LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

MONDAY DECEMBER 18, 2006

BOARD OF EDUCATION OFFICE 9190 CO. RD. 9, FINDLAY OHIO

STUDENT PRESENTATION 6:00 P.M.

FOLLOWED BY SPECIAL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING STRATEGIC PLANNING

REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING APPROXIMATELY 7:20 P.M.

 

I.                    Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance ……………………………………………Jeff Shadle, Board President

II.                 Recognition of Visitors

III.               Approval of minutes from the Monday, November 20, 2006 regular and special board of education meetings.

IV.              Communications and Discussion

Dave Roth, The Architect, regarding restroom/concession area

V.                 Principals’ Reports

Brian Burkett, Bruce Otley, Brenda Frankart

VI.              Treasurer’s Report ………………………………………………………………Lisa Dobbins

VII.            Superintendent’s Report ……………………………………………………….Dennis Recker

VIII.         New Business

A.     Approve Consent Agenda, to include:

1.      Listing of bills, expenditures, and investments through 11/30/06, and monthly financial report of the Treasurer.

2.      Approve fund 018-9008, District Technology Support fund for the purpose of purchasing technology equipment and supplies

3.      Accept $2700 from eTech Ohio for the FY 2007 Professional Development Grant.

4.      Accept $14,336 from eTech Ohio for SchoolNet Plus FY 2007: Grade 8

5.      Authorize, The Architect, to seek bids for concession/restroom/ticket booth/storage building

6.      Rescind letter of engagement with Means, Bichimier, Burkholder, and Baker to serve as lead negotiator for upcoming negotiations.

7.      Approve Lisa M. Burleson to serve as legal counsel for upcoming negotiations and other employment related issues.

8.      Approve Then and Now Purchase Order for Lisa M. Burleson

9.      Approve membership in OSBA for calendar year 2007.

10.  Approve the following classified staff:

Judy Doby, aide, 2 hours per day

Kathy Fields, an additional 15 minutes per day

B.   Appoint president protem for January organizational meeting

      IX.        Other Business

X.                 Executive Session

XI.              Adjournment

 

 

 

LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

DECEMBER 2006 DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT

DENNIS L. RECKER, SUPERINTENDENT

 

  1. Election results for schools need to be looked at a bit deeper.  Passage rates for “new money” for operations were barely over 20%.  (Item A)
  2. Our staff received a statewide honor, Walter-Horn Partnering for Progress Award:  Improving Results for All Students, from the Ohio Department of Education.  If you go to www.nwoserrc.org/News_Releases.htm, you see the press release and photo of the staff.
  3. A thank you note enclosed.  (Item B)
  4. Enclosed is a newspaper article from The Blade, authored by Senator Gardner, requesting the proposed Ohio CORE.  Last spring, when looking towards this year’s seniors, 86% of the students meet the threshold being proposed.  This is because we decided to have our students maintain a rigorous curriculum, rather than taking their senior year “off” so they could “have fun”.  The results have been documented through ACT and the Ohio Board of Regents follow-up studies.  (Item C)

We must, however, be aware that not all children can function at high level.  We’ve dedicated increased financial resources to our students with needs to pay for instruction and support.  We’ve implemented, at our own expense, everyday, all day kindergarten, along with higher level coursework.  At the same time we’ve maintained the lowest administrative costs in terms of percentage of cost and cost per pupil of all the county schools.

However, because of these additional commitments on our part, plus additional fine arts programming, and on what we spend to maintain our high level of technology relative to other schools (equipment and instruction), we’ll for the first time, see ourselves not be the lowest cost per pupil district in the county.

The board of education, as does the community, needs to be aware of where we’ve placed additional financial commitments over the past years.  There will be state level debate regarding the “Ohio CORE”, but L-B is well positioned because we already meet it.  The one area more “local control” is needed though is in providing exemption, which should be a family/district decision since this will now have a more direct impact in the future socio-economic success of children.

  1.  Since our lead attorney for negotiations and those issues directly related to the master agreement and labor law has changed firms, we need to rescind our letter of engagement with Means, Bichimier, Burkholder, and Baker.  We then need to follow-up with another letter of engagement with Lisa Burleson, who has served us in this capacity the past nine years.

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  1. This article, “How To Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century” speaks to increasing rigor in schools to elevate student achievement.  If you follow the student performance trends, based on ACT or Ohio Board of Regents data, L-B is making significant strides in this area.  (Item D)
  2. The article “Drop-out Programs Won’t Get New Rules” shows a down-side to the Ohio CORE, in that the students most at risk now receive options to attend other schools not required to have higher standards.  While this might be satisfying to some, the end result is that we may be creating a permanent underclass by abandoning these kids and their families.  (Item E)
  3. Here is some research, courtesy of The University of Findlay’s Jim Givens, Lima City Schools, Findlay City, and various vendors/contractors regarding synthetic surfaces.  This gives us a better understanding of the value of this type of surface.  You also have a copy of Lima Senior’s field actual cost, which Andy was good enough to get for us.  L-B’s field area is more than Lima’s so our base cost would be $38,000-$39,000 greater.  I also have an analysis courtesy of Findlay City, as they review the possibility of a new surface.  Hopefully, folks are weighing pros and cons about this as a potential future investment. (Item F) 
  4. If all goes well, I’ll be able to recommend board authorization to seek bids for construction of a pre-engineered building to serve as restroom/concession/ticket booth/and storage area.
  5. With our extensive work schedule for Monday and being conscious of student needing their evening for homework and rest, we’ll have a student presentation at 6:00 p.m., followed by Mr. Winkle and strategic planning from 6:30-7:15 p.m., and our regular board meeting to begin at 7:20 p.m.

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Liberty-Benton Board of Education

December 18, 2006

 

1.   As of today, we have the following number of students in our elementary program:

                                                                                                Nov. 2006

Pre-school        -    21  (1 section – ½ a.m. & ½ p.m.)             (  21)

Kindergarten    -    97 (5 sections – avg. class 19.4)                 (  97)                 

First Grade       -    75 (4 sections – avg. class 18.8)                (  74)                 

Second Grade  -    82 (4 sections – avg. class 20.5)                 (  82)                 

Third Grade     -  105 (5 sections – avg. class 21.0)                 (105)                 

Fourth Grade   -    83 (4 sections – avg. class 20.8)                 (  84)                 

Fifth Grade      -  105 (5 sections – avg. class 21.0)                             (105)                 

TOTAL (K-5):     547 School Average:  20.3                           (547)    Average (20.3)

                                     (568 with pre-school) 

 

  1. The changed format for our conferences seemed to make a difference in our attendance this year.  Our school average for participation was 93.3% of all families, compared to 85.9% in 2005 and 88.9% in 2004.  We have discovered, however, that 15 minutes is not long enough for elementary conferences and will be switching back to 20-minute sessions for next year.

 

  1. The elementary staff used our last 2-hour delay to be trained in “Analyzing Test Data” with the help of Mark Miller from the Hancock County ESC.  It is the first step of many for us to be able to study our students’ data and help us make informed decisions about our instructional program.  Although this is an analysis on last year’s data, we can still learn from the information that it provides.  We will be seeking to establish a plan that will allow us to analyze student data in “real” time during future school years.  I will be working with my staff to establish this plan, which will include highly qualified professional development which we hope to provide on site.  Additionally, our fifth grade students will be taking the half-length practice tests in social studies and science when we get back in January.  We will then analyze these results and use them as a teaching tool with our students.  This is the first year for a social studies and science achievement test for schools, and the first time these students have been exposed to them.  The scores from the May administration will count toward our report card indicators for this year.

 

  1. We wish to express a big thank you to our PTO for a wonderful book fair for this year.  Thank you to Amanda Jones and Jodi Stump for chairing this event again this year.  The date of this event was moved from the first week of school to December and with great success.  The book fair grossed twice what it has previously done in the years past.  This allowed the teachers to each be able to get $50 worth of books for their classrooms from the book fair profits.  Each library also received several hundred dollars in books as well.  We appreciate the strong commitment and  partnership we have with our PTO.

 

  1. Once again, a thank you goes out to Mrs. Matson for organizing our annual Jump Rope for Heart event at school on Nov. 20th.  Our students were able to raise $11,140 this year.  All contributions raised will support the American Heart Association in its battle against heart disease and stroke in the Ohio Valley Affiliate.  Mrs. Matson will also be doing the K-1 activity in February during her physical education classes to provide them a way to contribute to our school’s goal as well.  Thank you to all the parents that helped with snack or the event during that day.  Without them, it would be extremely difficult to pull off such a successful event!

 

UPCOMING ELEMENTARY EVENTS:

Dec. 22                        School Holiday Assembly and Classroom Parties

Dec.25-Jan. 2  No School – Winter Break

Jan. 3               School Resumes

Jan. 8-12          DIBELS Reading Assessment administered this week

Jan. 10             Stevi B’s Pizza Night (4:30-9:00 p.m.)

Jan. 15             No School – MLK Day

Jan. 19             End of the 2nd Grading Period/1st Semester

                                                           

MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Liberty-Benton Board of Education

December 18, 2006

6:00 p.m.

 

1) Tis the Season to Give Back: Students at Liberty-Benton Middle School participated in two activities to help the needy and give something back to the community though the Coats for Christmas campaign and a caned food drive for the Salvation Army.  It is important for our students to develop a sense of service towards others as we prepare them to become responsible citizens. 

 

Canned Food Drive: Members of the student council organized our canned food drive to benefit the Salvation Army.  The Drive was from Wednesday, November 29-Tuesday, December 5, 2006.  Mrs. Cramner’s home room won the ice cream reward for the highest average weight on Friday, December 1. Mrs. Heavrin’s home room will be receiving the reward for the highest overall average weight for the drive and will be receiving a pizza luncheon as a reward. Liberty-Benton Middle School raised over 1,300 pounds of non perishables to help the needy. 

 

Coats for Christmas:  Students at Liberty-Benton Middle School donated new and gently used winter coats, mittens, and hats November 27 through December 1, 2006.  A large box was placed in the lobby as a collections point.  The coats were taken to Washington Elementary School to be distributed to those in need.

 

2) Achievement Tests to be Given: Teachers will be administering the following the half length practice achievement tests to students before we leave for break per discussions from our two hour delay  in-service during the October 12, 2006 on analyzing and interpreting our Achievement Test data.     

These tests will be used as short cycle assessments and provide teachers with test performance data on student strengths and weaknesses.  The tests will give teachers some perspective on what we are doing well and what may need improvement as we approach the midpoint of the school year. Teachers will use this data to have meaningful conversations with students on their performance and to inform their planning for the second semester to prepare Liberty-Benton Middle School students for success on the real tests in May. 

 

3) Current Enrollment:

 

Grade                         Total

    06                                103

    07                                  93

    08                                  92

 

Total Students:              288                      

*Net gain of two students since November 

4) Two Hour Delay Day December 5, 2006: The Middle School staff split this valuable professional development time.  During the first hour, teachers received some technology in-service from Harolyn Legg on Info Ohio, an excellent instructional resource for students and teachers.  Andrew Eckhart provided additional training on Ed-Line. 

In the second hour, Heidi Irwin and Laurie Collier provided information on how to teach literacy across the curriculum.  Heidi and Laurie are participating in the Lamp Too program as our building literacy specialists made possible from an Ohio Reads grant.  Heidi and Laurie will be sharing more techniques with the staff as they continue their training through the grant.  Promoting literacy across all contents is important as reading comprehension is a skill measured on the Ohio Achievement Tests.  

5) Parent-Teacher Conferences:  88 parent-teacher conferences were held this year. Almost all of these conferences were team conferences meaning that parents were able to speak with all of a students core teachers at the same time.  Team conferences are beneficial as they give parents a clear picture of student performance across the academic curriculum.   

6) National Geography Bee Finalists: I had the pleasure of reading the preliminary competition questions to 29 students in grades 4-8 to this year’s National Geography Bee candidates on December 15, 2006.  After seven rounds of questions and one tie breaker round, the following students will compete as finalists on Wednesday, December 20, 2006.  I am looking forward to reading the questions again on December 20th.

Grade 5

Brian Miller

Rhett Schroeder

Lisa Mussellman

Josie Smith

Aryin Foust

Kyle Bell

 

Grade 6

Maryam Abidi

 

Grade 7

Alyssa Gary

 

Grade 8

Louis Streacker

Austin Fox

*Alternate: Fourth Grader Lindsay George

The winner of the Finals will go on to represent us at the State Competition.

 

7) Holiday Choir/Band Concert December 5, 2006:  Ms. Santili and Mr. Thomas did an excellent job in preparing our students for our annual holiday choir/band concert.  Members of the audience were treated to a mixture of traditional holiday favorites as well as some more original pieces that really stirred that holiday spirit.  I am proud of our students. 

 

8) Reindeer Relays Friday, December 22, 2006 1:15 p.m.: Students will be competing by grade in the following events as we prepare for the holidays.  The relays have become a sort of tradition at the middle school and the students are looking forward to this friendly competition this year.   

Reindeer Relays Events

 

  1. Three Legged Race
  2. Basketball Weave
  3. Scooter Scoot
  4. Balloon Stomp
  5. Rope Run
  6. Santa Says
  7. Foul Shots by Grade
  8. Puzzler Race
  9. Back to Back Ball Run

10.  Hula Hoop

 

 

HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Board of Education Meeting

December 18, 2006

6:00 P.M.

 

1.)                Holiday Concert -  Our high school choir and band performed a very nice holiday concert on December 12th.  It was a very nice turn-out, and the performances were very well received.  The music department does a nice job of arranging the ambiance for the evening with the poinsettias and holiday lights.  It was beautiful!

2.)                Musical -  The auditions have been held for the Spring musical, “Oklahoma,” and the cast started their first rehearsal this evening.  They had a terrific participation rate for the auditions, and we are looking forward to this year’s show.

3.)                Salvation Army Canned Food Drive & Winter Fun Day -  Thank you to Z-Club members for once again organizing our Salvation Army Canned Food Drive.  This year’s building goal was to collect 7,000 pounds of food, and we were successful in collecting 7,103 pounds of food.  We received a congratulatory phone call from the Salvation Army that our high school won the county-wide competition by collecting more food than any other school in Hancock County.  By meeting our building goal, the students have earned the traditional Winter Fun Day for this Friday afternoon.  Following the lunch periods on Friday, everyone will report to the gym for a variety of competitive grade level activities organized by the Student Council.  New this year is a “Hoops For Heart” basketball contest to raise money for the American Heart Association.  The other activities include something for everyone to get involved!

4.)                Course Description Updates -  We are just starting to look at updating our course descriptions booklet for next school year.  Each department is reviewing their curriculum at this time for any necessary revisions.  Scheduling will be planned for February.

5.)                Senior OGT Results From The October Test -  The state allows us to preview the OGT scores early for the seniors so we know how to proceed with them.  As it turns out, we had terrific results with our seniors during the October testing. 

·         We had 12 seniors testing on 33 tests. 

·         4 of these students are on IEP’s.

·         4 of these seniors just moved into LB this Fall. 

·         Out of these 33 tests, the seniors successfully passed 17 of them.

·         5 of these 12 seniors are now finished with their state testing requirements.

·         Of the 7 remaining seniors who still have sections to pass, 3 of the IEP students can be exempted, if necessary.

·         4 of the remaining 7 seniors will be required to pass their remaining sections of the test in order to qualify for a high school diploma.  These students will next take the tests again in March.  Of these 4 seniors, 3 of them are enrolled full-time in a vocational program at Millstream, and they are receiving OGT intervention as part of their studies there.  We have one remaining senior here at LBHS that still needs to pass one remaining section.  This student just missed passing this final section by three points, and we know the student is very capable of passing this test in March.  We will again arrange for tutoring to be done when it is closer to the March testing.

·         Of the 3 IEP seniors, they still need to pass 1, 3, and 4 sections of the test, respectively.

·         Of the 3 vocational seniors, they still need to pass 1, 3, and 3 sections of the test respectively.

·         Our 1 regular education senior here at LBHS only needs to pass the social studies section.

·         We will not receive the juniors OGT scores until some time in January.

6.)                First Semester Exams -  Our first semester exams are scheduled for January 18 & 19, 2007.

7.)                Fire Alarms -  I am happy to report that our fire alarms have all been repaired in the A-Wing, and our fire drill on December 11th all went smoothly.

8.)                December 5th Collaboration Meeting -  Our high school staff had a terrific collaboration meeting that left them wishing for more.  I would especially like to thank Andrew Eckhart for leading the technology tools information, Harolyn Legg for the training on InfOhio, and Heather Murray and Patti Spiegel for leading the professional development on Quia.com.  What a great morning of professional development.  I was very proud of our entire staff for everything they were doing!

9.)                Upcoming Events:

Dec. 22                  Winter Fun Day, 12:00-2:30

Dec. 23-Jan. 2       No School

Dec. 27                  Stevi B’s Pizza Night

Jan. 3                     Classes Resume

Jan. 12                   Eagle Update Deadline

Jan. 15                   No School – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Jan. 17                   Financial Aid Night, 7:00

Jan. 18                   Even Period Exams

Jan. 19                   Odd Period Exams

Jan. 19                   Freshmen BBQ

Feb. 12 & 13         Talent Show Auditions

Feb. 17                  Winter Homecoming

Feb. 23 & 25         Musical, “Oklahoma”

March 12-16          OGT Testing

March 18 & 19      Talent Shows

March 20               3.5 Banquet