There was much discussion at Monday’s Carmi-White County School Board meeting about the exploring of ways to effectively integrate current and emerging technologies into curriculum and instruction to promote student learning, increase learning opportunities and encourage the use of different teaching methods. A lot of the new technologies are already being used and there wouldn’t be the need for much training of staff. So far there’s only been a rough estimate of the cost. They’ll continue to look into ways to move into this technology, and hope to come up with a final plan that can be voted on to implement at the beginning of the next school year.
The Board decided to vote on the School Safety and Protection Plan at the April meeting. It would require the Board to pass a resolution that would give local control to school boards to develop a plan that would allow board-approved administrators and staff who have successfully completed appropriate training courses, passed multiple background checks and possess a concealed carry permit to be armed. This resolution would then have to be voted on by the Illinois Association of School Boards Resolution Committee and then go to a vote of the statewide IASB delegation.
They also approved membership into the Scholastic 3-D archery program for Unit Five students in grades seven through twelve, beginning with the 2017-18 school year.
The District received its two state aid payments for February, totaling $398,211.
In the Superintendent’s report, Brad Lee sent out his thoughts and prayers to the families, students and victims that were affected by the February 28th tornado.
Students and staff will be on Spring Break from April 10th to the 14th.
This year’s high school prom will be held at New Harmony, Indiana on Saturday, April 8th at 7 p.m.
Lee congratulated the participants of the IHSA solo and ensemble music competition at Centralia on March 4th, the Math Team and their coaches on their third place win overall at the ICTM regional contest on February 25th at Herrin High School and Andrew Hunsinger for winning the FFA proficiency award at the sectional and district levels. He’ll now compete at the University of Illinois in Champaign on March 25th.
Two school emergency days have been used this year. If no more are utilized, the last student attendance day will be May 22nd and the last day for staff will be on May 23rd.
And the Egyptian Health Department hired Laura Simpson as a mental health therapist who would provide services within the school district. An agreement to employ a mental health therapist was first approved at the December school board meeting.
In other business, the 2017-18 school calendar was approved as was another year of membership into the ISHA. Changes to 14 Board policies were accepted and two new Board policies were preliminary adopted with final action set for the April meeting. Also approved was $8,576 in donations to Brownsville School.
The Board went into closed session at 7:50 p.m.
In the closed session, the Board voted to place Alison Childers on tenure at the beginning of next school year, re-employed first year certified staff members Jayme Cowling, Suzanne Tomm, and Margherita DiMaggio, second year certified staff members Jean Browning, Melissa Dartt, Brittany Griffin, Jara Mitchell, Tina Mosier, Michael Rushing, and Ariana Watts, and third year certified staff members Zandrea Hafenrichter, Beth Hart, Megan King, William Knight, and Danielle Shain for the next school year. Administrators Amy Atteberry, Amy Dixon, Cindy Hoskins, Bart King, and Jerrod Newell were employed for the next school year.
