Teachers and staff get a base pay raise

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Centre USD 397 this fall will begin offering online study to students anywhere in Kansas.

Superintendent Jerri Kemble spent four hours discussing the program with Kansas State Board of Education Thursday and received approval Friday.

“We would like to start small,” Kemble said, suggesting that enrolling about 10 students would make it easier to work out aspects of the program.

A mother from the Shawnee Heights area already has contacted the district about enrolling her child.

According to Kemble, the online offering will appeal to students who cannot attend a full day of classes in a traditional school. These could include students whose parents travel or who don’t do well in traditional classrooms.

Centre board members had numerous questions and discussed the issue at length before also approving the proposal at their monthly meeting Friday.

Kemble said the district would receive state aid for students enrolled in the program as it does for other students. She said it could be launched without grant money.

“We can do it,” she said. “It would not be a money-making thing, but we would not lose money on it.”

Forty-four other districts in Kansas offer virtual classes. Kemble said the curriculum Centre will use has been audited to make sure it is aligned with state standards.

Two teachers will be trained to serve as monitors and will be paid hourly. Students will be closely monitored to make sure they are doing the work.

Students enrolled this first year will receive a computer and printer/scanner provided by Lincoln Interactive, the creator of the curriculum.

The district has joined other districts throughout the U.S. in seeking a federal grant that would allow Centre to become a virtual school. Kemble said the state may provide grant money, as well. Federal grant recipients will be announced later this year.

For more information on the program, visit www.lincolninteractive.com.

In other action Friday:

• Teacher contracts will include a 2.5 percent increase in base pay, from $31,525 in 2009-10 to $32,315 in 2010-11.
• A 2.5 percent pay increase also was approved for classified staff.
• Supplemental duties will be unchanged.
• Martha Mell of Herington will be a part-time custodian, working five hours a day.
• Kurt Kemble, assistant coach of the high school girls basketball team, and cheerleading sponsor Karen Nickel have resigned from those supplemental duties.
• Laura Vinduska, co-teacher of seventh grade math, will receive additional compensation of $4,785.
• Board clerk Peggy Falen will receive an annual salary of $45,000.
• Technology director Dusty Weigart will continue at last year’s salary, which will be re-evaluated in October.
• River rock will be purchased for $7,670 from Clark Lumber Co. of Herington for ground cover on a new elementary school playground west of the school building.
• A 2010-11 budget approximately the same as the 2009-10 budget will be prepared. It will include 20 mills for the general fund, 4 mills for capital outlay, a supplemental general fund budget not to exceed $460,000, and a bond and interest budget not to exceed 4.25 mills.
• Brent Methvin was re-elected president and Mark Heiser, vice president.

The board took a 30-minute tour to view the changes related to the transfer of kindergarten through fourth grade from Lost Springs to the high school site. The central office is being moved from the former elementary school in Lost Springs to a remodeled district-owned house at the high school site.