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La Harpe Community School District

December 2010

The La Harpe School Board held a regular meeting Tuesday, December 21, 2010 in the district library. Board members in attendance were President Cindy Wear, Vice President Dan Horton, Rex Huston, Pam Campbell, Mark Irish, and Darren Spangler.

Also present were Superintendent Jo Campbell, Principal Lila McKeown and Jeanne Clayton. Joanna Sholl, Technology Coordinator was attending as presenter.

Supt. Campbell gave the financial report and presented district bills stating this month we have received state payments to finish up FY10 which ended June 30.

Dr. Campbell's hope is that the state can continue to make up the 6 months of revenue they are behind for FY11. Dr. Campbell expects many changes during state legislative meetings the first full week of January 2011.

The athletic coop agreement will expire at the end of this fiscal year.

The desire is to continue the co-op. The athletic co-op committees from La Harpe and Dallas will meet together in January to look at the agreement and discuss items to clarify for the FY12/FY13 agreement which must be approved by both districts by June 2011.

Reports were given by Wear, Campbell and Huston who attended the Joint Annual III Conference in Chicago.

Wear and Campbell toured Paul Revere School where many creative and positive results are being attained using ideas from Doug Lemov's book "Teach Like a Champion'.

Wear attended sessions on FOIA and Yoga in the classroom.

Huston shared information from seminars on FOIA, LEED (an internationally recognized green building certification system), and Leroy Preparatory School.

Leroy Prep. School is an alternative Jr.-Sr. High program which offers a more individualize learning path, smaller classroom environment, greater hands-on, creative or vocational curriculum, and intra-personal skills guidance.

Interest was expressed in hearing more information about Leroy District's program.

Tech Coordinator, Joanna Sholl, gave a demonstration of the many instructional uses of the new Promethean Interactive Whiteboards located in the library and science rooms.

These boards are designed to maximize the potential of content-rich, interactive applications utilizing existing curriculum as well as a host of online resources and to engage students in new and relevant ways to assimilate information in the classroom.

Sholl hopes to use current and future years of REAP (Rural Education Achievement Program) funds to install the boards in all the La Harpe classrooms in the coming years.

Sholl also plans to provide ongoing teacher training to take full advantage of the educational value of the Promethean Boards.

Sholl mentioned bringing local teachers to demonstrate how they utilize the board in their daily classroom instruction.

Dr. Campbell encouraged board members to visit the IASB (Illinois Association of School Board) website where they may receive regular legislative updates.

Dr. Campbell mentioned the Education Reform and Accountability Act funded by an organization in Oregon, which purports sweeping changes in legislation regarding teacher tenure and evaluations, school governance and many other significant transformations of long-standing procedures.

Dr. Campbell indicated this legislation is moving through the state quickly and is one to watch carefully.

Principal Lila McKeown announced the 8th grade girls basketball's regional championship win and 7th/8th grade boys basketball's 1st place Sand Valley Tournament win.

The PTO sponsored a presentation on positive thinking by Bud Jeffries, one of the world's strongest men.

8th grade student tested and toured at Illini West in preparation for attending the high school in the fall.

Junior high students enjoyed an annual bowling trip.

Christmas programs were enjoyed by all and the student council organized, "Decking the Halls" and a celebration of the 12 Days of Christmas.

The board approved the tax levy with a 1.8771% increase and discussed the Health Life Safety project and the coinciding sale of bonds.

Due to a bus lease expiring the board approved the lease of a minivan from K & C Enterprises to transport students daily to and from Macomb.

Dr. Campbell and Supt. Schilson have been working on a new format for La Harpe/Illini West transportation billing and details of a new transportation contract with Illini West.

The board approved Stacia Logan as head 5th/6th grade volleyball coach.

District policy is regularly updated to reflect ever-changing state legislation.

A first reading of policy updates were presented and approved and the board authorized the regular deletion of closed session recodings according to district policy.

Regular scheduled LCSD #347 board meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month in the school library at 7:00 p.m.

We invite you to view agendas, news releases and approved minutes on the school board section of the La Harpe Eagles website at www.laharpeeagles.org.