The USD 457 Board of Education met Monday, February 6 during a regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting was held in the Educational Support Center Board Room, 1205 Fleming Street.
The board recognized a number of Garden City High School students that qualified and competed at the state competition. They also recognized Kiley Kilgore and Alejandra Facia for qualifying for the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) National Tournament in Policy Debate. The national tournament will take place in June in Phoenix, Arizona. Russ Tidwell, debate coach at GCHS, was also recognized for receiving a Distinguished Service Award from the National Speech and Debate Association.
The board received a building presentation from Alta Brown Elementary School. The school is doing many things to promote literacy.
They received the District Audit report. It was an unmodified Auditor’s Report on the regulatory basis financial statement with material weaknesses but no questioned costs on federal programs. There were some deficit unencumbered cash balances in grant funds and unresolved discrepancies in bank reconciliations. There were no other audit findings or issues.
The board received a report on Winter learning from Jason Johnson, Assistant Superintendent, Heather Stegman Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator, and Michelle Baier, District Instructional Coach. They reported on how the district is working to increase literacy across all content areas through engaging students in rich texts where they will be able to write and discuss high-level topics.
There was an update on security and technology. There was discussion of the purchase and installation of a visitor management system for the schools in the district. There was analysis of updating and adding additional cameras at the schools. There was breakdown of providing additional enhancements to the buildings to increase secure access to the schools.
The board was provided an update on the on the 2023-24 school calendar. The calendar committee presented Calendar A to the board. 76.9% of eligible staff voted on the two drafts of the calendar that were put together. The proposed first day of school would be on Tuesday, August 15, 2023. This was a first presentation of the calendar and the board did not vote on the calendar.
The board approved the following items during the meeting. They include: the minutes of the January 9 regular Board of Education meeting and the January 26 Special Board of Education meeting. The 5 Year Strategic Plan, Agreement for Audiological Services between Unified School District No. 480, Seward County and the district, HON quote for the purchase of office panels for the Technology office project, State Contract, for $43,782.97, Next Generation Recreation quote for inclusive playground equipment for Garden City Achieve/TEP, State Contract, for $81,057.18, design fees, Selling the following technology devices: 216 laptops, 324 desktops, 67 Macintosh computers, 37 monitors, 10 laptop carts, 1 HP plotter, 156 5th gen iPads, 115 6th gen iPads, 1 iPad 2, and 254 iPad Air. Disposal of the following technology items: 36 HP printers, 20 Dell printers, 3 Canon Printers, 2 Brother printers, 1 DataCadr ID printer, 3 HP scanners, 3 Neat document scanners, 60 monitors, and 1 pallet sized box full of misc. bad parts, cables, and electronic items. New courses: Culinary Workplace Experience and GCCC Engineering Physics II.
The board held two executive sessions at the end of the meeting. The first was actions adversely or favorably affecting a person as a student, patient or resident of a public institution, except that any such person shall have the right to a public hearing if requested by that person. The second was relating to personnel matters for non-elected personnel. No action was taken at the end of both of the executive sessions.
The next meeting of the Board of Education will be Monday, February 20, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. in the Educational Support Center Board Room, 1205 Fleming Street.
The Board of Education agenda can be viewed here.
The Board of Education meeting can be watched here.