Thanks to Our Custodial Staff!

In the final couple of weeks before the start of the new school year, it becomes a flurry of activity around the district.  Our staff is working under an incredibly unforgiving timeline and really pull out all the stops to ensure we are ready to go for the start of the school year.  I think you will all agree that the facilities look fantastic!  If you see one of our hard working members of the staff, please thank them for their hard work!

Late last week I was visiting with Mr. Schlatter and asked him if he could find someone who would be willing to clean out the flowerbeds and landscaping along the East side of the elementary building.  He told me that it wouldn't be a problem and that he would take car of it.  The next day as I was walking over to the high school I noticed that this area had been taken care of.  I asked Mr. Schlatter who it was that took care of it so quickly, and he remarked that he had no idea.  I did some checking around to see who it may have been, but no one seemed to know who this wonderful person was who completed such a selfless act of volunteerism.  We still don't know who the "Flower Bed Fairy" is, but if you are out there reading, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you!

The Board of Education met last night in a regular business meeting.  As far as meetings go, it was a pretty routine meeting.  I will get to some of the specifics in a moment, but first wanted to extend a thank you to the parents who came to the meeting to advocate for an additional teacher in the kindergarten.  We all recognize that the kindergarten sections are larger than we would like them to be, but we also recognize this isn't a problem that is isolated to just the kindergarten.  We made pretty dramatic cuts in staff from last year, the by-product of which is larger class sizes; systematically.  Believe me when I tell you that we hear what you are saying, and if we could there is no doubt we would add teachers to our staff to reduce class size.  Unfortunately until we are in a better financial position, it is important that we stay the course.  We will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks.

In other action last evening, the Board spent time touring the facilities to see how some of the updates and upgrades to the district have come along.  There was also a review of some policies that will come up for action in the next couple of months (we are specifically looking into our policy on student permits for school), along with a policy on staff use of technology.  

This will be an interesting conversation in the coming months, especially since the state of Missouri recently banned the use of social media in the schools.  They no longer permit teachers to use such sites as Facebook for student learning opportunities.  What do you think about that?  Should teachers be permitted to use social media sites, such as Facebook for educational purposes?