GC School Board approves handbooks, academic standards and personnel hirings
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GLENWOOD CITY — With just a handful of action items on its July 11 agenda, the Glenwood City School Board approved updates to several handbooks, student academic standards and personnel hirings during Monday evening’s regular session.
Prior to the board’s approval, Glenwood City Elementary principal Betsy Haltinner and her middle school/high school counterpart Marcy Burch had worked to coordinate language in the two student handbooks between the buildings so that there would be some common district-level information as well as building-specific (elementary versus middle school/high school) items. The approved and updated handbooks with be sent out to families and will also be available on the district’s website.
In addition, the 2022-23 athletic handbook was approved. One of the more noteworthy changes in this updated edition is that student athletes will be permitted one late arrival to school per sport season before it impacts their ability to participate in that evening’s event.
During administrative reports, Haltinner explained that the grade-level teams are using some of their professional flex time to collaborate and review the defined essential standards that have been identified. This work connected directly to the academic standards that the board approved later in the meeting.
According to Superintendent Tim Johnson, each school year the state requires that the academic standards be approved at the first board meeting of the fiscal year and that they are then posted on the district website.
In her report, Principal Marcy Burch updated the board about ongoing renovations in the middle school and high school buildings. She said that the library is getting a bit of a face lift created by the movement of a defined media area and also library book space, rather than the two being mixed and new paint in the cafeteria will provide a fresh look.
Burch also introduced the idea of a Skoolie Project. This would transform an old bus into a modern living space – similar to an RV by utilizing a combination of CTE (Carrer and Technical Education)-related classes and skills.
Under its consent agenda, the board approved a trio of hirings. Nicole Anderson was accepted as a new full-time employee for Hilltopper Hangtime, Amber Hoffman will become a part-time paraprofessional and Dean Fayerweather will serve as a building substitute teacher.
But the district still has a pair of openings yet to fill Johnson informed the board. He said that one is for a middle school English Language Arts (ELA) teacher and the other is for a special education director. Johnson noted that Principal Burch has had limited candidates apply for the ELA position but is hoping to bring a recommendation to the next board meeting.
The board did give verbal consent for the district to post for a 4K/Early Childhood teacher. This move, said Johnson, will allow current 4K/EC teacher, Erin McCarthy, to transition to more of an instructional support role where she would teach English Language Arts and math to a larger-sized first grade class, support new staff in the early elementary, and be available for some other pupil services-related support.
With McCarthy’s new position, the pupil services and special education director role will likely not be filled. Instead, Johnson, with the support of the special education and pupil services team, will provide the oversight for the programming.
Following the executive session, the board approved Ryan Eichman as the new middle school/high school science teacher. He comes to Glenwood City with 21 years of teaching experience and will mainly be teaching life sciences to eighth and tenth graders.
The board’s next meeting is slated for Monday, August 8. The budget hearing and annual meeting will be held Monday, August 15.
