“Maintenance is going great at both sites,” Principal Heath Olstad said at the July 25 Fillmore Central School Board meeting. Both the Harmony and Preston Fillmore Central buildings are getting in shape for the 2017-18 school year. He also noted that he’s given tours of the school to new families that will be starting at the district.
The district is gearing up for its second year utilizing the Action 100 program that emphasizes reading. The program showed good results and was well-received last year.
A resignation from head baseball coach Keith Larson was accepted by the board with their gratitude for the work he has done with the team.
The 2017-18 faculty, coaches, K-6, and 7-12 handbooks were reviewed by the board. The first reading of the handbooks took place at the June meeting. Only a few changes were made in each one.
The K-6 handbook now includes a policy that strongly discourages students from bringing food to school that contains tree nuts or that is manufactured in a facility that uses tree nuts. The policy will ensure that everyone at the school can feel safe. An unpaid meal policy as mandated by the government has been added to both of the student handbooks and a note about parking in the lot by the Methodist Church to the 7-12 handbooks.
A change to the faculty handbook means that the parent-teacher conferences will be taking place on one day in the fall and a second day in the spring rather than occurring over several days for each semester.
The second reading of board policies 506, 525, 534, 601, 603, 612.1, 616, and the emergency closings policy was approved.
The board reviewed a copy of the Head Start lease for the 2017-18 school year and approved it with no changes to the terms or rates from last year.
The Long Term Facilities Maintenance Plan was reviewed and included the projected 10-year funding, the 10-year expenditures, and a letter of assurances. The board approved the plan.
The district’s membership in the Minnesota School Board Association was renewed. The dues for 2017-18 are $3,441 for association dues and $675 for policy services and were based on the average daily membership of students served during the previous fiscal year.
In her report to the board, Director of Special Education Micki Breitsprecher informed the board that the STAR Professional Development Grant that the school applied for was approved for a professional development grant through Region 10. The training take place throughout the school year and will kick off with a three-day workshop going from August 8-10. The program will increase the special education team’s capacity to work effectively with children with developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, during the critical years of brain and behavior development. The team consists of three special education teachers, a speech language clinician, three paraprofessionals, and the director of special education.
Two M/W/F sessions are being offered for the 4/5 preschool class and one M-F session. The ¾ class will include sessions for M/W and T/Th in the early morning class and M/W in the late morning. The late morning class will be dropped if the number of enrolled students is not high enough to fill all three sessions.
A playground is slated to be installed around the the back of the school, west of the existing football field. It will be called the Mini Falcons Playscape Playground and will be used for the community education programs.
A job opening is available in the daycare for the toddler room aide position.
The board reviewed the district’s current Vision, Mission, Beliefs, and Goals as part of the World’s Best Workforce Plan and approved them as read with no changes from last year. The plan addresses school readiness, third-grade literacy, closing achievement gaps, college/career readiness, and high school graduation.
The next Fillmore Central School Board meeting will be held on August 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Preston media center.
Leave a Reply