Staff writer
After 30 minutes of executive session to discuss personnel Monday evening, USD 408 school board hired two new employees.
Forest Barger is the new technology director replacing Mike Fruechting who resigned last month and Becky Soyez was hired as a second-grade aide.
Superintendent Lee Leiker said he was still writing contracts for the two employees at the time of the meeting.
The hires offset Michelle Adkins’ resignation as Marion Middle School volleyball coach, which was part of the consent agenda.
Work release requests were approved for three Marion High School seniors. Madison Chamberland has completed all credits except for a final credit of English. Even taking four college level courses, Chamberland will be done with school by 11 a.m. She has inquired about employment at St. Luke Living Center in Marion and Parkside Homes, Hillsboro. She currently works at Carlsons’ Grocery, Marion.
Mary Britton is employed at Showalter Villa in Hesston.
Donna Cady plans to work for her mother Theresa in her day care business.
Students must earn C’s in all of their classes while in the program.
Marion Elementary School teachers Susan Hall, second grade, and Sheila Baldwin, third grade, gave a presentation to the board about MES scores on Northwest Evaluation Assessment testing. NWEA testing is a computerized test that adjusts questions to the individual level of each student. MES students take the tests twice a year in the fall and the spring. The scores of the tests are also used to create Compass lesson plans to improve individual student learning.
Hall and Baldwin presented information for current third-graders through seventh-graders; with a few exceptions, all improved scores in reading and math as they progressd through the separate grades.
The NWEA data supplements MES’s results from state assessments from last year. Every grade level at MES scored at the standard of excellence last year, principal Rod Garman said.
The board approved a time and place for their annual retreat. At 5:30 p.m. Nov. 16 the board will meet at the Historic Elgin Hotel and Bed and Breakfast in Marion for a meal and discuss plans for the future.
School board members were reminded that Dec. 3 through 5 will be the Kansas Association of School Boards annual convention. Leiker and board president Chris Sprowls are set to attend. Leiker also reminded board members that the board meeting Dec. 13 will begin at 7 a.m. with the board touring district schools.