Sean C. Morgan
Elementary schools will join the Sweet Home Junior High and High School next year on a trimester schedule.
The District 55 School Board voted Monday night to approve the schedule. District officials still need to settle conference dates and grading.
In April, the board approved the schedule change for the Junior High and High School. It entertained the idea but declined to change the elementary school schedule as well.
Supt. Don Schrader wanted to check in with elementary staff and administrators about the idea first.
Officials were considering a trimester system but they hadn’t fleshed out the idea enough when the board, by policy, had to set the 2014-15 school year calendar in March.
Junior High and High School administrators brought the trimester plan to the board in April, but the plan did not include elementary schools.
“It really doesn’t matter for elementary,” Schrader said. What’s important there are the dates for conferences and grading.
Most elementary teachers and administrators are OK with the trimester system, Schrader said. They’re focused on conference schedules.
One group is suggesting conferences in the first and second trimester, with a third one by request in the last trimester, Schrader said. “We’ll have to play around with it.”
Changing the schedule really just has to do with keeping the elementary schedules consistent with the Junior High and High School, Schrader said. That keeps schedules for siblings in different schools similar.
Voting to accept the new schedule were Jason Van Eck, Leena Ellis, Chanz Keeney, Dale Keene, Chairman Jason Redick, Mike Reynolds, Jenny Daniels and Kevin Burger. David VanDerlip was absent.
In other business, Schrader outlined a proposal for “expanded kindergarten” next school year, which he will present alongside a proposal to begin all-day kindergarten next year at the district’s upcoming Budget Committee meetings, which start Monday evening.
Last month, he proposed beginning all-day kindergarten at a cost of more than $250,000, in 2014-15. The proposal met resistance from some board members, who believed the district should save the money and wait until the state begins funding all-day kindergarten in 2015-16. The proposal also found supporters among board members looking to help give students a head start.
Federal funding will be lower next year, Schrader said. In District 55, that means extended kindergarten will not be funded next year. Extended kindergarten is targeted at specific students who may need additional help. The students attend a full day of kindergarten twice a week as part of that program.
The expanded kindergarten would serve as a less expensive alternative to the all-day kindergarten proposal and a replacement for the extended kindergarten program. He developed the alternative proposal in response to board members who did not want to begin all-day kindergarten next year.
In expanded kindergarten, any kindergarten student will be eligible to attend two full-day kindergarten sessions each week, Schrader said. The district will retain the 1.75 full-time equivalent staff members it uses for the extended kindergarten program. That will cost a little more than an estimated $131,000, Schrader said.
The board also approved a pilot program that will allow staff members to check out a credit card at their building to pay expenses on district business. The program will apply only to elementary schools this year, allowing district officials to see how it works and adjust it as needed.
All use of the card must be documented, said Business Manager Kevin Strong. “If someone uses this in an inappropriate manner, we will catch them.”
He doesn’t think anyone will risk a job over a card with a $2,500 limit, he said.