Glenwood City School board hears administrative reports
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FUNDS RAISED from the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Knights of Columbus Council #4954 annual Tootsie Roll Fundraiser were recently donated to the Glenwood City School District. Above, Dan Delong (right) reprensenting the Knights of Columbus Council #4954 presented a check for $2,500 to Dr. Robert Vanderloop (left), Director of Pupil Services and Special Education, to support the needs of students in the district’s Alternative Resource Curriculum Classroom (ARCC) Program. In the past, these funds have been used to provide life-skills experiences for our students. —photo submitted
GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City Board of Education listened to in-depth reports from its administrative team at its January 24 meeting.
The Board also discussed several items of interest during its committee meeting, which is held prior to each regular session, including a draft of next year’s school calendar, the district’s Paid Time Off (PTO) policy and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
Dr. Robert Vanderloop, the district’s director of pupil services and special education, gave a lengthy review of the Trauma Sensitive School Training which was held January 17 during the teachers’ inservice day. That training and the data that it is beginning to collect tied into reports by both elementary principal Betsy Haltinner and high school/middle school principal Marcy Burch who presented about professional staff development activities.
In his report to the board, superintendent Tim Johnson told members that he has begun to work on the budget for the 2022-23 school year noting that there would be no new dollars in state aid unless student counts were to increase.
In what has become a part of each meeting, a different department makes a presentation to the board explaining their curriculum and teaching methodologies. At this past Monday’s session, Amanda Sandor, who is in her first year teaching Spanish in the district, gave the presentation. Sandor is instructing students in grades seven through 12.
Sandor told members that it’s is her goal to provide a comfortable learning environment for her students. In a power point presentation, she noted that she wants to lower affect on students while raising their confidence, advocating for them and teaching them well which will be done through the five “Cs” – communication, connections, comparisons, culture, and community. Sandor added that students learn language through listening, speaking, reading, and writing and that it is her goal to get seniors to pass the CLEP or College-Level Examination Program test.
The board also took action during Monday’s meeting as it approved its consent agenda which included accepting a $2,500 donation from Glenwood City’s St. John the Baptist Catholic Church Knights of Columbus Council #4954 for the district’s Alternate Resource Curriculum Classroom (ARCC) and approved the hirings of Kristine Giammattei as a special eduction paraprofessional and Ben DeGross as a substitute bus driver.
During the committee meeting, Superintendent Johnson took the board through an overview of the district’s PTO (Paid Time Off) and sick leave policy noting that some possible changes will be discussed in upcoming meetings. Johnson noted that the current PTO policy was implemented about eight years ago. Under the policy each staff members earn up to ten days of PTO per year which is essentially one per month. 12-month employees can earn more. Each day of PTO is based on the number of hours worked each day according to Johnson. For example, someone that worked only five hours per day would receive five hours of pay for each PTO day.
Employees can also accumulate up to 90 days of sick leave.
Another item that Johnson touched upon during the committee meeting were the ESSER funds that the district has already received or will be applying for to reimburse expenditures. Glenwood City received about $72,000 in ESSER I funding which it spent in the 2020-21 school year and mainly pertained to COVID-19 mitigation and remote learning technologies. Another $285,000 in ESSER II funds are available to the district and must be spent this year and next with an additional $641,000 in ESSER III funding available to be spent over the next three years.
Johnson said that Glenwood City has used some of the one-time ESSER II and III funds this year to add an additional special education teacher, provide new English Language Arts program and materials for pre-K through fifth grades, increased the elementary guidance council to a full-time position and hire a STEM teacher with hopes to add an interventionist to the school’s staff yet this year. Although none of the ESSER II and III funds have been received yet, Johnson told members that the district would soon begin applying for reimbursement through the programs to cover the cost of the additional teaching positions and other items.
Johnson also handed out a draft of next year’s school calendar. The 2022-23 calendar began on August 24 with three “Transtional Days” with the official first day of school being September 1 as prescribed by state statutes. The last day for students would be June 1. Graduation was tentatively set for Friday, May 26, 2023 which is the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend. Johnson reminded members that this was just a draft for the board’s consideration and was subject to change.
Finally, the board made an adjustment to its February board meeting schedule to meet on the 7th and 21st. It will return to the normal meeting dates of the 2nd and 4th Mondays in March.
