The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.


West Central School Board

The West Central CUSD #235 Board of Education met on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 in a special meeting.

That meeting began at 3:30 p.m. and was held in the Unit Office Conference Room.

The purpose of the special meeting was to discuss matters pertaining to student discipline. As a result of the special meeting, the board expelled two West Central High School students until January 1, 2010 for repeated acts of gross disobedience and misconduct.

The board convened their regularly scheduled November board meeting at 6 p.m. in the elementary cafeteria and the following items took place:

Board Vice President Arnold called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. All board members were present at roll call except for board members Brent and Sams.

Vice President Arnold then led the members of audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Under good news items, the following items were identified as celebration of success:

The board approved the agenda as presented.

Under the recognition of audience request for presentation the board heard from CSC envoy, Sam Sudaker.

The board approved the consent agenda as presented. The following items were approved under the consent agenda:

The board approved payment of the November bills, the October activity accounts and the October treasurer's reports as presented. Supt. Grimm gave a review of the financial report through the end of October.

The board approved the tentative 2008 tax levy as presented. The 2008 tax levy calls for a levy increase of 4.89% which translates into an increase of $170,000 of local property tax money.

It was pointed out to the board that $100,000 of this increase needs to be deposited into the IMRF/Social Security funds as those funds have operated at a deficit for the last several years.

The tentative levy will be on display between now and the December 17, 2008 board meeting. The board will take final action on the levy at this meeting.

The board approved some artwork for the middle school and the high school as presented. The artwork at the middle school relates to their anti-bullying campaign.

The high school artwork was proposed by the Student Council and the Art Club for the trophy case and the concession stand.

The board approved a set of bid specifications for the district audit as presented. Supt. Grimm reported to the board that he hoped to have responses to the request for proposals relative to bids for the audit for them to act on at the December board meeting.

The board approved a request to increase payment to Country Fun Bowling Lanes for the use of those lanes by the West Central High School bowling team. The board approved a recommendation to pay fees not to exceed $1125 for the 2008-09 bowling season.

The board heard reports from the building Principals Mr. Buss, Mr. Nichols and Mr. Geiser.

The board heard a report from Mrs. Serven on the activities that she has undertaken on behalf of the district since the October board meeting.

In addition, the board received a written summary of the recommendations from the curriculum audits that were done for the math, English and special education departments.

The board engaged in quite a discussion relative to those recommendations.

Mrs. Serven suggested to the board that there was a possible revision to the WCHS science course sequence that is under consideration.

That revision would essentially require all high school freshman to take biology and would move physical science to a sophomore or later year course.

This move is being considered because it is felt that in order for our students to be successful in physical science they must first have a basic foundation in algebra concepts.

The board heard a report from Mrs. Melinda Frakes, district technology coordinator. The board was updated on the progress on the implementation of the Connect-Ed messaging system.

The board heard a brief report from Mrs. Farniok, special education coordinator on the activities that she has undertaken since the October board meeting.

Supt. Grimm provided an overview of the district's mentoring program that is being coordinated by Mrs. Karen Rima. Mrs. Rima was unable to be in attendance at the meeting. Mr. Grimm reviewed the summary of the program that Mrs. Rima had put together for the board.

The board conducted a discussion of the high school schedule.

Two items of note came as a result of this discussion.

First, the board directed Supt. Grimm to bring back as an action item for the December 17, 2008 meeting the movement of the classroom portion of the drivers education program to a summer class as opposed to a freshman/sophomore level class.

The primary reason for moving this class is to alleviate conflicts that freshman and sophomores had with other elective classes during those two years.

The second major topic that was discussed was the proposal to implement a thirty minute daily homeroom time into the WCHS schedule beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.

The board directed Supt. Grimm to bring this back to them in December as an action item also.

The board briefly discussed the north campus space issues.

It was the consensus of the board that while there is need for additional space at the north campus, particularly for the high school and a need for the water/sewer project perhaps now with the state of the economy it is not the time to pursue either of those projects.

The board directed Supt. Grimm to contact the district architect and an engineer that has been working on the water project to inform them of their decision.

The board briefly reviewed the goals established at the March 2007 board planning retreat.

There were no items identified under future agenda items.

The board did not feel there was a need to enter closed session and took the following action regarding personnel:

The board was reminded that the next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 beginning at 6:00 p.m.

This meeting will be held in the elementary cafeteria.

There being no other business to come before the board, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:28 p.m.