Goessel school board hears recreation commission Report

The Goessel School Board accepted a $1,000 check from Evergreen Packaging at their last meeting. Courtesy Photo

Goessel school board met on July 9 and listened to teacher/coach Chad Lindeman’s report of the Goessel Recreation Commission, of which he is a board member.

School board chair Kelly Booton is also on the GRC board, as well as Curtis Guhr, Brian Burkholder, and Tina Schrag.

“We always appreciate the school allowing us to use the facilities,” Lindeman said, adding that the GRC appreciates Denise Nickel’s help with sign-up forms at the elementary school.

Lindeman listed Hesston, Halstead, Burrton, Haven, Sedgwick and Canton as the others in the recreation league. He said the league is not competitive, and anyone can play at any level. He talked about baseball, volleyball, biddy basketball and also a football clinic. He added that the high school youth are involved with the younger children.

Lindeman said that karate is also offered through the GRC, and square dancing was offered a few years ago.

“If there’s anyone you know that would be willing to do something, let me know,” he said.

Lindeman also mentioned computer and soccer, adding that while the GRC tried soccer, it has not been offered for a number of years.

“We’re open to whatever,” he said. “We’re all volunteers.”

Lindeman and Booton expressed appreciation for the coaches.

The GRC charges $25 per child for every sport, and children who receive free and reduced price school meals play GRC sports for free.

“We want to make it available for everyone,” Lindeman said.

Booton said the GRC has received nice comments about the baseball facility. Lindeman added that the concession building is available for baseball games, but it can also be rented for other events.

Superintendent/elementary school principal John Fast said the GRC helped support the preschool night and funded the supper for that evening.

“We appreciated that,” he said.

The board thanked Lindeman and the GRC for their work with the children of the community.

The board affirmed annual organizational appointments as follows: board president, Kelly Booton; vice-president, Maynard Knepp; meet and confer, Knepp and Pat Flaming; Learning Consortium representative, Darla Meysing; Marion County Special Education Cooperative representative, Bryant Miller with Booton as alternate; Kansas Association of School Boards representative and legislative liaison, Kyle Funk. In addition, Miller is the Schools for Quality Education representative. SQE advocates for small, rural Kansas schools. Miller is the southeast Kansas representative.

The board made the following additional appointments: school board clerk, Joni Smith; alternate board clerks, Denise Nickel and Debbie Schrag; hearing officer for free and reduced price meal applications, Scott Boden, junior high/high school principal; food service representative and homeless coordinator officer, Fast; board treasurer, Tyler Ottensmeier; and school board attorney, Brian Bina of Karstetter and Klenda.

The board set the board meeting day and time as 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. The board adopted the 1,116 hour school year and the IRS mileage reimbursement rate because sometimes no school vehicle is available, and staff members need to use their own vehicle for a school event.

The board set school meal prices with the cost of reduced meals remaining the same at 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. Other meal costs had to be raised by 5 or 10 cents because they had been too low compared to other schools in the area. Breakfast will now cost $1.50 for students and $2.15 for adults. Lunch for kindergarten through grade five students will be $2.65, $2.85 for junior high and high school students. The extra cost for seconds will be 40 cents for milk, 50 cents for a roll, and $1.50 for the entree. The cost for adult guest meals will now be $4, which is the only cost that is rising by 40 cents.

In other business, the board:

◼ approved Jacob Gouvian as assistant high school boys basketball coach.

◼ approved the resignation of Morris Ewert as bus driver. Fast told the board, “Morris has done an outstanding job driving for us… We wish him the best.”

◼ voted to hire Lacie Hill as bus driver.

“She has been an outstanding sub driver,” Fast said.

◼ voted to increase school counselor Janna Duerksen’s time from .8 to 1.0.

◼ discussed the issue of a county nurse, who conducted all the vision and hearing screenings for the county schools. The position currently is unfilled.

◼ listened to a report about the FCCLA national convention. Teacher Brittany Hiebert had attended the convention in Atlanta, Ga., with two of her students, who received gold and silver medals.

n listened to Pam Abrahams describe the Cartons 2 Garden elementary school competition project. The elementary school students worked on the project for two months with the deadline being in April. Students used milk cartons to make “touch ‘n feel” boxes, bird feeders, bee houses, mobiles, a water feature and an arch.

Abrahams said she appreciated parents who helped with the project. Students used about 250 milk and juice cartons of different sizes. Abrahams listed benefits of spending time in nature: “builds confidence, promotes creativity and imagination, teaches responsibility, activates more of our senses, gets kids moving, makes them think, and reduces stress and fatigue.” She also said that people who spend time in nature can have a stronger immune system.

The school won $1,000 from Evergreen Packaging for the competition. Evergreen Packaging manufactures milk cartons. The board voted to accept the money. Various options have been considered for use of the prize money, but a decision has not been made.

◼ reviewed the school district’s vehicles. Fast said the Ford Taurus needs to be replaced, and the Suburban and vans are “in great shape,” although the mini van has lots of miles. The older Dodge pickup can have a snow plow attached to it and is sometimes needed for snow removal. The 1995 Ford pickup needs to be replaced.

Maintenance director Ben Schmidt attended the meeting and told the board that he doesn’t trust the pickup “farther than Moundridge.” He explained various features and why they are necessary. He said the four-wheel-drive is needed and they try to pull buses out ourselves before they call out Ben Schrag, a local farmer who is also a school board member.

The board approved the purchase of a Dodge 2500 Tradesman maintenance truck with an extended cab from Midway Motors for $24,816 with trade-in of the current maintenance vehicle.

◼ heard that 19 students up to third grade have been coming to summer school. Sheri Janzen and Jill Booton have been working with the children.

n heard that new flooring will be installed in the kitchen at both school buildings, and a new playground structure will be installed at the elementary school. The administration commended the maintenance personnel for their summer work.

◼ heard that the track is finished.

◼ heard that enrollment will be Aug. 1-2. The first day of sports practice will be Aug. 13, and the first day of school will be Aug. 16.

◼ heard about state budget deadlines that school personnel are facing. Fast said that in past years, budget preparation could be done in April, but that couldn’t happen any more because of the state legislature, so now there is only a short amount of time to get it done. He said that board clerk Joni Smith has to get the budget done at the same time as payroll, meet and confer, and contracts.

◼ voted to approve the financial statements of $112,235.77.

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