The Rock Port R-II School Board of Education met May 15, 2018. President Jeremy Davis called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Other members present were Afton Schomburg, Ken Miller, Rich Dewhirst, Dan Lucas, and Clay Vogler. Member Harold Lawrence was absent. Also present were Elementary Principal Steve Waigand, High School Principal Ethan Sickels, Superintendent Craig Walker, Board Secretary Debbie Young, Shauna Farmer, Trudy Heitman, Ross Hastert, Kaitlea Hastert, Marty Farley, Jen Geib, Kymm Bredensteiner, Kari Amthor, Donnie Parsons, Crystal Goins, Lisa Weber, and Sheena Roup.
The agenda was adopted and the minutes of the organizational and regular meeting of April 11, 2018, were approved. Mr. Walker reviewed the financial information for the month ending April 2018. The transfer of funds, the April final check register, May check register to date and the activity account checks were approved.
CTA Welfare Committee representatives were present, and Shauna Farmer addressed the board members on their behalf. They presented information regarding the base salary and salary schedule steps of other districts in northwest Missouri. Proposals for increases to the base, board paid medical insurance, and board paid life insurance were presented for consideration. Board members were given the opportunity to ask any questions. President Davis thanked them for their presentation.
Mr. Waigand reported April attendance was 97.88% (182 students). Second grade claimed their second title in a row and third title overall for monthly attendance with 98.78%. April Blue Jays of the Week were recognized for showing perseverance. Special thanks to Pastor Shimmel and Grace Church for the pizza party on April 26. May’s character trait is “Patience – the ability to remain calm and wait for what you want.” MAP Testing for grades 3-6 is finished. Preschool and kindergarten round-ups were held on May 4. Half day students got an opportunity to visit the full day preschool classroom and full day preschool students went to kindergarten for the morning. Total projected enrollment for kindergarten next year is 30. Students from our local Cub Scout Troop did a nice job helping lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the National Day of Prayer at the Memorial Building on May 3. Homework Club finished up their last day on May 3. Kindergarten and first grade took a field trip to Omaha on May 3 to the Rose Blumkin Theater and then Pump It Up. Third grade students did a great job with their annual Coffee House Poetry on April 30. Preschool took a field trip to the Shatto Milk Company on April 27. Third grade traveled to Jefferson City for an overnight field trip to culminate their unit on Missouri history. They visited the Supreme Court Building and State Capitol Building while in Jefferson City. They got to meet our local legislators and were given a behind-the-scenes tour by Representative Allen Andrews. Thank you to Mrs. Geib and Mrs. Amthor for organizing the trip and to the many parent chaperones willing to take on the overnight challenge! Plans for summer school are underway. The theme is “Game On” and picks up right where our MAP Testing theme ended. We currently have 93 students (K-5) enrolled and 17 in grades 6-8. Our Teacher Appreciation Assembly was held on April 16. Students wrote letters to their own classroom teachers and others throughout the building. A letter was read for each teacher in the Elementary. A special thanks to Mrs. Evans coming back to read those letters! Mrs. Vette was presented with a hanging flower gift from the PTO for her upcoming retirement. Several upcoming dates were shared as well as the monthly report on professional development. Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Hastert were present to share a report on sixth grade language arts and their upcoming heptathlon. Mrs. Geib was present and shared a report on the third grade trip to Jefferson City.
Mr. Sickels reviewed several upcoming dates and activities. April attendance for the JH/HS was 95.41%. There are 155 students in grades 7 – 12. The JH/HS tentative math schedule for next year was reviewed. Our plan will be to post the job opening right away in the fall and see if we can get a December graduate or someone locked in for the 2019-20 school year. Our PLC focus for next year will be on curriculum.  We will be paired with North Nodaway next year for four meetings throughout the year.  We also have Kendra Watson coming on July 30-31 to work just in our District on curriculum as part of our training. Overall MAP and EOC testing went pretty smooth technology wise, except most of the tests were much longer than previous years. We hope to get the data in early fall so that we can see how we performed. We will not get data on any of the science tests. Next year the field study is on the government test, so we won’t receive data on those results from spring 2019. Our cast, crew and Ms. Acton did a fantastic job with their performance of “The High Schooler’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Cody Davis took 6th place overall on the written test portion at a chemathon at MWSU. State Music results: Josie Watkins received a gold; Liven Schockenhoff, Summer Greenwalt and RyAnne Herron received a silver; and Chris Sticken received a bronze. Overall it was a great trip down to Mizzou and we had beautiful weather to travel around. As you know, this time of year is banquet season.  FFA and FCCLA have been completed, while Fine Arts is on the 14th. The spring athletic banquet will follow state track. It has been exciting to see all the success our students have had outside the classroom this year. Much time and effort have been spent by both the students and teachers. Jase Hughes has qualified for state golf in Springfield on May 14-15, shooting an 80 at sectionals and tying for 3rd place. Jase has qualified for state golf all four years. We had the following qualify for track sectionals at Lathrop on May 12: Alivia Baucom in the shot put, Abbie Hale in the 300 hurdles, Makenna Farmer in the 400, and the relays of 4×100 (Makenna, Abbie, Rachel Vogler and Marisa Carder), 4×200 (Abbie, Makenna, Riley Vogler and Marisa) and 4×400 (Rachel, Riley, Makenna and Abbie).  Abbie set a new school record in winning the 300 hurdles, and the 4×200 and 4×400 teams took first in their events as well. For the boys Joey Herron qualified in the 100 and Dalton Stevens in the discus. Staff reports were received from Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Bebb, Mrs. Gaines, Mrs. Burke, Mrs. Miller, Mr. Skillen, Mrs. Palmer, Mr. Moore, Ms. Heitman, Mr. Herron, and Mrs. Skillen.
Mr. Walker began with the monthly program evaluation reports, and introduced the faculty members making presentations. Mrs. Goins presented information on FACS and FCCLA, Mr. Hastert presented information on Ag and FFA, Mrs. Amthor reviewed the progress in the elementary with the first year of Math Expressions, and Mr. Parsons discussed JH math implementing Study Island this year and Go Math which will be used next year. Mr. Walker reported summer school will run from May 29 through June 18, and they have updated the number of students to 121 enrolled in grades K-8. He reported on information he recently received from the Office of Quality Schools regarding updated APR standards. Mr. Walker reported the 12 month staff members will have a new summer schedule this year. Plans are to work four 10 hour days on Monday-Thursday and close the building on Friday for a six week period from June 22 through July 27. This schedule will be consistent with what some other area schools are doing. Mr. Walker also presented legislative updates concerning education.
The board then proceeded to address items of new business. The audit engagement letter from Marsh, Espey & Riggs for the 2017-2018 audit was approved. Mr. Walker reviewed the schedule of technology purchases proposed for the 2018-2019 school year and the projected costs. He also reviewed the five year facility maintenance plan and highlighted the list of items scheduled for 2018-2019 with the projected costs. It was the consensus of the board members that Mr. Walker should proceed with getting bids for the technology and facility projects for the June regular meeting. Preschool tuition rates were approved as recommended with an increase of $15 per month for full pay, $10 per month for Tier 2, and $5 per month for Tier 3 for the 2018-2019 school year. Consideration was given to the 2018-2019 certified salary schedule. Action was tabled to the June regular meeting thus allowing more time to review the CTA Welfare Committee requests and the estimated budget for next year. Consideration was given to the student athletic options. Mr. Walker reviewed the expenses and revenues for the current offerings as well as the levels of participation. Cost projections for adding another sport were reviewed, and it was the consensus of the board members that it was not financially feasible at this time to consider any additional athletic offerings. Consideration was given to personnel matters with approval given to the employment of Katey Kroger as a full-time paraprofessional instead of part-time for the 2018-2019 school year; extra-duty contracts for 2018-2019 were approved for Thomas Herron as Head JH Track Coach and for Rachel Jenkins as Assistant JH Track Coach; a contract extension of 10 additional days was approved for the librarian, Amy Skillen; and the employment of two temporary summer custodial workers was also approved.
The board adjourned to executive session for the purpose of legal matters in accordance with RSMo. 610.021 (1). Upon returning to open session the board reported action was taken in executive session to approve the minutes of the executive session of April 11, 2018. The meeting was then adjourned.