The regular meeting was held starting at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting agenda, February meeting minutes, and treasurer’s report were approved with no changes.
Public comment: None
Recently, a couple of schools within the Cascades Conference have voiced their desire to eliminate the Executive Council of the league. This council is made up of athletic directors, principals, and superintendents of member schools. During the last meeting of the Executive Council, a motion was made and supported to move the concept to each member district’s school board to decide. Our district’s board voted to maintain the Executive Council of the Cascades Conference. General consensus was that it has worked very well since 1953 and should be left as it is currently structured.
The board approved the hiring of an assistant principal for the high school and middle school to share, with the primary focus being at the high school. This position was approved a year ago, but was put on hold with the uncertainty of how the pandemic was going to affect school operations. With the budget picture looking better than it did a year ago, our district will be moving forward with the process of hiring an assistant principal. The management and oversight of the Hanover-Horton Virtual School program, which will reopen next year, will also be a focus for the new assistant principal.
The board approved the updates to the progress being made toward the Board Goals, as presented by Superintendent Denney. Some of the actions taken toward these goals are: adjusting various elementary intervention programs; purchase of new curriculum; development of summer school and credit recovery programs; exploring options for remediation; monitoring the impact of the last year on student achievement; discussions regarding pacing of this year leading to handoff for next year; tools to measure achievement; purchases of devices for online access; adding access points to Wi-Fi; upgrade of switches and fiber; advertising early for vacancies; continued meal programs; coordinating with the Jackson County Health Department; air conditioning and electrical upgrades; purchase of used computer carts and milk cooler.
The tentative school year calendar for 2021-2022 was approved by the board, with a correction being made to add Good Friday in April of 2022 as a holiday. The district calendar is based on the countywide calendar, which will be approved by the JCISD board later this month; at that point, our district calendar will become official.
After much discussion on the possibility of bringing back face-to-face learning in the future, the board reapproved the district’s current COVID-19 Learning Plan, which is required monthly. Supt. Denney shared the following two-way interaction rates for February 2021:
Week 1 – 78.09%
Week 2 – 89.34%
Week 3 – 79.02%
Week 4 – 79.32%
Extended COVID-19 Learning Plan Public Comment: None
Superintendent Denney reported to the board members on the following:
- High school students are having a scaled-down version of Snowfest this week. The Snowfest game will be Tuesday vs. Napoleon, with the pep band playing for their first basketball game this year. Hall decorating was done by the classes on Sunday, with small groups of students at staggered times.
- Hanover-Horton will host the boys’ basketball district games. Volunteers are needed to help. The regional games will be held during spring break.
- An overall review of ESSR funds and what is known so far about 2021-22 budget plans was given to the board.
- The teaching and support staff have been amazing in the way they have been taking on responsibilities this year that they never thought they would, in order to still provide our students with a quality education.
The board members commented on the following:
- Thank you to staff for the extra effort being put forth this school year.
- The board is happy to see sports returning and other activities, such as Snowfest, getting somewhat back to normal.
- The board is glad to be able to hold an in-person meeting.
- There was a good discussion regarding the extended learning plan. We need to talk to parents, staff, and community for their input.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 p.m.
