USD 383 Board of Education

Jan. 9, 2013
Kathy Dzewaltowski, observer

Dean Youngers, project manager for the MHS construction project, reported that the project is complete, and he brought the final paperwork from the contractor and the architect.  The MHS project had a guaranteed maximum price, and unused funds would be returned to the district.  A savings of $61,405 would be returned, and the board approved 5-0 to accept the change in funds.

Board members discussed a resolution regarding the military student second count date.  For several years, school districts near military installations that are impacted by military students have been provided with a second student count date in February.  The second count date is set to expire at the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.  The superintendents of Geary County Schools, Ft. Leavenworth, and USD 383 drafted a resolution to encourage legislators to continue the second military student count date.  Board members thought the proposed resolution needed to explicitly state that the second count date should be extended.  The board decided to table the resolution until its language could be tweaked to reflect the board's suggested changes.

The board held a public hearing to discuss MHS's class schedule.  A committee had met for several months to examine the schedule and had recommended three options.  MHS math teacher Ray Kujawa spoke during the public hearing and said he favored keeping the current seven hour schedule.  He said that other teachers as well as himself felt that they hadn't been given a clear reason why the schedule should be changed, and students have been achieving with the current schedule.  Doug Messer, Director of Transportation, said that changes to the MHS schedule would require adjustments and shifts to the overall transportation system.  Currently, the district does not have enough buses to transport students on the "late start" days planned for one of the schedule options, nor enough specialized buses (e.g. buses with lifts) to transport students to "zero hour."  If additional buses were purchased and drivers were hired, the district doesn't have the space to park additional buses.  Dave Colburn said that one of the reasons the board was looking at different options for the MHS class schedule was due to issues with equity between the different grade levels in terms of planning, collaboration, and professional development time.  It might be possible to rearrange the MHS schedule and save money, with the savings used to provide the elementary level with more planning and collaboration time.  The MHS schedule topic was for discussion only, and the board plans to discuss it again in two weeks.