Site Council Minutes
February 12, 2014
Attendance: Jesica Clark,Darla Edwards, Carolyn Elias, Kendra Gatzemeyer, Susan Grey,Chris Hansford, Bob Ostmeyer, Shana Reichart, Betsy Schmelzle, Chris Wallace, and Jolina Wildeman.
Mr. Feldkamp: Regarding the playground update, there is about a 90% chance that the playground will be the major summer project. The project will be completed in three phases, with the first being to cement between the sidewalk to the playground area and to remove the tree. The second phase will be to surface under the playground equipment and the third phase is to refurbish or purchase new equipment. At this point, the school is not in a position to obtain grants. The vision for Site Council is to obtain input on the layout configuration and equipment preferences.
The School Board is in a planning phase currently. Decisions need to be made regarding the capital outlay funds, staffing and class sizes. Since count day on September 20, attendance is up but we receive no State aid for these new students. They are taking applications for one or two teachers for the next school year as class sizes are increasing.
Committee Work:We began the meeting by breaking down into our three committees: Playground, Honors Week and Parent Welcoming. Each group then shared their process with the group.
Playground: The committee is pursuing additional funding through such companies as Monsanto.
Welcoming: They revisited all the pieces in the welcome bags to make sure they are current. They also needed to evaluate which families warrant bags because some families are not new to the school system, only the children are new. Since t-shirts are no longer offered at Mac’s Grill, a system needs to be established for the shirts.
Honors Week: The business and parent letters will be going out this week. Kendra is planning to survey the NHS students this week also. And, Ms. Grey will look into the number of students qualified. We looked at dates for the potluck banquet and believe April 27 will be best. Jolina will speak with Cyrena about reserving the gym for that day and Saturday, April 26 for set up. Monica is still interested in sponsoring the t-shirts and Megan will work with her regarding the design. Tentatively, 4/30 will be the pizza/ice cream day and 5/7 will be the trip. We still need to obtain a banquet speaker and are open to suggestions.
Blue Ribbon Nomination for the PK-8 Building: Five schools in Kansas were nominated for the Blue Ribbon Award and Valley Falls is among those five. An application is due the end of March and the awards will be announced next fall.
Other: Kendra brought up a discussion on school spirit. Mr. Wallace opened a conversation about ACT testing and the importance for college admittance and scholarships.
Upcoming Activities: Grandparent’s Day is next week. We are hosting Sub-State in March. Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up. Student Council is hosting a blood drive after March.
The next meeting will be April 9th at 5:30 in the elementary resource room.