The Chatfield School Board met on March 19, 2018, in the high school media center. Board members present were Jerry Chase, Scott Backer, Amy Jeffers, and Matt McMahon along with Superintendent Harris, Administrative Assistant Lorri Lowrey, Business Manager Karyl Lyons, High School Principal Randy Paulson and Technology Integration Specialist Kristi Cook. Board member Katie Priebe was not in attendance.
Technology integration specialist, Kristi Cook discussed the Schoology program that was implemented one year ago. This is being expanded into the elementary and next year will give access to parents so that with one log in they can find information on all their children. This access would include course content, newsletters, events calendar and assignments. Staff training is ongoing and she will have met with staff twice this year. Technovation is a program for students in grades 5-8 that she leads once a week. This year there are two teams; one elementary and one high school. Another project she is working on is personalized learning through sessions at SSC (Southeast Service Coop). She along with other upper elementary teachers are learning how to evaluate how they teach, how to give students a voice about how they want learn and how to use available technology to meet students at their level. Other projects are grade eight I-movies, grade three digital citizenry, K-3 Seesaw Learning and iPads for media productions.
Principal Paulson updated the board on equipment that has been or will be purchased for the new STEM building. He reported that the temporary lunch room situation has gone quite well and the lunch room will be moved again to the multi-purpose room once the media center renovation begins. The media center will be housed in the old science room until the end of school in June. Pre-registration for classes for next year will start this week. He congratulated the wrestling team and coach Travis Bartels for a successful season along with Jake Mandt (second at State) and Seth Goetzinger (third at State). Chatfield’s Rube Goldberg team won their regional division and now will go on to Nationals in Chicago in April. Knowledge Bowl also went to regionals and placed a respectable fourth place out of 12 competing teams.
Superintendent Harris reported the construction is still on schedule and budget. The first meeting of the School Safety Committee was held and the membership is well represented with school board members, school staff, and parents. The committee’s purpose will be to understand and discuss philosophies, procedures, facilities, concerns, and ideas as they relate to the subject of threats to student safety; make recommendations to administration and/or school board as appropriate; and be a source of accurate information for community members. They have also invited police Chief Shane Fox to be a part of the committee. The student walkout supporting students in Florida went well. Students, staff and administrators are to be commended for their planning of this event so that it was a meaningful expression of support. A number of other safety issues in the building were also discussed.
Under the consent agenda the last meeting minutes were approved, along with the prom DJ, Art Club trip to Chicago, grade five Eagle Bluff trip and the grade eight Washington, DC trip. Brianna Harmening and Sara Sturgis were approved for junior high softball coaches and resignations were accepted from Jayna Harstad, elementary teacher and Matt Mauseth, high school paraprofessional. The job posting for a high school paraprofessional was also approved.
Under new business, the board approved the retirement benefit request and resignation of history teacher Tom Hilgren. Under maintenance, the board approved the updating and repair of the baseball dugouts and backstop enclosure and two quotes have been received. The money for updating will come from district maintenance funds and not from the building project. The sale of the white storage shed was authorized by the board. This building will need to be removed from the site. The revised pay equity report was approved with the updating of three job classifications and should be in compliance now. The last issue that was discussed was fundraising. It was decided to meet with the advisors and coaches this summer to talk about how fundraisers can be regulated, given more structure, and what parameters should be set for them.
The meeting was adjourned with the next meeting to be held on April 16 with the location to be determined since the media center may be under renovation. Spring break for Chatfield schools will be March 29 through April 2.
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