ELLINWOOD — The Ellinwood Board of Education met at its regular meeting on Monday evening.
Superintendent Ben Jacobs reported on the iPad roll out. The plan is for iPads to be distributed to students K-12 and is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $250,000-$300,00. He expects a soft rollout to begin in the spring of 2014. The district has been setting aside money for this for a couple of years.
Jacobs also reported that he had received a letter from Bank of the West saying that the bank is planning on closing its branch in Ellinwood on Jan. 10, 2014. The school has approximately $1.2 million dollars that will have to be moved.
With Becca Maxwell and Ronda Sjogren recusing themselves due to conflict of interest, the board approved the withdrawal of all monies from Bank of the West.
The money will be moved to other banks in Ellinwood. Jacobs preferred to move more of the money to Sunflower Bank due to the longer relationship with the bank, and approximately $500,000 to Community Bank, which is newer.
Fall Sports
Activities Director Kip Wilson reported that the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams were successful at the state meet in Wamego. The girls finished 3rd and the boys finished 1st. Individually, Joanne Strecker received fifth place and Pedro Montoya was the state champion.
In tennis, Denae Patten and Rachel Doll finished 7th in doubles at the 3-2-1A state tennis meet.
Colton Church was selected as an All-MCAA first team linebacker and Tanner Swank was selected as an All-MCAA wide receiver in football. This is the last year for the Mid-Central Activities Association. Ellinwood will participate in the Central Plains League in the future.
Volleyball players Sophie Hayes and Allison Panning were selected to the All-MCAA first team. Delaney Beckwith was selected to the second team and Kelsea Ward and Jenna Collins made honorable mention.
Wilson told the board  the volleyball team won in the CPL tournament, but since they didn’t play the regular season in CPL, they were not included in the CPL All- League selections.
College and Career Readiness Standards
Jacobs went over the College and Career Readiness Standards. The No Child Left Behind Standards used rote memorization of facts, while the new standards require problem solving and analysis.
He explained that it is a paradigm shift and that there will be bumps along the way. However, the new standards will promote deeper understanding and real life applications.
After an executive session, the following personnel changes were approved: Jodie Fisher resigned as grade school library aide, Ruth Ann McQuade was hired as the new grade school library aide, and Josh Pierce was hired as an assistant middle school boys basketball coach