The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

La Harpe School Districts Meet

The La Harpe Community Unit School District #335 and La Harpe Community School District #347 school boards held a regular meeting Tuesday night, June 19th, in the school district library.

School board members in attendance were Dan Horton, Rex Huston, Ricky Johnson, Barbara Cox, Deanna Stambaugh, Nancy Butler, Mark Irish, R.D. Trout, and Cindy Wear.

Also present were Jo Campbell, Lila McKeown, Pat Deitrich, and Elaine Long from Carl Sandburg College.

Ms. Long passed out the June edition of the Envoy and mentioned several articles of interest to the board.

The board approved the employment of Kayla Carnes of Blandinsville as a 5th grade teacher and Erin Fink of Carthage as a 2nd grade teacher.

The board also accepted with regret the resignation of Jack Hutchison as a bus driver and approved a request by Kevin O' Flaherty for reimbursement for course work taken at WIU.

For the 2007-08 school year the board:

• Set the elementary principal's salary, approved the School Technology Revolving Loan Program
• Renewed the District Property/Casualty Insurance, Workers' Compensation, School Board Legal Liability Insurance and Treasurer's Bond coverage provided by the Illinois School District Association
• approved membership to the Illinois Association of School Boards for the 2007-08 school year, and adopted the Prevailing Wage Ordinance.
• heard Principal Lila McKeown reported on the end of school activities for junior high and high school. She had held several meetings with teachers and set up the following committees: Mission and Vision, Handbooks, Athletic, Social, Technology, Classroom to Community, and Character Education.
• Heard the janitors have been busy cleaning and moving items. Furniture and supplies to be moved to the high school are being stored in "pods" located in the parking lot.
• Dr. Kelly, Martha Bartlett, and Lila McKeown attended the Response to Intervention training in Macomb on June 5th.
• Athletic Handbook Committee (Laurena Hunter, Todd Porter, Joanna Sholl, Rodney Norris from Dallas, and Lila McKeown) met on June 5th.
• The Handbook Committee (Brenda Sparrow, Elizabeth Abbott, Todd Porter, Martha Bartlett, and Lila McKeown) met June 6th.
• Mission and Vision Committee (Cindy Jones, Melissa Johnson, Joyce Crim, Sherry Beals, Carrie Finch, Stephanie Mencel, Arlynn Hitz, and Lila McKeown) met June 8th.
• Dave Gerst, Joanna Sholl, Kelly Lafferty, Lila McKeown, and Martha Bartlett attended the PowerSchool training on June 11th-13th at Carthage on using the PowerSchool Student Management Program.

Other committees will also be meeting in June.

A teacher retreat will be held July 24th at the 1850's House near Pontoosuc.

They will be working on team building, doing a book review, mission building, and setting goals for next year.