BROKEN BOW – The Broken Bow School Board held its monthly meeting on Monday, April 17 at the high school’s board room. All members were present.
Superintendent Darren Tobey unveiled a new early education reading curriculum: pre-kindergarten will start to use the CKLA program, and grades 1 through 5 will begin using McGraw-Hill’s “Wonders.”
The CKLA curriculum, Tobey admitted, is faster-paced compared to the current learning systems, and thus more challenging, but said he has the utmost faith in a faculty that has fostered nothing but growth.
“It doesn’t matter what curriculum you have, it’s going to come down to who’s teaching it. These guys will be in charge of how great it is.”
In district accolades, Superintendent Darren Tobey congratulated the recent successes of 6 student groups: FBLA, of whom 12 have qualified for the national competition, FFA, HOSA, the Speech Team, the SkillsUSA Team, and National Honor Society, who would be inducting members later that night.
A 2011 Blue Bird bus will join the Broken Bow fleet; the board unanimously approved the $10,000 bus purchase as a replacement for a damaged vehicle. Superintendent Tobey explains that the purchase puts the school board ahead of schedule for its transportation needs.
“This bus will then replace what we were supposed to purchase on our transportation schedule that we went over. We won’t need to purchase a bus next year.”
Raises were approved for both administration and classified staff. Currently based on evaluation performance, a staff member earns a 4% raise if performing exceptionally, a 2% raise if performing adequately, and no raise if performing unsatisfactorily. The board unanimously approved a 1% bump for exceptional evaluative performance.
HOSA’s request for just over $6,300 for lodging expenses was approved; the Broken Bow chapter’s national conference will take place in June.
The school board unanimously hired 3 new staff: Elias Snell, Callie Zutavern, and Colton Bell. It also accepted 4 resignations, which leaves a total of 4 openings in the district: a speech pathologist, a special education teacher, and English and Spanish positions.
Superintendent Tobey, with the board’s approval, signed a letter of intent with Facility Advocates, the only bidder for HVAC and other renovations; while the company will be planning and advising next steps, the district will not be obligated to spend any money unless it follows through with Facility Advocates’ proposed plans.
The board heard the treasurer’s report and approved the payment of the monthly bills, as well as the claims and the minutes from the March meeting. The board set the next meeting for May 8 at 6 p.m., and adjourned at 6:44 p.m.
