The Perry Community School District Board of Education held their first meeting of the 2015 calendar year last night.

At the meeting, it was announced that adult Bluejay fans are receiving low ratings from the Raccoon River Conference for sportsmanship.  Activities Director Tom Lipovac says this is a new process implemented by the athletic conference.  Student athletes, coaches, adult fans and student fans are all rated at each conference contest.  Perry has over half of the negative ratings of all of them obtained in the conference right now.  Lipovac said conversations have been had with some people who they’re concerned about and recent games show all positive ratings. High School Principal Dan Marburger says last time there was such an issue, a letter was put out to winter sports parents.  He says they want to make sure “parents are representing our school well like our students and our coaches are”.  He says they try to pick an appropriate time and place to address the issue without embarrassing anyone.  After discussing the topic, the Board said they support administration in addressing the issue through additional conversations or a letter to parents.

Superintendent Lynn Ubben then updated the Board on several topics.  The first was in regards to early start date waivers.  Typically the district has been able to apply for a waiver to be able to start classes before the official state start date in September.  Under direction from the Governor, schools will no longer automatically have their waivers approved.  Ubben says it is difficult to plan for the upcoming year because of this.  They will continue to monitor what’s happening at the state level and take action appropriately.  She also touched on the State Literacy Initiative which states that all students need to be reading at a 3^rd grade level by the end of their 3^rd grade year.  Additionally, Ubben mentioned that the district will be having their Department of Education site visit Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. She says this will be the last year of site visits as they know them and they look forward to see what recommendations they have for improvement.

A request for proposal for the district’s auditing services was then approved.  They’re looking to hire an auditor for the next three fiscal years.  The 2015-2016 Modified Supplemental Amount Application for dropout prevention was then approved. This helps determine the amount of money received to help students who need additional assistance.  The requested amount is $528,000, compared to last year’s request of $540,000.

Next the Board reviewed and approved the Secondary Business Education Program as submitted to the Department of Education.  A new school bus purchase was also approved. Transportation Director Troy Griffith says it has been three years since the district purchased a new bus.  The new bus will be ready for the upcoming school year.

Revisions to the Voluntary Early Retirement Policy were then approved to clarify that the program is for licensed employees who work 40 hours per week for and support staff who work 30 hours per week.  The program was also extended until January 30^th this year.

Board policy revisions were then approved in regards to organization of the Board, meeting procedures, responsibilities, elections, oath of office and vacancies.  Kathia Davila was approved for early graduation and the Board approved personnel changes.

The next meeting will take place January 27^th at 8:30am in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank Building so the board can approve final review of the elementary parking and traffic project.