SE Illinois News

Pope County Community Unit School District 1 Board met October 19.

Here is the minutes as provided by the board:

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Board President Hansen and the

following members were present: Schuchardt, Wallace, Simmons, Clay, and

Hansen. Hogg and Coen were absent.

Motion was made by Clay and seconded by Simmons to approve the agenda.

Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion was made by Simmons and seconded by Schuchardt to approve the

consent agenda including the following: 1) Approve Minutes of Board Meetings

on 9/19/2017; 2) Approve Closed Session Minutes; 3) Approve Bills for Payment;

4) Accept Financial Reports; and 5) Publication of Annual Statement of Affairs.

Roll call vote: all yeas.

Under Administrative reports, Mr. Blankenship reported the following: 1) 1st

quarter grade card went out on Tuesday, October 17th; 2) The 8th grade parent

group will be doing the concession stands for the boy’s and girl’s games; 3) The

Girl’s basketball team opened their season with the New Simpson Hill

tournament. The Boy’s team played their first game on October 16th. The Varsity

squads are playing Hardin Co. tonight; 4) The Jr. High Cross Country team did

well at the state meet. The Girl’s team placed 5th with 161 points (4 points away

from a state trophy). Gracie Markus finished 3rd and Ahry Comer had a 4th place

finish out of the 162 runners. The Boy’s team finished 20th with Eason Comer

having the best time for our team. He place 52nd out of 206 runners; 5) Picture

retakes and group/team pictures will be taken November 15th; 6) The Jr. High

Drama group, under the direction of Mrs. Hosfeldt, will be performing the play

Cinderella for the Elementary school tomorrow. This will be a dress rehearsal

for the play performed on Thursday, October 26th at 7 pm in the High School

Gym; 7) We have our first bench from the bottle cap collection. The bench has a

temporary home in the Elementary school entrance. We are still collecting in

hopes of obtaining another bench; 8) The trees for the playground are

scheduled to be planted on November 6th; and 9) Enrollment is 393.

Mr. Fritch reported the following: 1) We had eight students selected to the Quad

State Honor Choir at Murray State. These students are: Alisa White, Shelby

Rawlings, Cameron Hill, Tucker Murphy, Trenton Huston, Gwen Bowman,

Maggee Bleyer, and Anna Wasson; 2) Mrs. Potts will be hosting the annual

financial aid night on October 24th. She will talk to students and parents about

college options and deadlines. A representative from WKCTC will be here to

provide help as well. She will also help students and parents fill out FAFSA

application process. Mrs. Potts has been calling senior parents to let them

know; 3) Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on October 24th and 26th. No

appointments are necessary; 4) Fall Baseball has wrapped up its season; 5)

Cross Country Regional’s are this weekend. Cross Country Girl’s team won 1st

place with Keely Clay placing 1st and Amy Weaver placing 2nd and the Boy’s

placed 2nd with Jackson Eddington placing 1st and Matt Sherrod placing 10th at

the GEC Conference Meet. We hosted the GEC Meet and will be the permanent

host for several years; 6) Boys and Girls Basketball teams have been having

open-gym, conditioning, and weightlifting; and 7) Enrollment is 143; 39

Freshman, 41 Sophomores, 33 Juniors, 30 Seniors. Mr. Fritch also added that

WKCTC has made Pope County in-district for our students; they will pay in-state

tuition.

Dr. Bleyer reported the following: 1) Last month, I attended the Illinois

Association of School Administrators conference in Springfield. While at the

conference, I was privy to attend sessions on college and career readiness,

personnel evaluations, ISBE’s new school report card, and labor-management

collaboration. Additionally, I met with State Superintendent Tony Smith and

Assistant-Superintendent Jason Hefler on IL-Empower. They asked me to be a

pilot district for this new school improvement initiative that is tied to the new

ESSA federal requirement tied to funding. Based on standardized testing, the

bottom 25% of districts will have to submit IL-Empower school improvement

plans during the 2018-19 school year. We are not one of those districts;

however, ISBE is reaching out to better performing districts to gather school

improvement specimens to build a state-wide rubric. As a district, we will

embarking on this project; 2) The State did pass a new funding model but project

it will not be in place until January 2018. We are currently being funded off of

last year’s numbers; 3) The Caution light is not yet working and we are waiting

on a cord to connect to the computer in order to program the light. Once the

cord is received, the light will be programmed and hopefully working properly;

and 4) The cooler for the kitchen was order but they sent a freezer. The new

cooler should be here by Wednesday of next week.

Dr. Bleyer introduced Mr. Michael Baysinger from Baysinger Architects who

gave a proposal for the softball complex. He had a proposal as a starting point

that included three separate parts: 1) dugouts, 2) concrete for bleachers and

press box area, and 3) concession stand and press box. After some discussion,

the Board agreed to put out bids in November with a project finish date of March

1, 2018 for the dug outs with storage, concrete and bleachers, with adding a

separate bid for leveling and repairing the infield dirt.

Motion to enter executive session for the purpose of personnel performance and

employment was made by Clay and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all

yeas. Board entered executive session at 7:36 pm.

Motion to return to regular session was made by Clay and seconded by

Schuchardt. Roll call vote: all yeas. Board returned at 8:27 pm.

Motion to approve the FY 2017 School District Audit was made by Wallace and

seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion to approve out-of-state field trip for the 3-5 grades to attend a science

show in Paducah, KY on February 15, 2017 was made by Schuchardt and

seconded by Wallace. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion to approve out-of-state, overnight field trip for the high school Honor

Choir to attend competition and performance at Murray, KY on November 5-6

was made by Clay and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion to hire Denny Berger as K-8 evening custodian was made by Schuchardt

and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion to approve Abby Gibbs as bus driver pending proper certification was

made by Wallace and seconded by Simmons. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Motion to enter into MOU with RSVP of SI was made by Clay and seconded by

Schuchardt. Roll call vote: all yeas.

Under Old Business, Dr. Bleyer stated he sent out an email regarding

information on drug testing that he had been asked to gather. President Hansen

started the discussion with the main concerns of drug testing being procedure,

age, and penalty of positive test. President Hansen reporting what Member

Hogg found out from HealthWorks Medical in Paducah on their procedures of

drug testing. HealthWorks would come to the school to administer the test for

$100 plus the cost of the test, have no quota on how many tests, provide a

qualified person to administer the test, they would pull the random names,

testing would be a closed door test with dye, temperature, and taping in place.

Member Wallace also discussed what he found out from Anna High School and

Harrisburg High School on their drug testing procedures and policies. He stated

it is on their school website if anyone wants to read it. President Hansen asked

how many students this would involve so they could determine how many drug

tests to give per year to have an idea on the cost per year. President Hansen

stated the age of testing is the main concern and feels it should be high school

students only and parents should be called first thing after the random names

are pulled. He also commended everyone for what they are doing and feels they

are doing this the right way with researching and discussing all options. Dr.

Bleyer stated HealthWorks has no experience in school testing and are work

places testing only. He added he will talk with them and find out more

information. Nanci Berger also addressed the Board and asked they look in to

who is going to be responsible for the cost of the drug counseling, the parents of

the student or the district. President Hansen stated he sent out a study on drug

testing and encouraged all members to read it. The Board agreed to keep

researching and discussing this issue and keep it on the agenda.

Under Other Business, President Hansen stated he had been contacted by

James Lewis and Chris Walker regarding some needs for the baseball team.

There is a small amount of improvements needed along with some equipment.

The FFA is going to help with some along with the Youth League. President

Hansen asked the letter from Mr. Lewis be emailed to all Board members and

they will discuss it further under Old Business at the next meeting.

Member Schuchardt asked if the finish line area and bridge for the cross country

track can be improved. Dr. Bleyer stated they can’t help the way the track is at

that spot because the ditch is the main water runoff from the high school

buildings. He stated they added tack strips to the bridge to make it safer and will

be adding another section to the bridge to make it wider.

With no further business to be discussed, a motion was made by Wallace and

seconded by Simmons to adjourn the meeting until the next scheduled meeting

to be held on Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 7:00 pm in the J.H. Hobbs

Memorial Library. All members present voted yea.

Meeting adjourned at 9:07 pm.

http://www.popek12.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_2554242/File/Board%20Minutes/Oct%2019%202017.pdf