HOISINGTON — The USD 431 Board of Education passed a resolution supporting the College and Career Ready standards at its regular meeting on Monday.
Superintendent Bill Lowry reported that the district has been on the path preparing for these standards for three years. The Kansas Board of Education has adopted the standards.
It’s a “Signal we are on record supporting them,” said Dean Stoskopf, board president.
In other business, the USD 431 Board of Education heard a district audit report from Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball.
Ken Beran gave the report. He found no major deficiencies and a few minor items from past years have been corrected. He said everyone was cooperative in correcting any items.
His recommendations were to:
•Insure pay rates are entered correctly for all employees by having someone review the numbers after they have been input in the fall.
•Go through checking accounts and reduce the number of accounts. A large number of these are class reunion accounts that have less than $1.
•Have Activity Fund gate receipts be collected by two people.
•Make sure purchase orders are entered before they are paid out. Beran gave one example.
The audit was approved by the school board.
The school district has implemented Multi-Tiered System of Support for reading for several years. It is a research based system that specifically targets a student’s weaknesses.
Hoisington Middle School Principal Pat Reinhardt said that the school has seen tremendous improvements in reading literacy at the middle school with MTSS. She reported that in 2011-12, 55 percent of eighth graders were below target. This week, 24 percent were below target with only four students in the lowest level.
In addition, the board approved a calendar charge for teachers. The district will have traditional conferences in the fall, but in the spring, will move to student led conferences. A day in March was removed as a work day to give teachers more conference time.
Superintendent Bill Lowry said that all certified staff will attend the full conferences.
The board also discussed district goals and strategies that were suggested by a committee of community members last spring. Lowry will organize the information and put together timelines.