Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The District 55 School Board agreed Monday night to extend a contract with the city by two years for the skate park site.
The skate park opened last year on district property just east of the district’s Central Office. The city leased the property from the district to operate the skate park.
“I have not had any complaints since the drug bust back in September,” Supt. Larry Horton said, although he noted one exception with a neighbor across the street who has had ongoing issues of different kinds with the park.
The city has done a good job of getting park users off Central Office grounds, Horton said. About six months ago, “I did meet with one gentleman that has taken on a kind of adult leadership role in the park.”
Horton didn’t remember his name, but this man has had a positive impact on the behavior of skaters in the park, he said. He is a skater himself and brings his young son to the park, and skaters there seem to respect that in terms of behavior and language.
The city is moving forward with the purchase of a surveillance camera for the park, Horton said. “The video camera is close to a reality.”
The city is asking only for the $1,500 it initially requested from the district several months ago, Horton said. Since the initial discussions about the camera, cost estimates had increased. Horton did not know what the final cost for the camera would be.
City Manager Craig Martin was unavailable for comment after the board meeting.
The district will help put in the pole on which the camera will be mounted, Horton said, and the district will probably assist with the electrical connections.
“I am supportive of continuing the park and approving a two-year contract,” Horton said.
Present at the meeting were board members Ken Roberts, Don Hopkins, Dave VanDerlip, Chairman Mike Reynolds, Leena Neuschwander, Diane Gerson and Jason Redick. Absent were Jeff Lynn and Scott Proctor.
In other business, the board:
■ Learned that the district had met Annual Yearly Progress goals in most areas in 2005-06.
“All of our elementary schools and junior high met all AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) areas,” Horton said. “However, the high school did not.”
AYP ratings are required by the national No Child Left Behind Act and measure schools based on criteria within that act.
The high school missed the mark in two areas, the “economically disadvantaged” and special education, Horton said. The district has spent quite a bit of time and money trying to improve its rating in special education and will need to put more effort into helping its economically disadvantaged students, he said.
“It’s not just our high school, I hope you all realize,” Horton said. “It’s a large percentage of high schools throughout the state that are not meeting AYP. The middle schools seem to be in kind of a flux overall around the state, (but) our middle school is doing quite well.”
■ Accepted the resignation of science teacher Richard Chroninger from Sweet Home High School.
■ Hired Jane Clark to teach English and David Tolle to teach science at SHHS.
■ Hired David Goetz as vice principal at SHHS.
■ Approved changes to the district’s extra duty contract.
■ Approved a list of alternative education programs for the 2006-07 school year.
■ Approved a $25,000 planning grant for the Sweet Home Charter School, which will essentially operate as a pass-through grant for the charter school, Business Manager Kevin Strong said.
■ Reached a consensus that if one or two days are missed due to snow, then the district would not make up those days.
When three or more days are missed because of snow, it starts cutting into the education program, Horton said, but one of the problems with make-up days has been that the make-up days are added to the end of the year and are irrelevant to the high school trimester where school was actually missed. The grades have already been given for the winter trimester, and adding a day at the end of the year can’t actually make up for the missed day.
“It’s a pretty fair compromise,” Redick said.
New snow routes will help keep schools open when higher elevations are too snowy for buses. Parents will still be able to bring their children to school if the district closes its higher-elevation routes.