The Worth County School Board voted to rehire Superintendent Dr. Matt Martz following their regular School Board meeting Thursday evening. They also hired three new personnel following a lengthy closed session that lasted from 8:10 that evening until 11:10.
Added to the Substitute Teacher list was Morgan Quick. Darin Drury was hired as a Paraprofessional for the remainder of the 2016-2017 school year. Hired for a probationary teacher for the 2017-2018 school year was Ashton Lewis. Board member Tyler Steele abstained from the vote to rehire Dr. Martz. The other votes were all unanimous.
The board received the annual evaluation of student activities. It was rated “Above Average” this year by Dr. Martz. Strengths include the fact that 90% of junior high and high school students are involved in extracurricular activities, a high level of accomplishment in music, athletic, academic, and co-curricular activities, facility improvements of the track, stadium seating, gym, and ball diamond, new technology and timing system, the fact that all coaches are trained in CPR, AED, and concussion management, and the addition of new red rock to the ball diamond. Concerns listed include the need for a new equipment shed for the ball diamond as well as the need for new aluminum bleachers for the ball diamond as well as the need to maintain the uniform replacement cycle.
Other concerns listed include the fact that student organizations conduct a lot of fundraising activities in order to participate at the state and national level. Dr. Martz recommended that the district cover expenses for lodging and transportation to state-level activities. The school continues to use athletic coaches and cheer coaches outside the school staff. Dr. Martz said priority needs to be given to staff members that meet the qualifications. Another challenge includes coordinating practice times due to crossover. The stage is not available during basketball practices and if football or softball needs to move indoors due to inclement weather for choral and drama practice. When students are involved in activities that take them off campus, the concern is they lose class time, which Dr. Martz said in his report was impacting other students’ work as well.
The main recommendation was that the school continue to study how to minimize loss of class time for students involved in extracurricular activities.
The technology program was rated as “Above Average.” Strengths listed include the student to device ratio, network speed, and the professional development of teachers. Concerns listed include the fact that 248 of 344 Chromebooks, the devices that are used for state testing, are nearing their “end of life,” meaning that many of the features the school uses will no longer work after a certain date. These devices will not be able to be used for state testing in Spring of 2018. The school will implement a rotation of replacement plan to spread the costs over several years.
High School Principal Jon Adwell reported that the school has had character education speakers over to the school. Judge Joel Miller spoke about integrity and doing the right thing when nobody was watching. Bill Tracy talked about civic duties, what you can do for your community and country, and spoke about the Vietnam War. State Representative Allen Andrews talked about focus and purpose, while Cody Green talked about respect and compassion. Students were taught about how to act at assemblies, cyber-safety, and self-improvement.
There was one office referral that resulted in an after-school detention. There were four cell phone infractions.
Adwell reported that the school is working on the schedule so that there would be more elective offerings in the schedule for next year.
Elementary Principal Chuck Borey reported that there were 25 office referrals for the second quarter compared to 17 last year. By grade: Kindergarten – 1; 1st – 2; 2nd – 0; 3rd – 18; 4th – 1; 5th – 0; 6th – 3. Attendance was 96.44%. Enrollment as of 1/19/2017 was 151 students.
A Spelling Bee was held at the Elementary Activity Center. Joshua Freed won while Payton Poppa was second. Those two will participate in the Regional Spelling Bee in St. Joseph on March 11th. The alternates are Justin Dye and Ethan Frese.
Students are participating in Jump Rope for Heart this month in PE. So far, they have raised $335.
The students had a box top competition between the boys and girls. The Primary boys ended up with 1,353 box tops while the girls had 1,187. The Intermediate girls had 1,096 box tops while the boys had 988. The Primary boys and Intermediate girls had a pizza for their prize.
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