USD 408 signs five-year deal with TEEN years ago
Marion-Florence USD 408 agreed Monday to once again partner with the TEEN network for a five-year period.
TEEN, which includes Herington, Hillsboro, Centre, Peabody-Burns, and Marion school districts, provides Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) classes for students, formerly ITV classes.
USD 408 superintendent Lee Leiker has been pleased with other services TEEN offers as well.
Those services include Internet access, video streaming for classrooms, and e-mail filtering services
"These are money saving opportunities for our district, as well as other TEEN districts," he said.
The benefit of cost by continuing with TEEN, compared to accessing these services as an individual school is several thousands of dollars according to Leiker.
The vote to sign the agreement was 6-1 with member Keith Collett casting the no vote.
Collett was OK with a one-year contract, but was not comfortable with five years.
In other business:
— Parents as Teachers director Lori Soo Hoo gave an update to the board on the program. Currently there are 77 families with 111 children in the program throughout the county. There are 18 families in the district totaling 27 children. Soo Hoo said the district currently makes up 24.3 percent of the children, while the goal based on population is 29 percent. Twelve of the families live in the city of Marion, four in rural Marion and two in the city of Florence.
— The board voted unanimously to accept Sara Neal, Mike Calhoun, and Linda Kroupa as new Marion Elementary School Building Improvement Team (MESBIT) members for 2007-08. The new members replaced Allison Shults, Patty Putter, and Tom Kimbrel.
— The board accepted the review from Donna Fadenrecht of Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk, and Loyd. Fadenrecht said the board was fairly represented in accordance with the state of Kansas.
— Marion Middle School teachers Jan Davis and LeAnn Hansford gave a District School Improvement Team presentation to the board.
