Chamois R-1 to invest $75,000 in CD

By Theresa Brandt, Staff Writer
Posted 10/19/22

CHAMOIS — Chamois R-1 board members voted to invest an additional $75,000 of district funds in a certificate of deposit (CD) to increase the district’s investments. The district currently …

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Chamois R-1 to invest $75,000 in CD

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CHAMOIS — Chamois R-1 board members voted to invest an additional $75,000 of district funds in a certificate of deposit (CD) to increase the district’s investments. The district currently holds three certificates of deposit at Heritage Community Bank totaling $177,140. 

Superintendent Lyle Best initially looked at a 14-month CD with a 3.25% interest rate offered as a CD special by Heritage. Several school board members proposed shopping around at other banks in the area and ensuring that the school district gets the best possible rate. School Board President Steve Cramer suggested asking Heritage Bank if it would match a better rate. Best will report back on the best rate and term he finds at the next meeting.

In other business, school board members also approved repairs to the boiler. The elementary school inline boiler pump needs to be replaced at a cost of $4,951. The price for the heat exchanger to be replaced, which would require a boiler startup, will cost $19,072. 

Best is not sure when the parts for either repair will come in or exactly when Harold G. Butzer, Inc. will be able to make the repairs. Best noted that the water softener approved by the school board had been installed, and when the heat exchanger is replaced, the water will be used in the system. Cramer and other board members expressed frustration at the additional repairs on the aging system.

 * The board approved the senior trip for the upcoming spring, from April 1-7, which will coincide with the school’s spring break. Students will miss three days of school, use two days of spring break, and be back with their families for Easter. The senior class has seven students this year, and only four are participating in the senior trip. School Librarian Samantha Mitchem is the senior sponsor, and she and her husband plan to be the chaperones and the drivers for the trip. The tentative itinerary is to spend four days in Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Students will stay in a cabin, do outdoor activities in the mountains, and go zip-lining. The group will then drive down to Panama City Beach and spend the next three days in a condo on the beach. The trip is estimated to cost $7,000, including food, gas, and lodging. The group already has $5,000 and has a pork burger sale scheduled at Thriftway for Oct. 28.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be a big fundraiser for us,” Mitchem said. 

Mitchem explained that they hoped to cut expenses for the trip by utilizing the kitchens in the cabin and condo for food and by taking the school’s suburban instead of chartering a bus.

She noted that the seniors were excited to return to the tradition after COVID-19.

“I think it is wonderful to reinstate the tradition,” board member Rebecca Mehmert said. “I think kids learn so much by traveling. I think it is good for them to get out of Chamois and see and experience different things.”

“And be together and make memories,” board member Amanda Carter added.

Cramer questioned why there were only four students going on the trip and whether any of the money raised needed to be divided among the other students.

“It is not an issue because they (the three students not going on the senior trip) did not pay the class dues, and they did not help with the fundraisers,” Mitchem said.

 * School board members adopted the Osage County Multi-Jurisdiction Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan as presented.

“The county uses the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to help foster and develop this plan,” Best explained. “It is a requirement for the county so they can seek State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds in an emergency.”

Best noted that an addition to the plan this renewal period was the suggestion to construct a storm and tornado shelter. Currently, the district has no plans in place to carry this out. 

The plan also discusses communication and warning systems in place for the school district.

“We probably have these in place to the best of our ability,” Best noted.

 * Porter, Berendzen, and Associates were at the school on Oct. 10 to complete the work and measurements for the facility mapping approved at the September meeting.

 * Best presented a draft of the school district’s Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) for review. The school board will vote to approve the plan at the November meeting so that it can be submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). The CSIP was developed over four sessions with a special committee composed of teachers, administration, school board, and community members. 

“This is a 30-page document with nine goals, and that is a lot,” Best said. “It might be too much, but it is all relevant and important. Whatever we accomplish as we implement these actions will make us a better district, and that is important. This gives us structure and direction.”

The plan identifies the school district’s goal, vision, and beliefs. It breaks the goals down into three priority areas that include effective teaching and learning, school culture and climate, and leadership. 

“These areas are consistent with the six priority areas DESE has established for schools to focus on,” Best explains. 

The plan identifies three specific goals for each priority area and breaks down a plan on how the school district plans to meet those goals. The CSIP assesses particular actions for each semester from now until June 2025. 

— The first priority area was identified as teaching and learning, with the following goal: The proficiency level of staff implementing Data-Based Decision-Making (DBDM) will increase by 20% each year as measured by the Self-Assessment Practice Profile (SAPP) and Collaborative Work Implementation Survey (CWIS) by 2025. Only 9% of teachers surveyed in the spring of 2022 felt they were proficient in DBDM.

— Another goal was for the students scoring in the Below Basic Category on state assessments will decrease annually by 2-3% as measured by Measures of Academic Performance (MAP) and the End of Course (EOC) scores by 2025. Based on district data from 2022, students testing below basic skill levels in Language Arts (20%), math (30%), science (26%), and social studies (0%).

The last goal for this priority area was for student scores to increase to 21 on the ACT over a three-year average. Currently, the district’s three-year average for the ACT is a score of 19.

— For area culture and climate, the first goal is to increase the percentage of students who feel physically, socially, and emotionally safe at school as measured by the annual student survey by 10%. The student survey conducted this fall showed 78% of students reporting that they felt safe at school. Another goal was to increase student survey results regarding whether teachers, staff, and administration are respectful to students to 90%. A survey showed 86% of students reported feeling that staff was respectful to them. 

Chamois R-1 hopes to increase agreement with all culture and climate questions on the annual survey by 2-3%. A staff survey in the fall of 2022 reflected that 68% agreed with culture and climate questions.

— In the leadership priority area, the school district goal is to maintain a fund balance of 38%. Currently, the fund balance is 57%, which led to questions from School Board Member Nick Schollmeyer.

“I don’t understand the reason why it’s not going up?” Schollmeyer asked. “Wouldn’t the goal be to get better?”

“The goal is to place the money in Fund 4,” Best explained, adding the school district also has facility needs, and the goal is to keep an appropriate balance between all funds.

The second goal for this priority area is to retain 96% of staff annually. Chamois maintained 87% of its certified staff at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

The final goal was to increase the effectiveness of district leadership communication by 5%, as measured by the annual staff survey. A staff survey conducted in the fall of 2002 showed that 87% of staff agree that the district communicates effectively.

The priority area and goals relied heavily on data from recent surveys of staff and students in grades 7-12. Chamois R-1 will conduct a survey of parents at upcoming parent-teacher conferences. The questions in the surveys were taken directly from the CSIP consulting group.

“Our goal is to do these surveys annually,” Best said. 

In years past, the district has not been consistent in surveying students, staff, and parents, and administrators hope to make this more routine moving forward.

Best was pleased with the results of the surveys, noting that overall, the students and staff are happy with the district. But he also said there are areas where there can be improvements; the district is taking these concerns seriously and trying to implement change and growth.

 * School board members discussed implementing an ACT prep program into the curriculum. The program “On to College” offers courses for students in grades 7-12 that are presented in 21 to 22-minute sessions, which can be modified to fit the district’s schedule. 

Best acknowledged that students could do ACT prep on their own and individually, but the training is more effective if the students can work through lessons together. 

The program costs $1,500 annually with a 10% discount if the school district makes a three-year commitment. 

“This is a more sustained program than what we already do,” Best said.

“I think anything that helps our kids raise their ACT scores is great,” Cramer said. “I think $1,500 is a small price to pay.”

Principal Jeremy McKague noted that some schools that have used the program had seen a three-point increase on average in ACT scores. 

“If we can get our students testing into a higher-level math class when they arrive at college, they are saving money and time,” Mehmert said. “It’s $1,500 for us, but it’s a big help to our kids in the long run.”

If the school board approves the program in November, Best plans to implement it for students this year. 

Best noted that increasing the ACT scores was also one of the CSIP goals.

 * Best reviewed MAP and EOC scores with the school board members. Elementary students saw a slight decrease in language arts and science, while math scores were slightly higher. High school language arts scores remained consistent, while math decreased and science and social studies showed an increase. Overall, language arts and math were down, and science and biology were up. 

“Statewide for the past two years, the numbers were pretty consistent,” Best explained. “From 2019 on, there has been a regression, and then it has been a struggle to get the numbers back to a higher level. We would like to see the numbers back up to what they were prior to 2020.”

Best cautioned board members to consider that groups of high-achieving students can change the results as they move from elementary to high school.

“What we’d like to see as we strengthen things throughout the district is not to see the drop-off at that rate,” Best explained. “The lows aren’t so low because of what you’re doing in the classroom. So, you have more consistent performance, but that’s difficult to do.”

Schollmeyer predicted that the math scores for the district would continue to decrease since the school was unable to hire a high school math teacher and the students are utilizing virtual learning. 

“I value as a parent the actual physical teacher being in the classroom versus what they are getting now,” Schollmeyer said. “It’s a struggle at our house.”

“We’ve heard quite a bit this year that parents wish we had that licensed teachers, and that’s what we want,” Best said. “What I try to encourage people to think about is that we don’t want just anyone in there. We have a responsibility to make sure we are using proper instructional strategies, understanding the content, learning targets, how to access students, and how they fit in the culture and growth of the school district. Because sometimes that physical person may not check all of those boxes, we ideally want a person in there.”

Chamois R-1 is utilizing some additional tutoring time to try to give students help with math.

 * Best reviewed policy updates that require mandatory adoption by the school board. Best highlighted five of the 17 policy changes due to legislative action. The policies he thought most affected the district were as follows: Policy #0412-Participation by the Public in School Board Meetings, Policy #2240-Admission and Tuition of Non-Resident Students, Policy # 4130-Certified Staff Contracts, Policy #6191-Full-Time Equivalent for Virtual Learners, and Policy #6215-Reading Success Program. The school board will vote on all 17 policy updates at the November meeting.

 * The board approved the monthly bills totaling $71,354.48.

* Chamois R-1 has the following account balances: general ($1,272,599), special ($162,929), and capital projects ($466,743).

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Best noted that the school district had hired Mike Nolte to install the shade over the preschool playground. 

* The district has not had any qualified applicants for the Parents as Teachers Program and plans to contract with another school district so that the services can be continued.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

McKague announced the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is planning to hold a kid-friendly haunted house fundraiser in the cafeteria on Oct. 28. Children in grades K-4 are invited. The FBLA is also selling St. Louis Cardinals calendars. 

* FBLA students will have their third annual community food drive in November.

* Three Rivers Electric Cooperative presented an electrical safety assembly for elementary students. They will have another presentation for junior high later in the fall.

Missouri University of Science & Technology representatives visited campus during lunch to meet with students.

* Counselor Meghan Birmingham has had two Fridays with LIVE MO, during which students and parents who need help filling out college applications came in.

* Birmingham also restarted the Elementary Advisory Committee, which allows elementary students to bring in ideas they would like to see in their school. The ideas are filtered through the student council. 

“They’ve had a lot of really good ideas,” McKague said, noting there will be a Halloween Fun Day and Veterans Day presentation.

 * Professional Development Committee (PDC) Ag Teacher Kate Kuschel and Mitchem discussed what the PDC committee does. 

“Part of what we do is approve individual teachers to go to conferences,” Mitchem said, presenting an extensive list of events teachers in the district attend. “We are constantly learning new things, trying new things, and learning just like our kids are.”

“We are given a budget at the beginning of each year,” Kuschel explained. “We look at how (a conference) is going to better our staff, better our school, and how it ties into our CSIP before we approve it.”

Conferences are then approved by McKague and Best.

Kuschel and Mitchem reviewed a few of the conference and training programs in which teachers are participating, including Emerging Teachers, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading, and Spelling (LETRS), Foundations, which teaches phonics awareness, SAFE schools training, and Developing Assessment Capable Learners (DACL), among others.

“(Teachers) are going through all of this training to teach your kiddos,” Mitchem explained. “We want to see them keep going and growing.”

Programs instruct teachers on classroom management, how to identify students who are struggling, phonics and reading skills, and how children’s brains develop and learn.

Kuschel noted that some staff members have recently taken CPR and first aid training.

“We want to be ready in case we need to use any of that,” Kuschel said.

Teachers are also working on programs that allow them to bounce ideas off each other to become better instructors and more effective in the classroom.

“We are basically helping each other with our teaching styles and content,” Kuschel explained. “We are boosting and helping each other. Our goal is to come together and help our kids learn even more.”

McKague noted that the teachers need to be commended for all the work they are doing.

CHAMOIS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION (CTA) REPORT

Mitchem reported that the CTA currently has 16 members and will continue accepting members until the end of October. Secret Pal activity is currently underway.

The Mental Health Committee had its first activity on Oct. 5, in which they hid an apple for the teachers to find. Winners received a gift card and candy. The group’s first meeting was held on Oct. 10, at which they discussed plans for the upcoming school year.

STUDENT COUNCIL REPORT

Student Council President Madeline Gerloff and Vice President Rylee Davis reported plans for the school year. Davis noted that at this point, tentative plans include pep rallies and mascots for game days and increased band involvement. 

“On fun days and Homecoming, we kind of want the band to walk through the halls and play music,” Davis said. “We thought that would be cool, especially for pep rallies.”

Davis noted that vending machines are back, and Student Council is stocking them with food. Grogg, the coffee and smoothie shop, is also up and running and provided free coffee or smoothies to teachers on Teacher Appreciation Day.

Red Ribbon week is coming up at the end of October, and there will be dress-up days and a guest speaker. There will be fun-day activities for Halloween and Christmas and a drunk-driving assembly sometime this year.

“We are working on themes for Homecoming, and we are hoping to plan that a lot earlier this year,” Gerloff said. “We want to make it a lot prettier and revamp it since COVID kind of took it down, and it became less of a big deal. We are hoping to bring it back really strong this year.”

Davis noted that they are also hoping to have a lock-in after the Homecoming dance.

“It has gone over super well before, and everyone had a ton of fun, so we want to do that again,’ Davis explained.