Chamois R-1 plans to survey staff and community members to see if there is any interest in moving to a four-day school week. The board met last Wednesday night and while discussing options for the next school year’s calendar, board member Kris Wuelling asked if anyone had brought up changing to a four-day school week.

“There are about 60 or so schools in the state that are doing that,” Superintendent Lyle Best said. “A lot of it is being done to attract staff, and trying to keep staff who might be looking at other districts that have more money.”

“When we looked at it before, and that’s been six or eight years ago, we didn’t get a very positive response,” Board President Steve Cramer said.

“A lot of the negative comments were involving day care,” Vice President Angela Hagenhoff said. “People were worried about finding someone to watch their kids for that extra day.”

“I think that’s the first question that comes up when we start talking about a four-day school week,” Best agreed.

“I just see it as getting more popular all the time,” Wuelling said. “Even if it doesn’t happen next year it’s something that we might want to look into.”

“We might see an impact in our district with a neighboring district going to a four-day week,” Cramer said referring to the new calendar set forth by Linn R-2.

“You know we struggle to get applications for the positions we have open whether it’s a certified position or uncertified,” Best said. “We just don’t get many applicants. And we’re seeing a decline over the past several years. Other districts are saying they see an increase when they make the switch to a four-day week. There are a lot of jobs that are going to that four-day week.”

“When we went to a four-day week at work it was the greatest thing that ever happened,” Wuelling said.

“It’s not a problem at all if next year we want to start gathering information so that next January when we start working on a calendar we will know if that needs to be an option,” Best said.

“There’s no real cost to us to send out a survey so it can’t hurt,” Cramer said. “But I think we are going to have the same negative response.”

“It’s hard to find anyone I’ve talked to that doesn’t like the four-day school week or that is looking at going back after they make the change,” Best said. “It’s something we should listen to the benefits of but that doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for everywhere.”

The school district will plan on surveying staff and parents and see if this should be an option under consideration for future school calendars.

As for 2020-21 school year, the board is considering two different options.

“Option B would mirror most similar to what we have this year that takes into consideration our day length staying the same at 6.1475 hours and a four-block day,” Best said. “Basically, that has a start date of Aug. 24 and a projected dismissal day of May 21.”

Option B would include 172 student days and would include make-up days. There would be a discrepancy in the number of days per semester. The first semester would have 80 days and the second semester would have 92.

“Option N is more of what we have been talking about doing,” Best said. “We would have a longer school day of 7.0167 hours per day with an 8 a.m. start and a 3:27 p.m. dismissal time. Junior high and high school would have an eight-period day.”

Under Option N the first day of school would still be Aug. 24 and the last day of school would be May 11. There would be 163 student days with time built in for makeup days.

“This is the calendar we are leaning towards based on input from what the staff is going for,” Best said. “We think the eight period, 50-minute class is what is best for students and teachers. I think it better serves the kids and the community.”

Option N would not allow for the students to have a homeroom class. Students would need to find a different time frame for these meetings.

“They would have to have their meetings during lunch or before school,” High School Principal Jeremey McKague said.

There will be some impact on nine-month, non-certified employees.

“The building secretaries and paras and aides will be increasing their time from 7.5 hours per day to eight so they would make a little more money,” Best said. “But the food service employees are always going to lose. So, you would have that one employee group that would take it on the chin without considering any salary increases.”

Best does not believe there will be any other cost savings by reducing the number of days that school is in session.

The board will vote on the 2020/21 school calendar at the February meeting.

In other business, board members approved the purchase of new school accounting software. Software Unlimited Inc. will be live for the school district as of April 1, 2020. The system has a one-time license fee of $4,995 and will have an annual fee of $1,310 for this first year, which is a pro-rated amount. The normal annual fee will be $5,440 for the 2020-21 school year. This annual fee will have an annual increase of between 2% to 5%.

There are two additional modules that the school is considering adding to the accounting system, The Human Resources Module will cost one-time fee of $1,145 with an annual fee of $400. In addition, the school would like to purchase the Web Link Module which is an additional $1,145 with an annual charge of $550. Both items will not be needed to start the program, but the school district does plan to purchase them between July through September of 2020.

“These costs are assuming that the company will host the service,” Best explained. “We are considering hosting it here, which is what we do with our current system which would be a cost savings of about $1,400.”

* Bills were approved in the amount of $40,748.43.

* The district is showing total year-to-date revenues of $1,029,925 and expenditures of $1,072,751.

* Chamois has fund balances as follows: General Fund ($856,238), Special Fund ($157,920), and Capital Projects Fund ($45,722).

GUIDANCE PROGRAM REVIEW

*Guidance Counselor Meghan Birmingham told the board the program is broken down into three different areas.

The first one is social and emotional help; this is simply helping the students understand themselves as individuals and as members of the community.

“A kid can come to me if they are having a bad day and need to talk to someone,” Birmingham said.

Birmingham is especially proud of a newly-painted mural at school that says, “I am …” and the kids are able to pick positive words that describe them and add them to the wall.

“It is down by my office and I think it is really cool,“ Birmingham said. “Chloe Holloway was the student that painted it.”

The second step is career development.

“All of our kids are smart,” Birmingham explained. “But not all of them want to go to a four-year college. So, we talk about their options in the military. We talk about technical schools and apprenticeships.”

The third step is academic planning.

“We work on study skills, test taking tips and the student’s four-year plan which we start in the eighth grade,” Birmingham said.

Birmingham shared a video that the fifth-grade students made on test taking tips with the board.

“The kids really enjoyed making this video,” Birmingham said. “We plan on sharing this with other students this year.”

Birmingham tries to meet with the elementary school students once a month during the school year and focus on a theme tailored to that month.

“In August, the kiddos come in and we do a meet the counselor kind of thing and we talk about what we need to do to transform into a different grade,” Birmingham explained. “In September we talk about academic skill and what types of behavior we expect in the classroom. October is all about personal safety and we talk about Halloween safety and fire safety. Internet safety is also a big one.”

In November, Birmingham focuses on making and keeping friends. January is set aside for developing problem solving skills. In February the counselor focuses on Coping skills. In March she discusses test taking skills and in April she discusses careers with the students. Birmingham plans on having a career fair with speakers from different jobs come in to talk to the students and answer questions. In May she discusses the expectations for the new grade the students will be entering.

For high school and middle school students, Birmingham focuses on study and test-taking skills as well as exploring career options. Earlier this year, Birmingham hosted a night for parents and students to come in get help with filling out FASFA forms and college or job applications. She had representatives from State Technical College come down to help as well as a representative from their financial aid department.

Students also participated in a Cardinals Career Day this year. Students were able to go to the stadium in St. Louis and learn about all the careers that are involved in a professional sports teams besides the actual players.

“We got to see what actually goes on behind the scenes and then we got to watch a game,” Birmingham said. “It was kind of awesome.”

The students also went to Mizzou where students learned about non-traditional careers. Birmingham takes the students on bus tours of different colleges in the area over their sophomore and junior years.

Birmingham plans to have a day this year where the students learn life skills that are not normally taught in school, including how to change a flat tire and how to fill out tax and insurance forms.

AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM REVIEW

Elementary school Principal Dee Luker reviewed the elementary school after-school program, noting there are several elementary school teachers and aids that stay after school to help students.

“There are very small groups of students that we are tutoring as needed,” Luker said.

The elementary school also has a reading group that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students earn points for reading books.

Only one high school teacher stays after to tutor on a regular basis. Other teachers tutor as needed. McKague admitted that it is sometimes a problem to fit tutoring into the high schooler’s busy schedules.

Several students have shown some interest in forming a chess club, which might meet before school.

Additionally, there has been some interest in forming a drama club and perhaps putting on a high school play.

REPORTS

Best noted that revenue and expenses for December are on par for where they should be this time of the year. There will be additional revenue as tax money is processed.

* Board members plan to watch the required training video at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 in the library before the next monthly meeting.

* The Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) has several areas of legislation it is currently supporting. Those priorities include increasing the minimum teaching salary, an increase in early learning funding, an increase funding for safe school environments, more mental health resources for school, opposition to voucher programs and increase in accountability of charter schools.

Best noted that there are currently several bills that have been filed that seek to expand charter schools. The MSBA is opposed to these bills.

Best warned that there are several bills filed that affect property tax reassessments.

“Some of these things may sound good and be well-received by individuals,” Best said. “But we have to remember that our school district gets 45% of our revenue from local taxes and so whenever these types of bills are out there, we need to be sure and look at all sides of the issues.”

* Best also updated the board on the property maintenance. The refrigerator in the cafeteria was not cooling properly so Brandt’s Heating and Air was called to make a repair.

One of the pumps on the boiler in the elementary school broke over winter break. At this point the school is waiting to replace a bearing once parts come in.

Luker noted that it is affecting two classrooms. Third-grade students stay in their classroom until they get cold and then use the teacher workroom to warm up. The fifth-grade classroom is staying warm enough and the students have not had to be relocated.

* Board filing for the April election will be open until Jan. 21; so far no one has filed.

McKague in his report said attendance is at 95% and he is very pleased with that.

* Conference band was held last Thursday.

* Homecoming is right around the corner, and alumni are encouraged to play with the band.

* The high school is planning on a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) program in the near future.

Luker reported that Knowledge Bowl tryouts will start soon, with the competition to be held March 11 at Lincoln University.

* The Advisory team is planning activities for the 100th day of school. The theme this year will be “Leap Year.”

* Thus far, 12 students have completed the reading program and four students have gone through it twice.

“That’s very encouraging,” Luker said.

* The “Shirts and More” fundraiser is coming up on Feb. 3 and all orders will be placed online again this year.

* Enrollment was reported at 71 students with a rate of attendance at 97%. Luker said she is very pleased with these numbers and noted that the attendance percentage is higher than it was last year at this time.