The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The La Harpe Community Unit School District #335 and La Harpe Community School District #347 School boards held a regular meeting Tuesday night, January 16, in the school district library. School board members in attendance were Dan Horton, Ricky Johnson, Mark Irish, Nancy Butler, Cindy Wear, Rex Huston, Pam Campbell, and Deanna Stambaugh. Also present were Jo Campbell, Lila McKeown, Pat Deitrich, and Elaine Long from Carl Sandburg College. Ms. Long passed out the January edition of the Envoy and mentioned several articles of interest to the board.
The board approved a 3% salary increase for Jo Campbell as superintendent/elementary principal and for Lila McKeown as junior high/high school principal for the current 2006-07 school year.
Pat Deitrich was employed as interim secretary and Karen Nudd was employed as interim bookkeeper for the elementary district #347 from December 2006 through June 2007.
The elementary and junior high/high school principals were not rehired for the 2007-08 school year. This action is dependent upon the discussion with Dallas School District regarding sharing the position of superintendent.
In other business, the board approved a request by Philip and Candy McDowell for use of the elementary gym for a birthday party, approved BLDD Architect Firm to provide professional assistance for the elementary district facilities transition, approved a $15,600 inter-fund loan from the Education Fund to the Transportation Fund, approved the employment of Pat Raftis as boys' junior high track coach and of Kristi Ide as a substitute teacher helper and cook.
A date for a meeting with Dallas School District will be planned for the first week of February.
Junior High/High School Principal Lila McKeown reported that semester tests were held January 9, 10, and 11. Second semester started on January 17.
While high school students were taking semester tests, the junior high school students were participating in some engaged learning units. Mrs. Faul's 6th grade classes made movies. They wrote their script and included props.
A teacher inservice was held on January 12 with Lou Pruett of the Special Education Coop presenting a brief introduction RTI (Response to Intervention), the "new wave" in special education. It was very informative.
Simplified Online Communication System training was to be held in the afternoon but was cancelled due to bad weather. It will be rescheduled so we can get our website up and running. Mrs. Holtsclaw has done some preliminary work on the website.