Students in Family and Consumer Science classes at Great Bend High School provided all of the food and table decorations for Thursday’s Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education meeting.
During the school year, the board holds a luncheon meeting at a different school each month. Thursday’s meeting in the library at GBHS featured a lunch prepared by Kerri Batman’s Nutrition & Wellness 2 class and table decorations created by another FCS class taught by Cara Neegard.
Members of the school board have each been asked to “adopt” a school in the district, Superintendent Brad Reed said. Board president Joyce Carter asked if the Board Adopt-A-Building program could be started again. Each member has been matched to one school and will have “a special relationship” with it.
The board also took time to formally congratulate Tyler Shirley, Jefferson School physical education teacher, on his district nomination for the Kansas Horizon Award.
Shirley was nominated last September at the start of his second year here, but his schedule did not allow him to attend a board meeting until now, said Jefferson Principal Art Baker, who nominated the teacher.
“When you’re good, like Coach Shirley is, you’re busy,” Baker said. Horizon awards are sponsored by the Kansas State Department of Education and recognize exemplary first-year teachers. The 2016 winners will be announced in January.
Building Principal Tim Fries introduced several of his staff, including the school’s three instructional coaches, Karen Maier, math coach; Sarah Ellegood, tech coach; and Julie Buzard, literacy coach. The coaches had board members pull out their smartphones or tablets for an interactive test using Kahoot.it, a game-based learning platform.
In action items, the board accepted the following gifts:
• A $50 gift card from Walmart to Jefferson Elementary School’s Kansas Reading Ready (KRR) Program Coordinator Paxton Rein for use in the family engagement program FAST (Families and Students Together).  The money will be spent for food and paper service products at a forthcoming family event.
• $200 from Robert Glynn to the playground-equipment initiative at Park Elementary School.
• $1,000 from Dr. Roger and Laina Marshall to Great Bend High School for use in athletics.
• $1,200 from Club 1 Fitness for the purchase of equipment.
• Three local businesses, Casey’s, Walnut Bowling Center and Dairy Queen, will provide products valued at about $107 to  Lincoln Elementary School for its FAST event.
• $1,000 from Walmart through the USD 428 Education Foundation to support the One District, One Book literacy initiative.
• Four Kansas City Royals game tickets from Trish Bailey and Cindy Sandy, as prizes for the FAST program. The tickets were from the American Legion Champions in response to letters the teachers wrote during a grant-writing training for the KRR program