MEEKER I The Meeker Board of Education (BOE) heard Sept. 15 from Superintendent of Schools Chris Selle that the District Accountability Committee (DAC), established by state statute, had met that afternoon, for the first time this school year.
Selle reported that the board members discussion largely focused on structural issues and requirements of state law. He urged the board to consider the DAC and the individual school building accountability committees (BACs) as advisory bodies. The high school BAC meets today at 4:30 p.m. The elementary school BAC meets Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. in the elementary school conference room.)
Selle further stated that the statute requires there be a joint meeting between the DAC and the BOE at least once annually. The DAC, he said, would like some guidance from the board. The board agreed to set a joint meeting between the DAC and the board for Oct. 20 at 6:30 p.m. School parent Georgann Amack is chair of the DAC. State law requires that a parent member of the DAC be the chair.
The BOE also heard from Mary Strang, chairwoman of the Meeker Education Foundation, about the foundation’s grant cycles and the grants amounting to $36,436 they’ve just issued (See column by Selle on Page 5A of today’s edition).
Brad Bauer, coordinator of Student Services for the Rio Blanco Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), reported that Rio Blanco BOCES has pursued several professional development initiatives that have been extremely successful.
A literacy specialist from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is helping BOCES. Bauer also indicated that new teacher induction training has gone very well this fall.
BOCES is also preparing for a CDE assessment visit regarding the district’s gifted and talented programs. This review by the state, called the Colorado Gifted Education Review (C-GER), is done about once every four years, according to Kristine Denny of the BOCES office in Rangely. The Rio Blanco County review is scheduled for Oct. 6-8.
Bauer also reported that BOCES offered two-hour workshops in Meeker and Rangely on Sept. 14-15 to support dealing with challenging behaviors in the classroom.
The BOE has asked Superintendent Selle, in order to boost student achievement, to improve attendance rates in Meeker schools. Selle said he’s set an aggregate attendance rate for students as a whole at a given school, at 95 percent as a reasonable initial goal. Currently, the elementary school attendance rate is at 95 percent, the middle school is at 94.36 percent and the high school is at 94.42 percent.
In a related action, the board approved a resolution authorizing the superintendent of schools to represent the district in any judicial proceedings brought to enforce Colorado’s compulsory attendance laws.
Selle reported that the negative factor projection for this school year, based on the district’s current full-time equivalent students being 617, is approximately $695,883, meaning the state is providing that much less than would otherwise be expected from Amendment 23 passed by the voters in 2000. This amount is roughly equivalent to the district’s projected 2015-16 deficit. The actual count of student bodies currently enrolled in Meeker schools is 708. This compares to a head count of 695 a year ago.
The board also received reports from each of the three school principals. Their written reports can be found on the Meeker School District website under the School Board tab, then Agenda, and then the link to board information at the bottom of the agenda for last week’s board meeting. Keep scrolling down to pages 18-20.
The board accepted the resignation of Sheri Isenhour from the food services team. New hires approved were Jessica Kurth, food services; Jody May, classified substitute; Diane Ewing, substitute teacher; and Mike Dinwiddie and Jamie Rogers, middle school boys basketball coaches.
The BOE work session set for Oct. 6 was approved for change to Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. to make way for home volleyball games on Oct. 6.
Selle confirmed that the MHS Student Council will host a school board candidate forum the evening of Oct. 15.
