Proceedings of the Board of Education

Community Unit School District No. 5

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 16, 2010

The Board of Education met in regular session on March 16, 2010 in the Superintendents office. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by President Skertich. Present were Baum, Butler, Heeren, Kernich, Pastrovich, Sievers and Skertich. Others present were Superintendent Murphy, Secretary Bruch, Principal Smith, Principal Schuricht, Jeff Rabida, Karen Gall, Al DeVries, Joe Pope, Mary Griffel, Julie Wargo. John Hanafin, Carol Rimar and Sandie Pezold arrived while the board was in executive session.

Motion by Heeren, seconded by Butler to go into closed session at 6:31 p.m. for the purpose of discussing the appointment, employment and dismissal of employees of the public body. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Butler, seconded by Pastrovich to return to open meeting at 7:23 p.m. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Baum, seconded by Heeren to adopt the agenda with changes and approve the minutes of the Regular Board Meeting of February 16, 2010 and approve the minutes of Special Board Meeting of March 9, 2010. All ayes. Motion carried.

Mr. Murphy read a School Board Resolution recognizing Adam Osmoe and Cain Salas for participating in the IHSA State Wrestling tournament .

Motion by Sievers, seconded by Baum to accept the resolution recognizing Adam Osmoe and Kane Salas for participating in the IHSA State Wrestling tournament. All ayes. Motion carried.

Mr. Murphy read a School board Resolution recognizing Eric Marburger, Derek DeVries, Zach Simon, Haley Titsworth and Zach Murphy and teachers Michele Wright and Mike Mueller for participating and advancing in the Illinois Council of Teacher’s of Mathematics Math Competition. Eric Marburger qualified for the written competition in pre-calculus while all five of them qualified for calculator team competition.

Motion by Pastrovich, seconded by Kernich to accept the resolution. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Baum, seconded by Butler to approve the bills as presented. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.

Mr. Murphy presented the Financial Report for February. We are sitting with an overall balance of $1,142,028.90. The Education Fund has a balance of $507,917.38 as opposed to $704,000 last year. Working Cash, Tort and Life Safety balances will be consistent till the end of the fiscal year since all local tax revenue is in. Transportation is at $43,206. Mr. Murphy sees this balance to go down drastically. It may be in a negative balance after next month. If we would get one more $80,000 payment from the State, we would still have a $40,000 deficit at the end of June. The state actually owes us $208,000 now and if we do not get our next quarterly payment from the State, they would owe us approximately $350,000.

Regarding the budget report, we are right on the nose with revenues and expenditures. Revenues will slow down till the end of the fiscal year since the local taxes are in and we haven’t gotten our categorical payments.

Motion by Butler, seconded by Pastrovich to accept the financial report and budget report.

No unfinished business.

New business:

Regarding the bid from Monticello Bus Service for the 2010-2011 school year, Monticello proposed a 4% increase on daily routes and 2% increase on everything else except extra-curricular which they are proposing the same as this year. We will be saving $28,000 by deleting one bus and the deletion of one monitor will be $12,850 which will save the district $40,850. The total increase they are proposing is $8,280 with a net savings of $32,570. Mr. Murphy also mentioned that Monticello is now buying the gas for the busses. If the district would purchase the gas, we would save on federal and sales tax on the gas. For the month of February over $400 in taxes was paid. If we would buy the gas upfront, the gas charges would be deducted from the bill each month. Mr. Kernich asked if they charge the same for the small bus. Mr. Murphy explained that they charge the same for the small bus as the large bus. After discussion regarding purchasing our own gas, the board decided to take the issue to the Transportation Committee of Baum, Heeren and Kernich for discussion.

Motion by Pastrovich, seconded by Baum to hire Andrea Prante as High School Special Education Teacher for the 2010-2011 School year, pending completion of all local and state employment requirements. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Baum, seconded by Kernich to hire Josh Martin as head football coach for the 2010-2011 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Sievers, seconded by Butler to hire Rachel Bailey as volunteer assistant softball coach for the 2009-2010 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

The board was given the 2010-2011 Mt. Olive High School handbook changes, curriculum changes and RTI Plan to review. One change Mr. Schuricht brought to the board was having some weighted classes de-weighted to regular classes and having semester exams changed from 20% of the grade to 15% of the grade.

The board was given the 2010-2011 Mt. Olive Grade School Improvement Plan to review.

Motion by Pastrovich, seconded by Butler to approve the annual memberships in the IHSA and the IESA and paying dues for the 2010-2011 school year. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Heeren, seconded by Butler to adopt a resolution of honorable dismissal of certified personnel, full-time teacher Deanna Schultz. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Kernich, seconded by Butler to adopt a resolution of non-reemployment of part-time teacher Kristina Frank. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Butler, seconded by Skertich to adopt the resolution of non-reemployment of full-time teacher Sarah Marr. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Sievers, seconded by Pastrovich to adopt the resolution of non-reemployment of part-time teacher Lumanda Reese. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Sievers, seconded by Butler to rehire all non-released teachers for the 2010-2011 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Butler, seconded by Sievers to adopt a resolution of honorable dismissal of educational support personnel employees Rachel Bailey, Jason Cooper, Gail Bywater, Mary Gajewski, Karen Knoche, Cindy McDowell, Rhonda Pegel, Kathy Stephens and Phillip Winters. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Kernich, seconded by Heeren to adopt a resolution for non-reemployment of custodian Gregg Bruch. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Heeren, seconded by Butler to adopt a resolution for reducing cook, Lori Roddick from 8 to 7 hours a day starting at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Butler, seconded by Heeren to adopt a resolution for reducing cook, Janine Mathenia from 6 hours to 3 hours a day starting at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Pastrovich, seconded by Sievers to adopt a resolution for reducing cafeteria worker, Beth Schneider from 2 to 1 hour a day starting at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Heeren, seconded by Kernich to accept the resignation of Nicole Logan as High School Basketball coach. All ayes. Motion carried.

Motion by Sievers, seconded by Pastrovich to accept the resignation of Kelly Jones as High School science teacher effective at the end of this year. All ayes. Motion carried.

Mr. Skertich wished Mrs. Jones the best of luck on her endeavors and stated she had been a great asset to the district and she will be sadly missed.

Student Board Member Report:

Lisa Adden reported that last night was all conference meeting for the winter sports. Two girls made first team, Lisa and Jordan Martin. Three girls made the Illinois Basketball Association All- State, Lisa Adden, Jordan Martin, Erica Cravens. Dylan Martin made All Conference for the boys. Lisa Adden and Dylan Martin are going to play in the Carlinville Rotary event in two weeks. Regarding final exams, the students’ point of view is that it is a lot of tests. Seniors are taking seven tests in one day. Regarding the PSAE incentives need to be looked at. She stated that the pop passes do not get used but the dinner is cool. Many of the kids eligible to go on the Six Flags will have a ball game that day. There are 19 girls out for track and 17 boys. There are 10 boys out for baseball and 22 girls out for softball. The first softball game is Saturday and the first baseball game is Monday.

Principals’ Report:

ISAT testing went well. Mr. Smith reported that he appreciated the support of the parents during ISAT week. We had the best attendance during ISAT week since he has been here. Mr. Smith handed out the student handbook has some proposed changes. A tornado drill was conducted one week after the National awareness day due to ISAT testing. Report cards go out tomorrow. March 23rd is Kindergarten Night. March 26th is the Alumni/Faculty game and also the conference dinner. Mr. Smith will be going to the conference dinner to represent the school.

Mr. Schuricht reported that we had the Prairie State Conference meeting for winter sports was last night and Dylan Martin, Lisa Adden and Jordan Martin made first team and we are very proud of them. The National Honor Society had their inductions. There was a rather large class this year. Blake Shannon, Shaun Thrasher, Christian Salas, Emily Schneider, Mollee Pezold, Zach Smith, Alicia Niemann, Taryn Coolbaugh, Joey Dragovich, Clayt Scheller, and Johnathan Spickerman. The Senior Play is at 7:00 p.m. this Friday. Mrs. Swenson and the senior class is presenting Beowulf: User Friendly. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students. Advanced tickets can be purchased in the High School office from Mrs. Swenson or from Lisa Adden for $2 adult and $1 student. The Student Council held a blood drive on March 3rd in the high school gym from noon to 4. They received 36 units of blood which surpassed their goal of 34. They also got 13 first time donors. The Student Council also took 13 members to the Kaskaskia District of Student Councils. We are trying to get our student council more involved with district wide activities and eventually state wide activities. On a positive note, Denise Mathis, our student council representative was named District Advisor of the Year for our district. Regarding sports, softball begins March 20th, baseball begins March 22nd and track begins on March 25th at home. Report cards were sent out yesterday and mid-terms will go out on April 9th. On the 26th at 6:00 is the Alumni and 7:30 is faculty game. On the 28th our Student Council and the DARE program sponsored and assembly called Bully Busters. We had a request two or three months ago for two individuals who were high school sweethearts at Mt. Olive and were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. We were contacted by their grandchildren and asked if a few students could go around and video tape a few things at the school. The Student Council got the majority of the kids to go into the gym and wished the couple a happy 60th anniversary. They were overcome with joy from the video and sent a check for $500 to spend on the high school students to show their appreciation.

Superintendent’s Report:

We received a letter from the State of Illinois for the library grant for $379.85.

Regarding extra-curricular transportation, Carrollton School district is eliminating all extra curricular transportation next year. Parents will have to come and sign off and use parent transportation to the events. Mr. Murphy has made two phone calls to the Carrollton superintendent, but she has not returned phone calls. Regarding Sunday practice and practice on snow days, Mr. Murphy stated that the board spoke on this issue and thought it was decided on, but asked the board for guidance. Mr. Murphy read a letter from Mr. Logan and Mr. Ryan stating their concerns for not being able to practice on Sunday. Mr. Kernich said this concern should go out to all coaches and get their input before a decision is made. Mr. Murphy is going to put it out to all the coaches before a decision is made. Regarding Strategic Planning, Mr. Murphy spoke on the subject on March 3rd in Litchfield. Our plan was put in place last fall and has been following or trying to follow the strategies of the plan. The strategic plan is a five year plan. Mr. Murphy stated that obviously things have changed, such as the economic condition, but he explained how the different aspects of the strategic plan are being worked on. Regarding Financial, Mr. Murphy and Jeff have spoken about doing an annual facility assessment to know exactly where we are with desks and equipment. Regarding curriculum, the curriculum team would like to see training for teachers focused on technology. Mr. Murphy stated that we have had training in RTI and AutoSkill and focusing on getting more training. Regarding our College Prep Curriculum, we have had three students enrolled in the HEAT program. We are looking to get more of our teachers qualified for dual courses. There are 12 students interested in taking the HEAT program next year. Regarding culture, the PBIS team has behavior incentives and continues to get training on the PBIS program. Bulletin boards are being used to promote positive things. Regarding the community, we have opened up the facilities to non-profit organizations. Mr. Murphy said he has heard numerous successful responses. Events involving extended families such as grandparents’ day and bringing in the Veterans on Veterans Day have been very successful. In the future, we will possibly have dinners at the district to get the community in to help through hard economic times. Regarding communications, the journalism class has put an insert into the local paper and it is getting great reviews from the community. Regarding personnel, Mrs. Steiner is in charge of the mentoring program which is one of the top mentoring programs in the area. The district offers CPDU’s, workshops and inservice to our staff. The district has book reviews which focused on reading comprehension. This past year we had 90% of the Jr. High and High School teachers participate in the book reviews. The Elementary always has good participation in the book reviews. Regarding the environment or safety area, we are in the middle of training our staff for the AED and CPR training. Ninety percent of our staff has signed up for this training. We are talking about a relocation drill in case we would have to relocate due to an emergency. We have a good communication system with the police and fire department. Mr. Murphy said he will communicate the goals to the public by putting it on the website. With the financial times, Mr. Murphy thinks the board needs to look at the plan and address anything we think is necessary and go from there.