No more bonfires; new home coming activities

The Odessa School Board met on September 24 for their regular monthly meeting to approve the resignations of Sam Read as golf coach and Rachel Roberts as assistant junior-high girls basketball coach, a salary rider adjustment in Julie Wehr’s contract, naming Terri King as Senior College Advisor, Ellen Holman as Senior Class Advisor, Ben Burbank as the FFA advisor and Landon Lobe as a volunteer trap shoot advisor.

Principal Jamie Nelson told the board about upcoming homecoming activities planned for the week beginning October 6. The student government decided that, instead of a homecoming dance, to have a game night on Saturday of homecoming week. There will be tournaments, activities, food and fun things to do for everyone.

She reported that Fest receipts for all clubs were up from last year’s totals.

Nelson told the board that seniors in the Current World Problems class taught by Larry Moffet will now have an opportunity to take the class for college credit as well as for high school credit. The high school calculus class may also be offered as a college pre-calculus class in the spring for dual credit. The credits are being offered by Eastern Washington University.

Superintendent Suellen White told the board the school can no longer have bonfires on school property. After the damage that occurred due to last spring’s bonfire (melted siding on a neighboring home), the school’s insurance company will not provide liability coverage for any such school-sponsored activity.

White said professional development days are planned for October 2 and 3, which are non-school days for students. On October 2, the staff will be working on Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project activities which will be the topic of many of the district’s professional development time due to the comprehensive nature of the new system. White said she considers the time well spent, as the new system helps teachers reflect on their approach to teaching, on setting goals and monitoring student growth in their subject area(s) and planning for in-class time to the maximum benefit of students.

White also reported on professional development activities taking place during early-release Wednesdays. Teachers were recently instructed by the district’s technology provider on the use of Google Docs. Google Docs provide a level of collaboration not possible with other platforms at this time, she said. Other activities include the elementary reading program called “Walk to Read”; data analysis of student test scores and the new evaluation system. On October 3, Odessa teachers will go to Davenport to work with teachers from other Bi-County schools. There will be presentations on Close Reading, which is designed to help students read deeper into the content, especially on non-fiction selections. Teachers will be in Professional Learning Communities with teachers in our region; providing an opportunity to talk to teachers who have the same assignments.

White has scheduled a meeting of the board with Dr. Michael Dunn, of NE Wash. Educational Services District 101 in Spokane, on October 13 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss planning for the Odessa district’s administration for next year. The goal will be to determine the timeline for selection of a new superintendent and principal and how to involve the staff and community in the process. White is in her final year in Odessa, so the main focus will be on the superintendent position, but Jeanie Read, the district’s special education director, is also retiring and principal Jamie Nelson was hired on an interim basis for the current academic year. There will be many details to work out.

All of the board members present at the meeting indicated they are planning on attending the WSSDA conference in Spokane the weekend before Thanksgiving.

White told the board she is trying to reach our legislators to set up the district’s annual legislative dinner with school boards and administrators from Lincoln County Schools. Judith Warnick has responded, but White has not been able to reach Matt Manweller to get a reply. The meeting is planned for late November.

Facilities report

Justin Parr reportedthat the carpeting job is complete with the addition of the carpet in the junior-high hallway and the replacement of the stair nosing to make it more visible. He said field preparation for the football games and the RV camping for Fest went well. He reported that Fifth Avenue has been torn up in preparation for paving. While the Fourth Avenue project is drawing to a close, transportation for the school district will continue to be a problem until the next project is completed.

Parr proposed to the board that the school district pay for one-third of recently needed repairs to the town of Odessa’s forklift, which has long been available to the district to use when needed. The board agreed to the expenditure.

Miscellaneous

White asked the board if the district should try and work with the paving contractor currently working on Fourth Avenue to get a paved path across the gravel on the football field to provide handicapped access to the grandstand. The board agreed this was a good plan, and several board members will meet at the field to decide how to proceed.

White thanked Travis Wagner and Bud Largent who went to Spokane to pick up new weight room equipment purchased with physical education grant funds. Wagner said he felt the equipment was of very high quality and durable. He said the equipment was used but in excellent condition and would have cost more than twice as much as we paid if purchased new. He said several Odessa High alumni attending school at EWU and SCC met them to help load the equipment on the trailer.

White addressed the replacement of the reader board sign which has been inoperable since last year. The board instructed her and Parr to move forward with the project, but so far there has been no consensus on where the sign should be located. The preferred location in front of the town shop was vetoed by Mayor Doug Plinski because he felt it would conflict with equipment movement around the shop. Board members will also consider the sign placement prior to the next meeting.

White asked the board about scheduling the next steering committee to discuss the Ag Shop/STEM project. The board set Wednesday, October 29, for this meeting.

Enrollment for September is 208.02 full-time equivalent students, four more than last year, with an actual head count of 218 attending at least part of a day. The 2013-2014 fiscal year ended with a cash reserve of $653,121.

The next regular meeting of the board will be October 22, with a workshop beginning at 6:30 and the regular meeting beginning at 7 p.m.

Since the State Board of Education dropped the senior project as a graduation requirement, and also due to staff changes right before school started, the administration was unable to schedule the senior seminar this year. White therefore recommended that the senior project be dropped as a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2014. The board approved the recommendation in a split vote of 3-1.

The board approved Travis Schuh as a volunteer cross country coach. Odessa has one student and Harrington two students who want to participate in the sport. The co-op agreement states there must be five athletes participating in a program before a coach can be hired.