Greenwood School Board Approves 2024-25 School Calendar, CESA 10 Contract, and More
Wednesday, March 6th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM
The Greenwood School Board approved the 2024-25 school calendar at their recent meeting on Wednesday.
The Board also heard the Achievement Gap Reduction Mid-Year Report and discussed the CESA 10 Services Preliminary Agreement for 2024-2025. They decided to remove support for Educator Effectiveness from CESA 10 Preliminary Service Contract for next year and keep everything else the same. The Board did approve the contract.
The Board also heard an update on the ESSER Project. With the project, the Board approved making March 26th an in-service day and a no school day for students as the air handlers are ready to be installed that day. March 26th would be an in-service day.
Certified staff would then also choose an in-service work day on March 27th or April 1st. Support staff would rather report on March 27th or use an emergency day. Certified staff would be allowed to use a personal day on March 27th or April 1st to extend their holiday weekend, normally not allowed by contract. No school day for students on March 26th.
The Board also received all of their January and February tax level payments from all townships. The Board also approved increasing the pay of JV and middle school officials by $10 to $50 for middle school games and $60 for JV games. This will keep the District competitive with other Districts.
The Board also approved to modify the certified and support staff handbook to include a current matrix for supplemental pay and the Board approved a policy update. The Board also approved several new hires including:
- Shannon Funston – JV Assistant Softball Coach,
- Emma Schlough – JV Assistant Softball Coach,
- Heidi Ashbeck – Head Softball Coach,
- Carey Bryhn – Middle School Softball Coach,
- Alex Volovsek – Assistant Baseball Coach,
- Troy Amborn – Middle School Baseball Coach,
- Eric Johnson – Middle School Baseball Coach,
- Phillip Ruzic Middle School Baseball Coach,
- Steve Geisthardt – Head Track Coach,
- Hunter Ellis – Assistant Track Coach,
- Tera Horvath – Assistant High School Track Coach,
- Abigail Bolf – Elementary Volleyball Coach,
- Hanna Rakovec – Elementary Volleyball Coach,
- Cody Halpin – Assistant Football Coach,
- Aaron Greisen – Assistant Football Coach,
- Kyle Demask – Assistant Football Coach,
- Josh Niemi - Assistant Football Coach,
- And Seth Schilling – Assistant Football Coach.
The Board also approved two volunteers including Travis Kind – Football and Louie Stieglitz - Football. The Board also approved the Senior Class Trip to Valley Fair on May 17th.
The Board also heard a CESA 10 report from a Board member. The Board also heard the Building and Grounds Committee report which included:
- A Quote to fix the elementary garage;
- Quote to paint elementary gym;
- Remove sink in Kids Club room;
- Quote for football concessions stand roof repair;
- Solutions for outdoor classroom bridge;
- Quote for roof repairs on auto shop,
- And HVAC at the elementary.
The Board also heard the Employee Relations Committee Report including:
- Summer help;
- Elementary Rec Coordinator;
- Referendum handbook;
- And supplemental and compensation.
Elementary Principal Shane Lilly reported on:
- The Book Fair week with the Literacy Night on Thursday, the theme this year is Camping and Read S’More;
- Over 100 parents/relatives came to eat with their kids for lunch with a loved one;
- This year, they went with Clark Pizza and sold just over 25k and raised over 6k for the school;
- Mrs. Rossow had highlighted the accomplishments of many of their students on the wall just outside of the gym, this included wrestling, ice motocross, box car, and all Rec programs;
- ARC did not pass the states filter, they can supplement for the gaps, which they are currently doing already for some of them;
- Mrs. Steffen had served the district for over 4 decades, she is always willing to help and join in wherever she is needed, she also has taught summer school for many years;
- 3rd graders are doing amazing stuff this year with Mrs. Horvath and Mrs. Kosar, the growth in this group is wonderful and it is great to see them working so hard;
- They are combining the 2 4th grade classrooms and team teaching with Mrs. Kolano as lead an Ms. Klein as co-teacher, they are trying this to see if it will help raise scores for 4th graders;
- Fastbridge, the Winter screener is completed;
- Data meetings are finished an it was the most productive set of meetings;
- On Feb 7th Mike Evans from, Marzano was in the district and met with the Guiding Coalition, there was a good conversation with Mike about where they will go from here;
- Mrs. Nikolai and Mr. Lilly have scheduled course requests with all students grades 8-11;
- Mr. Dieckman and Mrs. Scherer are assisting Mrs. Nikolai and Mr. Lilly in the master schedule process and how they can continue to collaborate and share resources.
- Mr. Lily also mentioned some upcoming events including:
- NAEP – Testing for 8th graders – March 7th,
- CVTC field trip for 9th/10th graders – March 12th,
- ACT Test day for Juniors – March 12th,
- Middle School incentive trip – March 12th,
- And Mock Interview Day for Juniors – April 10th;
- Also, they have made social media push to shed light on their CTE offerings and their CTE students, their goal was to educate their stakeholders on the offerings they have in Greenwood;
- YA Regional Interview Day – February 21, 17 Greenwood students interviewed with 10 local companies;
- This gives the students an opportunity for employment through the Youth Apprenticeship program;
- Their CTE staff have been working on updating their ACP plan and this will be finalized for board approval this spring, this is a requirement set by the state;
- This fall, as part of the Federal Carl Perkins Grant, they completed the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment, their CTE staff reviewed the results, some highlights from the results:
- The trades, healthcare, and information technology are emerging jobs,
- There is an increased need for employability skills,
- And they are working to enhance their ACP curriculum to add in more employability skill lessons.
District Administrator and Middle High School Principal Joe Green provided:
- A referendum update stating there will be two more informational sessions for the community to participate in including Wednesday, March 6th in the HS cafetorium at 7:00pm and Wednesday, March 13th at the Willard Community Center at 7:00pm, both meetings will offer information about the referendum as well as opportunities for the community to ask question;
- March 17th joint board meeting at the Legion at 7:00pm, location to be determined whether it will be in Loyal or Greenwood;
- Elementary Principal Position Update, has been posted for over a month and he has screened the applicants and he will be bringing in 4 candidates to interview on Tuesday, March 5th, the interview panel will consist of 6 elementary staff and 6 district parents, that will narrow it down to 1 or 2 candidates, admin team and board members will interview the 1-2 candidates that the elementary staff and parents think will be suitable for the position.
- For School Safety, Chief Bock fired off some blank rounds at various places through our building to show staff what it may sound like throughout the building, staff was very surprised how it sounded when they could hear it and that they couldn’t hear it once it reached a certain point in the building, they will follow this with an ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) drill in the coming days;
- Mr. Werner and Mr. Green will be joining a CESA group for a book study to learn more about UDL (Universal Design for Learning), creating a multi-level system of support of students and will pair nicely with our HRS work.
- Monday, February 19th the library hosted Battle of the Books, middle school students, high school students, and staff competed to show their knowledge of a series of books that they had read throughout the year, the winner gets to compete in a state event.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.