Fatima offers contract extensions to administrators

By Edward Gehlert
Posted 2/24/21

Fatima school board members at last Wednesday’s meeting offered contract extensions to building-level administrators, mostly unanimous, though the board was split when deciding the fate of …

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Fatima offers contract extensions to administrators

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Fatima school board members at last Wednesday’s meeting offered contract extensions to building-level administrators, mostly unanimous, though the board was split when deciding the fate of Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Mitch Gier, whose two-year extension passed by a 4-3 vote with Keith Huhn, Coby Holzschuh, Doug Luebbering, and Matt Robertson in favor, and Suzanne Massman, Jeff Winkelman, and Andy Samson voting against the contract.

Board members unanimously voted to offer a two-year contract extension to High School Principal Sharyl Kelsch and Curriculum Coordinator Janah Massman, and a one-year extension to Elementary Principal Melissa Wright, and Special Education Director Kristie Scrivner.

The board also hired Katie (Eichholz) Hilkerbaumer as an assistant track coach.

In other business, Fatima has a tentative green light to hold a homecoming dance.

“I had a conversation today with Kim at the (Osage County) Health Department and we are scheduled to attempt to hold our homecoming dance on March 20,” said Kelsch of Administrator Kim Sallin. “I’ve been in touch with her and she said she thinks as long as we have a plan to encourage them to wear their mask and be socially-distanced as much as possible, she said she is comfortable with us moving forward, provided we don't have some massive outbreak between now and then.”

Last month, Sallin indicated she was not in favor of the school holding the dance but Board President Doug Luebbering disagreed, saying he would rather allow the dances to be scheduled and then make a determination as to whether it’s prudent to proceed, as opposed to canceling them outright. He suggested allowing the sponsors to make the determination.

Woody said the school’s mask policy is proving effective, with fewer quarantines and active cases of late.

At the time of the meeting, Superintendent Chuck Woody noted that only one student in grades 7-12 was currently positive for COVID-19, with no elementary students or school staff. There were eight JH/HS students and two elementary students in quarantine.

* Woody announced the district will be getting another round of CARES Act money for the sum of $247,955. Some of this money will be used for fiber internet.

“We’re getting another round of CARES Act money and rumor has it we’re going to get a third round, too,” said Woody. “It’s kinda’ broad what we can use the money for. For fiber improvement the first option is we would pay $14,360 with a monthly fee for the next 60 months of $230. Option two, you pay $5,500 up front, and over the next 60 months, it’s $400 a month. It comes out to a little over a $1,000 difference and more expensive the second route. I got permission from DESE to use CARES Act money on this project for the initial cost.”

Woody explained that, barring bad weather, they could have the fiber service within 65 days.

The question was brought up about using CARES Act money to get cases for all of the tablets so more students could take them home. This brought on the discussion of internet capability in some homes.

“It may work in your house and not mine,” said Woody. “We put out everything we had back in the fall when we were down. It worked pretty well, but could we have used some more? Possibly. If they don’t have internet or cell service it won’t work.”

Woody also advised that CARES Act money could be used for some building improvements within reason. When asked if some CARES Act money could be used to replace the heating and ventilation units, Woody said no.

“If the H/VAC unit goes out, we can’t use it for that,” he said. “That would fall under typical repair. We can’t replace them with CARES Act money.”

* Board members decided to remain with the current insurance at an increase of 5.35%, which Woody said is lower than increases other districts are seeing in the state.

“Way back in November (the insurance consortium) had given us some information and we were looking probably at a 10% or better increase, which was scaring me to death,” said Woody. “They wanted to sit down and talk to us like they do every year to go over the details. Our rate actually came back at a 5.35% increase. I don’t like an increase at all but by gosh I was ecstatic. To give an example if I had an HMO, just me, this year those rates are $608.50 a month. So it would be like going from $608.50 to $641.06.”

* Fatima will create a wrestling cooperative a month after discussing the possibilities.

Gier advised the board that if other schools are interested they would have to sign up as an affiliate. Any additional expenses would be passed on to other schools.

“I sent everyone an email saying we were looking into it and if they’re interested to please let me know” said Gier. “They would have to sign up as an affiliate and there would be a small fee. There will be a little money involved, but I don’t think it will be much. I do know that when I sign up, we have to pay a fee for every sport we sign up for.

“Rich Fountain said they talked about it at their last meeting and they are still interested, but they didn’t know about the fee,” Gier continued. “They said they’d get back to me after that. The rest of them said they weren't interested or didn’t have anyone interested. By the middle of April or by May 1 for sure, I have to get approved before we register.”

* The board set the calendar for the 2021-22 school year, with the first day of school being Aug. 25 and the last day being May 19, with graduation being tentatively set for May 15 at 7:30 p.m.

* Following last month’s decision to hold summer school, dates were approved by the board, with the session to run June 2-29, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

* Fatima’s current Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) will remain in effect, with school governance and finance, safety, facilities, technology, and student performance and instruction outlined in the plan.

* The next meeting is scheduled for March 17 at 7 p.m.

REPORTS

Senate Bill 55 is something that Woody told the board they need to know about.

“I may have to send you guys some information on Senate Bill 55,” he said. “We need to keep a close eye on it. It’s got some scary stuff in there, a lot of school consolidation. They hear from superintendents all the time and they need to hear from some of you guys on this.”

High School Principal Sharyl Kelsch told the board that mid-term progress reports were sent out the week prior to the meeting, and planning for summer school is underway.

“We are moving forward with our summer school process,” said Kelsch. “I have begun seeking out student interest in our courses with the survey I sent out earlier this week.”

* Kelsch is also in the process of exploring a new credit recovery program for the high school. She advised the board that the current one is old and outdated, and will not be supported in the future.

Woody added that the current software the school uses is 12 years old.

When asked what the credit recovery program was Kelsch said, “When we have a student who fails a course, or multiple courses, they have an option to work to try to make some of that up with a credit recovery program instead of having to retake the entire course.”

* Kelsch has been working on a tiered monitoring report for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on the district’s homeless program.

“We have to turn it in every couple of years,” she said. “I recently sent material out to various groups in our community to make them aware of what the program is and the resources we can use to help families that are homeless or students that are living on their own.”

* Enrollment in grades 7-12 was reported at 518 students with a rate of attendance at 92.8% so far this year. Kelsch advised that his number is down from prior years.

Elementary School Principal Melissa Wright told the board that the planned fundraiser at Texas Roadhouse was canceled due to weather and that the make-up will be scheduled in March.

“We are wrapping up our annual Reading for Education fundraiser. All of that has been moved online this year,” Melissa said. “We are also getting ready to start our leukemia/lymphoma fundraiser.”

* Wright finished her report by stating that 25 kindergarten students are signed up for next year, which is down from last year.

* Enrollment in grades K-6 was reported at 250 students with a rate of attendance at 97.5% so far this year.

Curriculum Coordinator Janah Massman reported that she is currently working on the assessment plan and should be done in April. She also spoke about the ACT, which will be offered at Fatima on March 30.

“How I did sign-ups for that is Mr. Baker utilized his Google Classroom and it was sent to all juniors as an assignment,” Massman explained. “That same day, State Tech will be coming in, hopefully; if not I will proctor the ACCUPLACER for some students who are not interested in taking the ACT. Then we have a few students who I’m working with to place for a job shadow type of experience whose plans are to go right into the workforce, so every junior will have something going on that day.”

ACCUPLACER is a series of evaluation tests that determines a student's preparedness for college-level courses. Students generally arrange to take these exams through the college they plan to attend before enrolling in classes.

Massman noted that about 85% of the students will be taking the ACT.

Special Services Director Kristie Scrivner talked about the needs of students with IEPs and how the school is utilizing all tools available to work with them through the COVID crisis. She told the board she will be reaching out to parents whose children are doing remote learning and see how they are doing.

Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Mitch Gier reported on upcoming events and the effect the weather is having on schedules.

“Winter sports are being affected by the weather,” he said. “We are going to try to find a way to get them all in. Some of the basketball games probably won't get in because it will be after districts when we do. It’s all of our conference games now. Wrestling girls went Saturday to districts and both of them qualified so congrats to them.”

Boys were scheduled to wrestle last Saturday in districts at Versailles. “I think they have a good shot at doing really well,” said Gier, noting there is a new sectional round this year and the state tournament is scheduled for March 9-10.

Gier also spoke about the basketball season and spring sports.

“We will host a district basketball game, but not the entire tournament,” he said.

The championship games will be in Owensville Friday and Saturday night the first week of March.

This year’s first spring sports practice is scheduled for March 1.

“We’re not even done with winter and we’re going to jump right into that so we may end up having some baseball boys playing basketball, but we are just going to have to deal with it,” Gier said. “It is what it is this year.”