Burlington BOE approves new activities
The Burlington Board of Education met at 8 p.m., Monday, Aug. 16, for their regular monthly meeting.
The meeting was called to order with Terry Graham, Robert Hill, April Kisling and Aaron Smith present and T.J. Rockenbach absent.
Also present were Kevin Brown, superintendent; Gerrett Spears, junior-high and high school principal; Stan Pedersen, elementary principal; and Tracy Granados, minutes’ clerk.
Principal Pedersen gave his report:
• There are 77 students in Pre-K through 6th grade and there are an additional 10 students enrolled in the 3-year-old program.
• Currently, the school is setting up on-line access for elementary teachers and students while waiting for TWIG
• Science textbooks to arrive.
• Hearing screenings have been completed for all elementary students.
• The library is open and students have multiple opportunities to visit and check out books both before school and during their regular library time.
• Mrs. McNett, School Counselor, will be visiting each elementary classroom each month to teach a character development program and the elementary students have almost completed STAR testing.
Spears gave his principal’s report:
• The year has started out wonderfully with students and teachers exhibiting positive attitudes and the morale is great.
• Fourteen new laptops were purchased for teachers and have been distributed. New Promethean Boards have been ordered as well, but are backordered due to difficulty getting parts, so they will not arrive until December.
• Junior high and high school students were asked to complete an activity interest survey which resulted in the potential to expand upon extra-curricular activities.
There was interest from a number of students in Clay Shooting through FFA, Act One, junior high softball and baseball, as well enough students for a high school Academic Quiz Bowl Team.
• The class schedule was changed this school year to offer more choices for junior high and high school students and students were excited at enrollment to make choices based on their interests.
New options included creative writing, ACT Prep, Career Explorations and robotics. Music has been given a class period this year and Mr. O, Music Director, is very excited to have the additional time to work with students and at the participation level of students electing to participate in music.
• Computers have been passed out to students and all students in grades 3-12 currently have technology to use for completion of the classwork.
The consent agenda was approved next:
• Agenda as part of the minutes.
• July 7 meeting minutes.
• Reaffirmation of the procurement policy.
• The 2021/2022 Federal Assurances and LEA Agreement.
• Handbook revisions for 2021-2022.
• Updated non-athletic extra duty schedule for 2021-2022 school year.
• Clinical rotation agreement with NWTC.
Also approved were the encumbrances, change orders, warrants and July activity fund report.
At 8:49 p.m. the board convened into executive session to discuss the ongoing evaluation of the performance of the superintendent, to discuss a three-year-old teacher assistant/cafeteria lunch count position.
The board returned to open session and following the executive session minutes compliance announcement, they approved hiring Lacy Brown for the position of three-year-old teacher assistant/cafeteria lunch count.
The board then approved the policies EGG and EGG-E to be added to the policy handbook.
After some discussion, the board approved rates for Burlington Little Elks Daycare at: Full Day, $20/day for the first child and $15/day for each subsequent child; $18/day for a full day for children of Burlington Public School employees; and $10 for a partial day up to 4 hours.
The set hours of operation were approved as 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday year round. A Burlington Little Elks Daycare calendar will be provided to parents to allow for planning for days the daycare will be closed for holidays.
Also approved was an age policy to include newborn through 9 years of age who are Burlington Public School students.
Superintendent Brown presented the board with the six month permit received for operation of the daycare.
The board then approved adding the additional extra-curricular activities as follows:
• Shooting Clays (FFA).
• One Act.
• Junior High Baseball.
• Junior high and high school slow pitch softball.
Superintendent Brown gave his report:
• Presented the Board with the accreditation certificate that the school received for pre-K through eighth and ninth-12th for the 2022 SY.
• Bus routes have been streamlined into three routes for the 2022 SY in order to attempt to evenly distribute the time each bus spends on their route.
The earliest students are picked up is approximately 6:30-6:40 a.m. which allows for all students to arrive at campus by 7:30-7:35 so that all students have the opportunity to eat breakfast before their first period.
• A reminder was made of the upcoming OSSBA conference that all School Board members as well as Superintendent Brown and Principal Spears will be attending.
After hearing no new business, the meeting adjourned at 10:42 a.m.