A Garden City firm, Tantro Plumbing, was awarded the contract for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning renovation at the Great Bend High School Field House. The school board met Thursday at Lincoln Elementary School and approved Tantro’s low bid of $321,967.
The only other bid was for $416,000. Tantro’s subcontractors will include P&S Electric, L&T Insulation, GBS Enterprises and Washington Roofing.
Superintendent Khris Thexton said work on the Field House should be done by the time students start school in August.

Donations
The board accepted donations totaling $565 from the Carol Hallett Memorial, which will go to Lincoln School. Hallett was a volunteer who used to visit the school and listen to children read.
Another gift was accepted from Stueder Contractors Inc., which is donating Keurig single-cup coffee machines for seven teacher lounges in observance of Teacher Appreciation Week. The donation value is $700.

Personnel
Resignations were accepted from Jenna Gourley, Washington Early Childhood special education teacher; Trevor Henningsen, sixth-grade teacher at Eisenhower Elementary; Laura Schlessinger, GBHS math teacher; Mary Lytle, GBHS English teacher; Alyssa Lane, GBMS orchestra teacher; and Melody Johnson, special education teacher at Ellinwood. (Schlessinger’s contract to teach math at Barton Community College was approved Tuesday at the BCC Board of Trustees meeting.)
Appointments were approved for Jennifer Christiansen, art teacher at GBMS; Rhonda Geisler, sixth-grade teacher at Riley Elementary; Elizabeth Gruis, special education teacher at Ellinwood; and Alden Adams, Washington Early Childhood special education teacher.
The board and Thexton also met in executive session for 25 minutes to discuss personnel.

Building report
Lincoln Principal Misty Straub and staff gave a building report. The school board has now visited all of the attendance centers during the 2016-2017 school year.
The board heard how the school has improved reading and math proficiency by using the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). At the beginning of the school year, Lincoln had 135 kids in “reading interventions,” which are lessons chosen to focus on areas where students perform below grade level. As the spring semester began, 27 students had moved out of intervention as their proficiency improved.
Likewise, 126 students started the school year in math interventions, and 36 of those have now moved out of interventions.
More students are expected to advance by the end of the year. This is especially true for kindergartners who have been learning all of the letter names and how to count to 100 in 2 minutes.
Teachers praised the MTSS structure, but Assistant Superintendent John Popp said it is the educators themselves who deserve credit.
“It’s great that we have a structure in place, but it takes the work of all of them to have these great gains,” he said.