; October 2024 299.

Mr. Graves reported the following: 1) October 7th we conducted a fire drill with the local fire department; 2) October 9th marked the end of the 1st Quarter. Report cards were mailed out; 3) Parent Teacher Conferences were held October 10th and went well; 4) The faculty attended the fall conference at Eldorado October 11th; 5) Seniors have placed cap and gown orders; 6) Sophomores have ordered class rings; 7) The SEL Team at the High School has upgraded the Teacher’s Lounge with some new furniture items as well as made additions to the weight room of additional workout equipment; 8) FFA National Convention starts on the 22nd. 16 students and sponsors will be attending pending approval; 9) Fall Bash (Oct. 24th) sponsored by FBLA and Student Council will be at Dixon Springs from 5-8 pm; 10) Sidewalk Chalk competition for the Art Club is October 25th; 11) Cale Warfield, has been selected to participate in the Quad State High School Honor Choir at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. Cale was selected with 200 other students out of 1300 from 45 schools. He will perform in the Quad State Mostly Mozart concert on Monday, November 4th at Murray State University. The High School Honor Choir is one of the oldest continuously running festivals in the South and carries a rich tradition at Murray State University; and 12) Enrollment: 144.

Mr. Fritch reported the following: 1) Update on all projects going on; a) Septic system is in the building phase of the sand filters and almost completed. Once those are completed, they will get the control panels and grinders ordered. We are looking at receiving those in January, which puts the project behind schedule; b) Flooring project is still not completed. The door they ordered for Mrs. Reed’s room was wrong and doesn’t fit. They are to be here Monday (Oct. 21) to shave it down and make it work temporarily. The new door will take 12-14 weeks to arrive. The old storage room is painted and completed. There is a design flaw in the fence that goes around the new freezer unit, the concrete wasn’t poured with the fence design in mind. They are going to have to rework the fence design; 2) Old McQuay HVAC unit in one 2nd grade classroom is dead.

The mini-split HVAC unit in the Pre-K rooms also died. Quote on new units for those rooms came in at $29,000.

The Board did not need to go to executive session.

Under New Business, Mr. Fritch distributed the Annual Financial Report for fiscal year 2024. He explained the cash flow numbers and that we have 161 cash-on-hand operations days. He pointed out some pages for the members to view and gave them time to inspect the audit. We received a 3.9 Recognition out of a 4. After some questions from the member, a motion to accept the FY 2024 Annual Financial Report as presented was made by Wallace and seconded by Kizziar. Roll call vote: all ayes.

Motion to approve overnight field trip to Normal, IL for the FFA to attend FFA Build Conference as requested by Wade Swinford and Melissa Wilson was made by Wallace and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all ayes.

Motion to approve out-of-state field trip to Murray State University for choir student to participate in the Quad State High School Honors Choir as requested by Tim Green was made by Hogg and seconded by Wallace. Roll call vote: all ayes.

Mr. Fritch explained the current teacher’s contract has a retirement incentive included. Mr. Fritch recommended this also be extended to the non-certified staff. Motion to extend the certified staff retirement incentive as defined in the collective bargaining agreement to non-certified staff was made by Hogg and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all ayes.

Mr. Fritch announced that another State Matching Maintenance Grant was available. He requested the Building Committee to meet to do a walk-through of the buildings and prioritize what needs to be repaired. The committee set a meeting date of October 31st at 8:30 am. They will bring their recommendation to the November meeting for approval.

There were no personnel employment hires due to no applicants. We are still needing a scholar bowl sponsor and a track coach.

Under Old Business, a motion was made by Hogg and seconded by Schuchardt to approve the Southern Seven Head Start Lease Agreement for the 2024-25 school year. Roll call vote: all ayes.

With no further business to be discussed, a motion was made by Wallace and seconded by Simmons to adjourn the meeting until the next meeting to be held on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 7:00 pm in the J.H. Hobbs Memorial Library. All members present voted aye.

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.

https://content.myconnectsuite.com/api/documents/606bc3727a0942e194efc603630d690d.pdf