Board summary
Marion-Florence USD 408 Board of Education heard about or discussed the following matters during their Monday morning meeting:
— Heard a report from board members Roger Hannaford and Chris Sprowls about the KASB convention. Hannaford noted the delegate assembly was mostly "big school issues versus smaller schools."
"One of the big things was two schools combining to make a bigger (sports) team," Hannaford said.
He also noted many schools were now offering bowling and swimming as competitive sports.
Sprowls said he attended a seminar put on by staff from Hope (part of the Alta Vista school district) which combines Bal-A-Vis-X (BAVX) with a computer program which tracks a student's BAVX progress.
— Heard from Marion High School principal Ken Arnhold that a group of MHS students were planning on making a presentation — perhaps in January — concerning changing the grading scale.
He noted the idea stemmed from a presentation students heard while attending a workshop sponsored by the Marion County Empowerment Committee.
"It's all student-driven at this point," Arnhold said. "The students have sent out letters to area schools and they're checking to see if the grading scale makes any difference post-secondary."
Arnhold said the students are not interested in "lowering the bottom end" or what score equals on F.
Board member Gene Bowers said he would like the students to talk to the District School Improvement Team before making any recommendations.
Board member Keith Collett said he would not be making any decisions on the topic unless it came through staff, administration, and other official channels.
"Parental and student pressure won't get me there," Collett said. "This needs to percolate through first."
— Heard that Collett had expressed concern that board district boundaries had not been updated in a number of years.
Superintendent Lee Leiker said after checking with the county he and business manager Martin Tice learned there was no real way of getting a handle on population within each specific board member district.
"The courthouse has records of registered voters," Leiker said. "I don't know if we can change boundaries and see much benefit."
Collett said statute existed which requires school districts to update their board member districts so they remain fairly close in terms of equal population.
"The county commission looks at this every 10 years," Collett said.
Tice said he didn't know of any way to determine population within each board district without conducting a census of some sort.
"Are you uncomfortable with the population basis which exists now?" questioned board president Rex Savage.
"Yes I am," Collett replied.
He suggested going through the county clerk's office and using 911 addressing to "draw a line" and get the number of registered voters living within each member district.
Tice said the deadline for re-districting was Dec. 31. "We have a law that tells us to do it but no means to do it," he said.
The last time board districts were re-drawn was 1970, Tice said.
Leiker indicated if the process was going to be done this year it needed to be tackled immediately.
"It's technical work and there's some publication that needs to be done," Collett said, noting he didn't believe the process could be done before the end of the year.
Savage said he would not want to see city population shifted out of any district. "Let's shift rural but not urban sites," he said.
— Approved a work release request for Stephanie Jacobson.
— Heard from board member Kathy Meierhoff, special education representative, that the cooperative board is still discussing the interview process to hire a new director.
Reporting on District School Improvement Team, Collett said it was discussing test scores.
Heard from board member Roger Hannaford regarding the TEEN Network, which provides interactive television classes, that director Dr. Sharon Tatge of Herington had resigned effective at the end of the current school year. She is retiring and a search for a new director will begin.
— Approved the hiring of Kara Chisholm as a second assistant coach for C-team basketball.
— Heard from Leiker the district was creating a Marion-Florence supervisory council. "We want vocal people who will talk about schools," he said. The council will meet the first Wednesday of every month. He asked board members to suggest names of possible community members.
— Heard from Meierhoff, Sprowls, Savage, and other board members who commended the MHS music and drama departments for another "great musical" with "Seussical the Musical."
