Sumner Newscow report — The following is a Wellington school board roundup for this week by USD 353 communications specialist Russ Sturm.

Discussion Items:

STEM Summer Camp

Wellington school employee Vanessa Sawyer was present to give information on the Summer STEM Camp that is going on at the Cowley College campus. She was trained for the Leapes program, which is run by K-State and takes place via Zoom. This is a program that attempts to get rural communities and students interested in STEM in an effort to keep these students in Kansas after they graduate. Leapes stands for Learning Exploration and Application for Prospective Engineering Students. Last year, 23 Kansas schools participated in this program; this year, there are 45 schools involved. For participating in this program, the school was gifted one virtual reality headset, 10 small drones, and 10 robots. It is a three-week course, with week one concentrating on Computer Science, week two focusing on Robotics, and week three introducing the Fundamentals of Flight, which will include coding drone flight missions. This program is for incoming fifth through ninth-grade students, but there is also a program that will be offered in July that involves our first-grade through sixth-grade students.

WHS Social Studies Credits

The board continued discussing the social studies credit request the BOE discussed last month. The proposal brought before the BOE last month would change the order and structure in which the Social Studies and History classes would be taught. It would also add one Social Studies credit to the graduation requirements starting with the 2023-24 freshman class. The board supported restructuring the classes being taught but did not support adding one credit of social studies for graduation requirements.

KDHE Grant Purchases

The board discussed purchasing air purifiers and an air monitoring system using a KDHE Grant designated for Covid relief purchases. The air monitoring system is a recommendation from KDHE and would be placed outside of the school buildings to monitor the air quality. The air purifiers are portable and would be placed in high-traffic areas in our schools, such as the front offices, nurses’ offices, and common areas. The board supported the purchase of the air purifiers but had questions about the air monitoring program. The district will research more available options for using this grant and report back to the BOE in July.

WMS Furniture

The BOE was presented with bids for middle school furniture using ESSER funds. Over the years, the middle school has ended up with secondhand and mismatched furniture. In 2021, the sixth-grade classrooms received new furniture but insufficient funds to furnish the entire middle school. However, by taking care of the sixth grade separately from the seventh and eighth grades, the district could ascertain which furniture the teachers and students liked and didn’t like. The district received quotes from three companies for furniture for the seventh and eighth-grade classrooms. Quotes for science tables and other specialty furniture were taken separately because some of the companies could not fulfill that need.

Discussion only, no action taken.

Handbooks

District handbooks were presented to the board for discussion. Numerous items were flagged by the board that need to be addressed. The district will make the necessary changes and present the handbooks for board approval in July.

Parent Portal Access for State Assessments

Dr. Kern addressed the board about the preliminary state assessment scores being available to parents and how they can access them. The district sent a text alert to parents explaining how they can access these preliminary results.

Accreditation

This week, the District’s Accreditation is up for action at the KSBOE meeting. Accreditation for Kansas schools occurs every five years, and USD 353 will be awarded accreditation during Tuesday’s Kansas State Board of Education meeting.

Information only; no action required.

Action Items

2022-23 Budget Addendum

The 2022-23 Budget Amendment was presented to the board for approval.

Tom Henning motioned to approve the 2022-23 budget amendment. Andrea Kreifels seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0

Chartwell’s Renewal Addendum

The food service contract renewal with Chartwells was presented to the board for approval.

Brandon Earl motioned to approve the contract renewal with Chartwells. Chris Buckman seconded the motion. Motion carries 6-1.

Athletic Field Surface

The BOE discussed the future surface of the playing field at Seller’s Park. If the board decides to stay with the grass playing surface, then work on the field could start following the upcoming football season. If the decision is made to go with turf, it would be part of the overall renovation and updates to the facilities in the future.

After discussion, the board decided they needed more information before taking action on the playing surface to be used.

Administrative Reports

Board Member Comments.

Executive Session

Negotiations

•Kreifels motioned to go into executive session for 15 minutes and to include Superintendent Adam Hatfield and the administration team to discuss negotiations at 8:15 p.m. Regular meeting to resume at 8:30 p.m. Henning seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0.

Non-Elected Personnel

•Kreifels motioned to go into executive session for 30 minutes and to include Hatfield and the administration team to discuss non-elected personnel at 8:30 p.m. Regular meeting to resume at 9:02 pm. Brandon Earl seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0.

•Kreifels motioned to go into executive session for 40 minutes and to include Superintendent Hatfield to discuss non-elected personnel at 9:02 p.m. Regular meeting to resume at 9:42 p.m. Henning seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0. BOE member Pat Zeka leaves the executive session at 9:22 p.m.

•Kreifels motioned to go into executive session for 25 minutes with Superintendent Hatfield on call to discuss non-elected personnel at 9:42 pm. Regular meeting to resume at 10:07 pm. Deanna Garver seconded the motion. Motion carries 6-0. BOE member Pat Zeka returns to the executive session at approximately 10 p.m.

•Kreifels motioned to go into executive session for 20 minutes with Superintendent Adam Hatfield on call to discuss non-elected personnel at 10:07 p.m. Regular meeting to resume at 10:27 p.m. Garver seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0.

Deanna Garver motioned to include the administration contracts and salary recommendations in the Consent Agenda. Brandon Earl seconded the motion. Motion carries 7-0.

Consent Agenda

Approve the Minutes of the May 8 meeting.

Approve Payroll and Bills Payroll: $1,291,754.75

Bills: $353,124.77.

Transfers: Approve all budgetary transfers to end fiscal year according to state budget guidelines

Personnel

Approve New Hires

Jodi McArthur – Counselor – Lincoln;

Melody Rinehart – Head Cheer Coach – WHS;

Chase L. Martin – Physical Education – WHS, Assistant Football Coach;

Kathy Gann – WHS Math Teacher;

Samantha Rojas – Third-grade teacher – Lincoln;

Kristine Ray – Fifth-grade teacher – Kennedy;

Catherine Cranmer – FACS Teacher – WMS;

McKenna Jones – Para – Washington;

Alysha Rusk – First-grade teacher – Lincoln;

Conner Burnett – Second-grade teacher – Eisenhower;

Tammy Bradbury – Social Worker – Eisenhower;

Marci Kolman – Para – Kennedy;

Summer Shawn – Resource Room Para – Lincoln;

Madison Froman – Functional Room Para – Lincoln;

Cassandra Hinerman – School Nurse – District;

Leslie Waldschmidt – School Resource Officer – District;

Nathan Nuss – Para – WMS;

Approve Resignations

Joy Trillo – Para – Lincoln;

Mikeah Rodriguez – Para – WMS;

Lisa Stalcup – Para – Washington;

Christine Cox – Math – WHS;

Maryah Langford – Aide – Lincoln;

Cindy Becker – Math – WHS;

Victoria Thompson – Science/Ag – WHS;

Heather Walcher – Classified Student Support – District;

Julie Arebalo – Para – WMS;

Breanna Brown – Para – Kennedy;

Kimberly LaFevre – Para – Kennedy;

Brigitte DeJarnett – Seventh grade ELA – WMS;

Dexter Davis – Sped – WMS;

Angela Garlock – Social Worker – Kennedy;

Britani VanDeSteen – Para – Lincoln;

Mary Claus – First-grade Teacher – Lincoln;

Zairen Warnock – Para – Lincoln;

Tim Lira Sr. – Custodian – Lincoln;

Olivia Farley – Para – Washington;

Jenny Lira – Para – Lincoln;

Raegan Raschke – Para – Kennedy;

Rebeka Hyer – Fifth-grade teacher – Eisenhower;

Nicholle McGovern – Secretary – WMS;

Alicia Bringer – Middle School Teacher – WMS;

Jessica Nefzger – Para – Eisenhower;

Approve Transfers/Position Changes

Brianna Young-Eisenhower 2nd grade teacher to Title 1 Teacher-Lincoln;

Nick Wellington-Kennedy, 5th-grade teacher to Agriculture Teacher- WMS;

Ashley Ewing – Para to 5th-grade Teacher – Eisenhower;

Elizabeth Rebold – 7th grade Para to Low Incidence Para – WMS.

Other approvals

•Approve LG HVAC donation from Fort Scott, USD 234. Approve administrative contracts and salary recommendations.

•Brandon Earl motioned to approve the amended consent agenda as presented, including the administrative contracts and salary recommendations. Tom Henning seconded the motion. Motion passes 6-1

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:33 p.m.

Follow us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.