District board meeting recap April 8

Grace Altenhofen, Editor-in-Chief
April 8, 2019

The following is a summary of the April 8 SMSD Board of Education meeting.

 

  • Adoption of agenda; approval of minutes from March 25 regular and special meetings

 

  • Report by Superintendent Michael Fulton
    • The Merriam Park health clinic celebrated its one year anniversary
    • A Hocker Grove eighth grader won the Kansas State Geographic Bee
    • SMSD students won awards at a Kansas-Nebraska-Oklahoma science symposium
    • Spotlight on Student Wellness will be held April 10 at SM Northwest
    • SMSD should receive over $9 million in additional funding next year because of the passage of the new school funding bill

 

  • Strategic Planning Update
    • The strategic planning committee is continuing their work developing goals

 

  • Reports from Board Members
    • The board members recently attended a national retreat
    • Heather Ousley said SMEF is continuing its distinguished leaders speaker series April 17 at SM Northwest
    • The new policy committee will be comprised of Deb Zila, Sara Goodburn and Mary Sinclair

 

  • The board reviewed a proposal for the purchase of new Pearson curriculum and resources for middle and high school English classes

 

  • Dr. Sumner gave an update on elementary school enrollment for the 2019-20 school year

 

  • Approval of consent agenda items

 

  • Approval to purchase Viavi equipment

 

  • Approval of middle and high school English resources/curriculum adoption

 

  • Approval of construction contracts to complete the SM South Flex Theater

 

  • Comments from Board
    • Patty Mach attended an open house at the career technical center; she also gave a shoutout to a Ray Marsh student who won a Missouri state gymnastics competition
    • Heather Ousley said SM East has launched lunchtime career chats for students
    • Mary Sinclair brought attention to the new school finance bill as well as a few other bills that have been introduced in Kansas legislature
    • Brad Stratton apologized to the board of education and to SMSD patron Liz Meitl for stepping out of line during their heated discussion during the public comments section of the March 25 meeting

 

  • The board dismissed to executive session to discuss litigation and personnel matters