The Greene County School Board met last night.
The Board approved to sell the Rippey school property to the City of Rippey for $1 following a public hearing. The property along with the Wisecup Memorial Gymnasium belongs to the City with some minor details to be worked out financially in terms of insurance between the district and the City.
Instructor Chuck Wenthold gave an update on the student construction program. He said the partnership with Habitat for Humanity is going along great on the rehab house at 901 West Washington. The students are insulating and hanging drywall in parts of the home and will be remodeling the kitchen soon. The expected completion date for the project is June 1st.
During the administrative reports, Intermediate School Principal Maranda Van Cleave said her students showed improvement in reading and math from the STAR Assessment taken in the fall and winter. Fourth graders improved from 66% to 79% in reading and from 72% to 81% in math. Fifth graders went from 58% to 64% in reading and 65% to 72% in math. Sixth graders improved from 54% to 68% in reading and 73% to 76% in math.
Activities Director Dean Lansman said the Jazzatonics were selected to perform the National Anthem at the boys state basketball tournament on March 14th and a mixed choral group will also perform the National Anthem at the girls state basketball tournament on March 3rd.
The Board approved seven teachers and three associates for voluntary early retirement. Altogether, Diane Kunzler, Cathy Springer, Judy Turner, Dave Bohnet, Eric Ernst, Janice Johnston, Michele Hardin, Jane Wampler, Gary Stein and Sherri Schwaller have a combined 258 years of educational experience. Becky Greiner was also recognized for her resignation after 26 years as a high school band teacher.
The Board also approved fundraiser requests for the accelerated government class and the art club, closing out the flexible spending account and transferring those funds to the general fund, continuing to send special education students to River Hills in Cedar Falls for the 2015-16 school year, purchasing two wifi routers for two activity buses for $1,800 and purchasing 21 laptops for the family and consumer sciences department for $21,630.
Finally the Board discussed a high school track agreement with Paton-Churdan. P-C wanted to share only girls track due to one student signing up for the spring sport. As part of the agreement, any sport that P-C does not share with GC like track, must give notification prior to February 1st for the following school year to be considered as a shared sport. The Board voted 4-3 against not allowing P-C’s girls to share high school track. A second motion was approved by the Board 6-1 to allow boys and girls to share track. It now goes back to the P-C Board to either allow or not allow GC’s offer.