The Worth County School Board, at its regular Board of Education meeting Wednesday, extended the contracts of principals Josh Smith and Chuck Borey. They also offered the K-12 Art teaching position to Jessica Sanders. She will replace Selina O’Connor, who is retiring.
The Governance Program was rated as “Above Average.” Strengths listed including the fact that most policies have been reviewed and/or updated. End of year balances increased by about $590,000, which indicates the district’s ability to pay bills prior to new local funds arriving. This increase was related to federal ESSER III funds that were received in 2022-23. The school district is implementing a Comprehensive School Improvement Plan for 2022-27. Board of Education members are participating in regular training.
Concerns listed include the fact that some district committees don’t meet regularly, and the need to communicate to the public in forms other than social media.
The Professional Development Program was rated as “Above Average.” Strengths listed include the fact that the district has implemented data teams as part of professional development days. A mentoring program is helping with new teachers. The district has been implementing the DACL Program, along with character education, social-emotional learning, and mental health. Teachers were able to participate in observations out of the district.
Concerns listed include the fact that teachers miss time out of the classroom because of professional development scheduling. Other concerns listed include the need to balance the addition of new strategies and content with improving current practices, and revising the Professional Development Handbook, which was last revised in 2016-17.
The school is seeking $152,800 in enhancement grants for the Ag and Business departments. They are applying for 25 desktop computers, two smartboards, two ICEV subscriptions, a printer, a stock photo license, a web server, carpet tiles, a cap heat press, a teacher laptop, and ventilation for the welding station. Of the $152,800, the school’s match, if approved, is $50,225.
Kindergarten teachers Mrs. Schlapia and Mrs. Rush reported on President’s Day booklets and the transition into learning about money. Mrs. Lane reported about her fifth graders’ studies on phases of the moon and their pop tab service project for the Ronald McDonald House.
High School Principal Josh Smith reported that Eva Engel had won the Area II FFA Swine Production Entrepreneurship Proficiency Award.
GRC Honor Band members were Mitzie Gillespie (Flute), Unique Brown (Flute), Evalyn Gilland (Clarinet), Addison Gray (Clarinet), Arenna Galanakis (Alto Sax), Ethan Frese (Alto Sax), Emsley Spainhower (Trumpet), Lucas Frisch (Horn), Conner Pointer (Baritone), Anissa Russell (Percussion), and Liam Hayden (Percussion).
FCCLA qualifiers included Eva Engel (Level 2 Fashion Construction), Abbi Brown and Bridgette Hightshoe (Level 3 Food Innovations), and Arenna Galanakis and Emsley Spainhower (Level 2 Food Innovations).
A Missouri Roadway Safety presentation was held on February 16th. ACT testing will be March 12th. Sophomores will tour the Vo-Tech on March 13th and 8th graders will tour it on March 21st.
Elementary Principal Chuck Borey reported that Heather Deardorff, Kaeslyn Briner, Jace Mullock, Chase Davidson, and Paige Hubbard participated in the math contests in January. District contests will be in April.
For the 100th Day of School, kids brought in 100 things to make a trail mix for a snack. Mrs. Campbell placed 100 Tigers around the elementary building. All 100 were found and pinned to the board.
For Valentine’s Day, loved ones sent flowers, candy, stuffed animals, and balloons to students. Some students received cookies made by Worth County FCCLA members from loved ones.
For Heart Hero Kickoff, Jenny Nixon from the American Heart Association joined the school. The NFL is teaming up with Heart Hero and every student that completes Finn’s Mission will get entered into a drawing to win tickets to the 2025 Super Bowl. For every 18 students who complete Finn’s Mission, the school gets entered into a drawing for a $10,000 gym/playground makeover thanks to the NFL.
For the first week, 15 students completed Finn’s Mission. Of those, three won a drawing for an avocado warmie.
For Super Bowl Week, Mrs. Rush’s Kindergarten class decked themselves out to look like Pat Mahomes. Mrs. Rush’s class also gave Mrs. Pottorff a sign and lots of hugs as a thank you for all she does for the school and students.
The Fourth Grade won the attendance award for the first semester. They got to have a popcorn party.
For professional development, staff participated in active shooter training and ELA curriculum.
Athletic Director Cree Beverlin reported on participation numbers for spring sports. There will be 28-30 participating in track between both the girls and boys teams. Around 7-8 will do boys golf, and 7-9 will do baseball, which is a cooperative with NEN. The Early Bird will be March 21st.
Junior high students start track practice this week. Junior high scholar bowl has been winning at least one in every meet they have participated in.
Students Lincoln Wake and Elias Alarcon have been making the online graphics for the school’s Facebook game day announcements.
Superintendent Chris Healy reported on bond issue preparation. It is a no tax increase bond issue. If approved, the school will build a corridor from the High School to the ag building, replace the lights at the softball field, and do facility maintenance and repairs.
School revenues were up $143,300 and expenses were up $354,931 from the same period last year. The district prepaid $130,000 in bond prepayments and scheduled payments that were approved in August 2023. Other expenses that increased included the replacement of the lights at the football field and personnel costs.
The board approved a calendar for the 2004-25 school year. The first day of school will be August 20th and the last day will be May 16th. There are 26.5 built-in makeup hours and other listed makeup days. There will be 167 student days of instruction.
The board added Josh Smith to the School District Credit Card.
The next meeting will be March 18th at 6:30 pm. The board will be discussing teacher contracts.
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