LARNED — The Larned USD 495 board of education met last month. The following are approved minutes from the March 12 meeting.
Attending were board members Marcia Giessel, Jay Haremza, Brenda Hagerman, Sharon Arnold, June Barger, Sharon Lessard, Jon Flint, superintendent; Phil Martin, board attorney; Jean Simmons, treasurer; Joyce Simpson, clerk. Kevin Reece was absent.
Larned Middle School
Derek Reinhardt, Larned Middle School principal, reports that the middle school has finished the Reading Assessments and planned to finish Math Assessments.
The numbers are going up on the assessments when looking at the running record on State Assessments.
Reinhardt noted that everyone has done a great job on the assessments. Scheduling was discussed last month and he reported that he went back and put a survey out to the 7th and 8th grade teachers to see what ideas they had to help with scheduling. Overwhelmingly, they preferred the six periods.
Reinhardt stated that he put together a couple of different scheduling proposals, looking at a six-period day with an Elective Circle. He will send out another survey based on the different six-period schedules and will still have to tweak the seventh and eighth schedules.
The middle school has a strong fifth-grade schedule and will use that as a model for the sixth grade.
President Jay Haremza asked how many teachers received the survey and Reinhardt reported that nine surveys were returned.
He inquired if there were any other schools that use the last hour for the student’s sport. Reinhardt noted that he understands that is illegal.
Reinhardt reported that he is setting up interviews for the social studies and fifth-grade language arts teaching positions. He reported that he will add the board members to the site council mailings.
Elementary schools
Lea Harding, elementary school principal, reported to the board that Preliminary State Assessment scores are out and the numbers look very good.
Harding reported that one third grade class had 11 out of 24 that were exemplary, two out of 54 scored below “meets standards in fourth-grade reading, and four out of 63 scored below “meets standards” in fourth-grade math.
She reported that she had completed the application grant for Jumpstart for 30 positions. The “Race For Education” letter will be going out and any funds raised will be used for technology.
The Spring Concert for Hillside and Phinney was held. Harding said the Parent/Teacher Conferences were well attended. The Kindergarten numbers are at 71 students right now so the Kindergarten Class might be fairly large.
Westside
Casey Cloninger, Westside principal, reported that he had the opportunity to go to a Special Education Conference on inclusion practices at Wichita.
He said he had attended the Barton County Community College Board of Education meeting to report on how Westside School and the Barton County Community College have worked together on federal grants, college classes, and vocational programs. He reported that the social studies and english classes will be working together to provide rigor and relevance for writing in Common Core.