By TRICIA HILL
Elementary School Principal Rick Walters handed out the District Report Card for the 2013-14 school year on Tuesday night at Boscobel’s monthly school board meeting. In the 2012-13 school year Boscobel students were exceeding expectations, with a 74.8 overall accountability score. As a district they scored 39.2 percent in math achievement, compared to the state’s 48.2 percent. In reading the district scored 27.2 in math achievement, compared to the state’s 36.4 percent.
However, the Boscobel School District did drop a bit on their 2013-14 District Report Card as they were only meeting expectations with an overall accountability score of 71.8.
In the SWAL Conference, Boscobel trailed Darlington (75.6), Mineral Point (75.6) and Fennimore (73.2), but scored ahead of Cuba City (71.7), Iowa-Grant (71.2), Riverdale (68.5) and Southwestern (68.4).
As a district, Boscobel scored 40.3 percent in math compared to the state’s 48.8 percent. In reading the district scored a 27.9 percent compared to the state’s 36.7 percent.
“Last year we did a little bit better,” Walters said. “We are on the verge of exceeding expectations. We have room to grow and plan to keep pushing forward.”
Energy efficiency
At the August board meeting, the Boscobel School Board decided to move forward with H&H for their Act 32 energy efficiency projects. H&H employee Josh Kaurich presented to the board on Tuesday night the project process they would be going through. The board is currently on steps 3-6 which include:
• Board begins discussion about what they are willing to bond for projects via Fund 38.
• Develop Gross Max Pricing (GMP) for each project with Savings/O&M Savings.
• At October Board Meeting, pass an Operational Levy. This amount would have to be spent by June 30, 2015, to get the project off the ground.
• Then to certify the levy by November.
“We have been developing projects to come up with an action plan to keep the buildings intact for another generation,” Kaurich said. “We want to get another 30 years out of these buildings because they are good buildings.”
DPI required reports
With the school district currently without an administrator, Business Manager Cherryl Knowles is left sitting with some DPI required reports that she is in need of having signed by someone. DPI had told the board that they could appoint someone to sign those reports in the interim of not having an administrator, or the full board could approve the reports and then the board president or another board appointee could sign them.
After a brief discussion, the board decided to appoint treasurer Roger Knoble to sign the DPI required reports when he is up signing papers as treasurer.
BoardBook
The board approved the $2,000 maintenance fee for the period of Sept. 1, 2014 – August 31, 2015. The maintenance fee has not increased from previous years and includes the use of the BoardBook service, training, and technical support through the Texas Association of School Boards toll-free number.
“I was wondering if it would be easier to scan it in and send it out as a PDF,” President Todd Miller said. “If we’re making copies for certain people, I was just curious if we should save the $2,000 and print it out.”
Technology Director, Allen Hines explained to the board that he was afraid that the 100 or more pages that needed to be made into PDFs would probably not go through the light speed filter at the school. To e-mail it the board members, it would not work because he would not be able to set a special limit for the board members.
“I do think the program is worthwhile and probably has few errors,” Tom Pelz said.
Substitute pay
The board approved substitute teacher pay at a rate of $95 a day as opposed to the current rate of $85. So as of Sept. 17 substitutes will be paid at this rate. This new rate means that if a teacher works a quarter of a day they will be paid for a half day of work.
Volleyball volunteer
Boscobel volleyball coach Jeff Ostheimer was seeking approval from the board for Grant Williams as a volunteer coach for the volleyball team. The board approved for him to help coach the team.
Activity requests
The board approved activity requests for the National FFA Convention in Louisville, KY on Oct. 28 – Nov. 1 for seven students, Wyalusing State Park trip for the sixth grade students from Oct. 22 – Oct. 24 for 63 students and the trip to Galena, Ill. for the band to perform at the Halloween Parade on Oct. 25. The parade begins at 6:30 p.m., so the band will need to leave by 4:10 p.m. that day to make the 61-mile trip.
