Finances Dominate New West Carroll Board’s First Agenda

By Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

Your new West Carroll School Board. (L to R) Front row: Bev Kilpatrick, Mike Highland and Tim Atherton. Back row: Jerry Anderson, Mark Klein, Dawn Rath, and John Brigham. (PA photo by Michael Miller)

THOMSON – The West Carroll School Board had a busy evening, as it swore in two new members and moved ahead with a plan to use payment procurement cards from U.S. Bank as a method to not only save money but also to produce revenue, in their Thursday, April 21st, 2011 regular meeting.

The meeting was attended by Board members Mark Klein, Jerry Anderson, Tim Atherton, Dawn Rath, Beverly Kilpatrick and John Brigham, as well as newly elected Board President Mike Highland.

Also in attendance were District Superintendent Craig Mathers, High School Principal Bob Lamb, Assistant High School Principal Monika Burkholder, Middle School Principal Julie Katzenberger, Primary School/Intermediate School Principal Jeannette Ashby, Special Education/Preschool Principal Pam Delp, Brad Field from the Technology Department, and Recording Secretary/Business Office Manager Sandra Aude.

First on the Board’s agenda was presenting the three new members, administering the Oath of Office for each and then reorganizing the Board by electing new officers. By unanimous votes, Mathers was elected President Pro Tem, and Aude was elected Secretary Pro Tem. Subsequently, after a nomination by Klein, seconded by Atherton, Mike Highland was elected President of the West Carroll School Board. In a brief acceptance speech, Highland thanked both departing Board President David Boyd (who was not present) and departing Board member Bill Sweeney, who served as the acting President this evening until the next election of officers took place. Highland presented Sweeney with a plaque for his service, and thanked the Board and wished them well.

Kilpatrick nominated Atherton for Vice President, and after a second by Brigham, Atherton was unanimously elected. Kilpatrick was elected Secretary, with Dina Aljets being elected Treasurer of the Board.

Other changes were in store for the Board. In a discussion of setting the time and place for Board meetings, Rath said that Thursdays were not good for her and ultimately the Board decided to hold their meetings on the third Wednesday of each month, at 6:30 p.m., at the Intermediate School, instead of the current Thursday, beginning in July.

In Correspondence, Mathers referred to a letter from Pam Brown, Executive Director of the Savanna Chamber of Commerce. Brown pledged the Chamber’s support of future West Carroll projects and to help the District work on scholarship opportunities for the students.

Administrative reports brought news from all the schools. Ashby thanked the primary school teachers for a very successful Wax Museum event on April 7th, and her report revealed that third grade Water Safety courses will begin on May 9th and run through May 13th of this year. Katzenberger thanked Carla Whitebread for her direction of “Romeo to Go.” She also announced the third quarter student honor roll, which saw a total of 61 sixth graders achieved this honor (23 with High Honors, 38 on the regular honor roll), 37 seventh graders (19 High, and 18 Regular), and 47 eighth graders (23 High and 24 Regular).

Ms. Katzenberger also reported that eighth grade promotion will be on Tuesday, May 17th in the middle school gym, at 6:30 pm, with doors opening at 6:00 pm.

Delp gave reports for both Preschool and Special Education. She told the Board that the current number of Special Education students is 242, down from 315 when those numbers were first totaled, and she credited the Response to Intervention program with being key to transitioning special education students back into the general classrooms. She also said that 12 students will require Extended School Year services, with both instructional and speech time being required for most. She presented information about the RtI program and how it ties into Special Education. Three interventions in a six month period generally indicate that special education might be indicated for the student.

Delp’s Preschool report included the news that the school has applied for a $676,000.00 grant through the Illinois State Board of Education. 160 students have been screened for the coming year’s preschool program. She also announced that the popular Tiny Tot Olympics will be held on April 28th from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Primary School and is open to preschool families in Carroll County.

Lamb said that the High School has raised over $18,000.00 at the annual Radiothon this month. He also announced that Prom will be held on April 29th at the Galena Territory from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, with 230 students slated to attend. A charge of $40.00 will be levied for each junior, with seniors attending for free. He thanked for Post Prom committee for their help.

Also on the High School’s plate was the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony and Rotary Banquet on the 27th of April. 90 to 95 scholarships are available, at a total of nearly $140,000.00.

Two other dates were noted; one was the High School Spring Concert, at 6:30 pm on May 10th, and the graduation ceremonies, which will be at 1:00 pm on May 15th.

Burkholder congratulated the High School Music Program for receiving First Place in the IHSA class B sweepstakes this year. She also congratulated Zach Whitebread for his first place finish for his record book in swine production placement for the FFA, as well as the Parliamentary Procedure team for placing seventh in state on March 26th.

Burkholder also reported that 146 pints of blood were donated this year at the student council’s annual blood drive.

Field reported the “outstanding news” that the District’s 3 year Technology Implementation Plan had been approved by the ISBE. In response to a question from Klein, Field said he’d personally support the previously discussed “one to one” laptop project, the goal of which was to have a laptop for every student in the High School, though he added that there were a lot of questions about such a project, including those concerning security and management and that just getting ready for the project would take one to two years. Mathers joined this discussion, commenting that he felt that there were three areas of concern: funding, security and support. He added that the District will inevitably be going in this direction in the next couple of years, though. Field agreed, saying that soon the District won’t really have a choice, since all current assessments and materials used are starting to go this way, and echoing Anderson, he didn’t want the District to “have to play catch up.”

Mathers said that he was “very proud” of a letter received by the Regional Office of Education detailing the number of procedural infractions incurred by the District, which Mathers noted were down considerably from previous years, totaling only four this year. Mathers credited the staff, teachers and administrative teams for helping get this number down.

The Superintendent also reviewed a press release announcing that West Carroll had achieved a 1.78 rating on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being “excellent, 5 being “poor”) in sportsmanship, from the White Pines Officials Association. A banner will be hung in the gym in accordance with this honor.

He reported that there “doesn’t seem to be much new money” being put into the State’s Educational budget for next year, so whatever there is this year will be about the same for next year (if not less), in the area of education. The possibility of forced consolidation won’t happen this year. Mathers also discussed Senate Bill #630, which passed unanimously in the Senate and will now go to the House of Representatives, will be pertinent to West Carroll in the area of future staff reductions. Now, as opposed to being determined by seniority, reductions would be based on student performance, with up to fifty percent of teachers and staff’s evaluation being based on this factor. Mathers added that this idea has the support of unions, legislators and administrators, and that in the meetings he’d attended, “student growth” was being emphasized, though there were several areas that could comprise this growth, including discipline, attendance and academics. Mathers said the District now has 180 days to get an evaluation instrument in place by which to conform to this new rule, after which if there is no plan forthcoming, the plan will automatically default to the State plan.

Under Board Committees, Brigham, Klein and Anderson all volunteered to join the new Transportation Committee.

Under Old Business, the Board approved both the Parent/Student Handbook and the Extra-curricular Handbook.

The Board moved on to consider bids for the District’s Financial Audit, where, after a brief discussion, they unanimously elected to go with Benning LLC, the current auditor for the District, with a three year contract, pursuant to the company agreeing to the stipulations detailed by the Board, which included that the company be more timely in their submitting of reports. The actual low bid was from a newer firm and the Board decided that based upon past experience and comfort with the known auditors, Benning LLC would be the wiser alternative.

More bidding was on the agenda, with the Board considering Technology bids to provide 20 desktops to the Primary School and 11 laptops for teachers. Only two bids were received and the Board elected to go with Bytespeed LLC based on the preference of Field and the fact that they submitted the low bid. Bytespeed’s quoted price for the desktops was $34,450.00 and $27,942.00 for the laptops.

The Board also agreed to sell a station wagon with 214,000 miles on it that was tagged as surplus property to Phil Klein, for a total of $250.00.

Next up was a lengthy presentation by representatives from US Bank on the District’s proposed new payment procurement cards. Bruce Christianson, President of the US Bank in Clinton, Iowa, said that the product he wanted to discuss was a “bank neutral” product and would not change any previous or concurrent relationship the District had with other banks. Another representative, from US Bank’s government banking division, detailed the benefits and mechanics of using the “P card” for payments made by the District. He explained that this payment method would be helpful in that it was more “green,” i.e. environmentally friendly, and posed less security risk than checks did. He said there are studies that indicate for municipalities and other organizations it can cost up to 60 to 90 dollars just to pay one bill, when all costs are totaled, what with bank costs, postage, magnetic ink, etc. The P-Card, he said, would cut down on all of these costs. He added that should the District adopt the card and later decide they didn’t want it, there is no contract to worry about. This card could be used for a wide variety of purchasing needs, including maintenance, food, hotel fees, and many other possibilities. There is no cost to the District for this program. The rep added that if the District would join the bank’s school district consortium, the amount of money spent using the card could add up to substantial rebates for the District, thus not only saving money for the District on costs but generating a source of revenue as well. The firm would also provide training for those employees affected by the new payment method.

After brief discussion, the Board saw no negatives in adopting the card, so it unanimously elected to enter into an agreement with US Bank to provide this service

In other New Business, the Board granted Mathers permission to let for bids the District’s Property and Casualty Insurance, and also heard a brief review of expenditures for the third quarter from Mathers. The superintendent reported that the District was “holding the line on expenditures well” and that majority of the revenue was in, excepting that of the Transportation Fund, which is funded by the State of Illinois.

The Board retreated into Executive Session, where they discussed issues of employment, collective bargaining, purchase or lease of real property, and student discipline. One noteworthy bit of information that came from this session was the Board’s acceptance of the resignation of Assistant Principal Monika Burkholder.