Furniture and equipment purchased for new school

Construction of the new Holton Elementary School continues to progress nicely and with good quality control, school board members learned at their meeting here Monday evening.

Among decisions made by the board the meeting was one to approve a list of new furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new school that will cost $499,089.08.

David Lasssiter of Nabholz Construction Company, reported on construction progress at the new school.

Lassiter said that the bus lane on Dakota Avenue and the curbing dirt work are both almost finished. Exterior panels, he said, are being installed. There’s lots of painting work under way. Loading dock construction at the school will start soon.

“There’s a lot of work going on in every area, inside and out,’’ Lassiter said. “There’s about 10,000 miles of wiring running along the ceilings and drop ceilings will be installed soon.’’

Installation of epoxy flooring is also scheduled to start in a couple of weeks, he said. Cabinets are expected to be delivered in mid-May. All utilities are connected and the electrical system is nearly ready for permanent power. New utilities are also being extended to the “triangle building’’ – that part of the Central school that will remain after demolition.

Greg Porter and Kate Moeder of Hollis and Miller architects also met with the board to review the list of new furniture, fixtures and equipment planned for the new school. The furniture on the list is built by a company in Olathe called Precision Craft.

Board members learned that “hoteling desks’’ are desks used by multiple staff members, “kidney tables’’ are in the general shapes of kidneys and “wobbly stools’’ exist in modern classrooms to “allow kids to move around a little as they learn.’’

Board members also talked about how existing chairs (about 275 blue chairs), larger chairs and tables will also be utilized at the new school.

In other business, the school board:

*Noted the absence of board members Shelby Patch and Carl Matousek.

*Approved bills totaling $1,654,979.52.

*Approved payroll totaling $1,127,384.82.

*Gave Supt. Dennis Stones the okay to seek an appraisal of the Central school property in prepartion to possibly sell the property.

The idea of donating the Central property to the city of Holton for use as a recreational center was also mentioned.

*Heard a report on school issues at the State Legislature. The governor has signed a school finance bill and it has been sent to the Kansas Supreme Court for review since the court ruled earlier that the state was not adequately funding public school. No new funds have been added to the school finance plan, but rather it shifts some existing funds around, it was reported.

Holton under the new plan, for example, will receive $65,919 more in capital outlay state aid, but will receive $239,384 less in state aid LOB funds. The net result for the district is 173,465 less in state aid.

To complicate matters, the state will then provide Holton with $173,465 in funds that will be called “Hold Harmless State Aid.’’

The district will be required to increase its LOB mill levy by 1.7 mills to make up the difference in that fund ($65,919).

The legislators, it was reported, as treating capital outlay and LOB funds, which by law serve two different purposes, as one pot of money. For example, LOB funds can be used to pay salaries, but capital outlay funds cannot. In order to make up for the loss of LOB funds, local property taxes would have to be raised, it was reported.

There is also a school funding proposal for the 2017-2018 school year that is being considered, it was reported, which raises the statewide mill levy from 20 to 35 mills but eliminates all LOB mill levies, prohibits state aid funds from being used for extra-curricular activities, allows local school districts to levy local taxes to pay for extracurricular activities but would not be equalized by the state, stops state aid for sports facilities and administrative and support buildings, creates the “Kansas Education Freedom Act’’ which allows students taken out of public schools to take 70 percent of the state aid awarded to the district for them with them to be home-schooled or sent to a private school and reduces state aid over a three-year period by 1/3 per year.

*Heard an update on the plans to offer a community pre-school program starting next fall.

Currently, a total of 42 students have been enrolled in the program, not counting those placed on a individual education plan (IEP) by the Holton Special Education Cooperative, it was reported. The goal of the program, it was stated, was to have a 50-50 mix of regular ed and special ed children participating in the program.

School officials said the community pre-school program is needed to fulfill some special education funding requirements mandated by the federal government (such as the 50-50 ratio) and it was also noted that not all pre-school age children in the district had been enrolled in the past, in the private business preschools operating in the community.

School officials also stated that, prior to any plans for a district-operated community pre-school, the owners of the private preschools operating in the community had all been notified and they had been cooperative with the school plan. No private business preschools are going out of business due to the district’s new community preschool, it was stated.

*Approved the following new hires – Carlene McManigal and Colby Wilson (elementary education teachers), Willard Noland (seasonal mower and grounds crew) and Brittany Vollenweider (HSEC gifted teacher).

*Approved the following resignations – Ryan West (HMS social studies teacher), Matt Goetz (HHS business computer teacher and web design teacher), Meredith Williard (SPEC school psychologist), Heather Hundley (kindergarten teacher), Lane Lassiter (HMS asst. football coach), Karen Pruitt (HHS spirit squad coach), Brittany Vollenweider (elementary education teacher). And Lisa Tynon.

*Accepted the retirement notification of Diane Butler (Royal Valley SPEC para effective Aug. 16, 2016 and Pearl Williams (MS para/assistant secretary).

Accepted the following donations to Central Elementary School - $25 from Karen Ford, $20 from Dorothy Boswell, $40 from Sally Holliday, $15 from Wanza Saxton, $30 from Ken and Ann Sloop and $20 from Donna and Allen Simmion.

*Accepted the following donations for Holton High School - $986 from Golf Boosters for golf team jackets and $5,385 from Mike Ireland Memorial Fund - $3,000 for the football program to buy zone chutes with memorial plaque on equipment, $1,192.50 for the basketball program and $1,192.50 for the golf program.

*Established school board meeting dates for the next school term, including two meetings each for June and July.

*Noted the following important dates in the district – April 15 (staff development day, no school; April 16 (prom) and April 22 (kindergarten roundup).

*Heard a presentation from eighth graders Paige Crouch and Kinleigh Rodd about the recent graphic design competition at the Kansas State University campus at Manhattan that they competed in and won with their Fragile event marketing campaign that featured t-shirt design, banner design, poster design and drawing ticket design.

*Learned that Holton Middle School bands have earned 1 Ratings at the Washburn Rural band festival on Monday.

*Heard a report from elementary teacher Kelli Thompson about a recent Mid-America Association of Computers (MACE) that she attended. Thompson said the conference was beneficial as she discovered a couple of new computer-assisted applications to use immediately in her classroom. One is new device called as OSMO that allows an iPad to be used as an interactive learning tool in the areas of numbers, words and tangrams (completing puzzles by moving shapes). The other application is called Seesaw and allows parents to receive photos and videos of their children working at school on their phones.

*Heard a presentation from Michelle Evans, ELL and migrant liaison for the district, about her recent  trip to Guatemala with a ministry involved in building a home for a family there.

About a year and a half ago, there was an influx of families moving into the district from Guatemala. Evans works in the district bridging the language barrier. The people moving to this area from Guatemala speak one of the 23 languages of Guatemala – and some Spanish.

Evans spoke of the impoverished conditions that a lot of Guatemalans live in, plus the very high crime rate. She said she learned many things about the Guatemalans that will help her, help them here. The main goal of the district in the education of older students moving into the district from Guatemala is to help them learn English, it was stated.

*Approved a list of teachers and paras for summer school 2016, Jump Start and ESY. The board also approved a $6,360 budget for ESY.

*Learned that Delta Dental monthly premiums are increasing slightly for the district’s plan - $29.74 to $30.57 per month for each employee plan, $57.44 to $59.03 for each employee plus one plan and $98.08 to $100.79 for each family plan.

*Approved a resolution to extend the board terms of school board members set to expire in 2017 to the second Monday of January 2018, due to the change in how Kansas will hold school elections in the future.

*Learned about several awards and recognitions earned by students at Holton High School recently. A story will be published soon in the Recorder about these awards and honors.

*Approved a motion to enter into two separate executive sessions for 10 minutes apiece to discuss non-elected personnel with Supt. Dennis Stones and Asst. Supt. Joe Kelly.

*Upon re-entering open session, approved a motion to enter into executive session for 10 minutes to discuss teacher salary negotiations.

*Upon re-entering open session, approved a motion to adjourn at 9:01 p.m.

The Holton Recorder

109 W. Fourth St.
Holton, KS 66436
Phone: 785-364-3141
 

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