
The board of education recognized the Pre-K teachers at their October board meeting. The teachers from L-R are Misty Parker, Colleen Favre, Mindy Savant and Nikki Zenner.
Superintendent Joe Tieman reported during the October school board meeting that the school district’s anonymous donor has donated another $2,000 earmarked for technology bringing this individual’s donation total to $15,500 in the last 12 months.
Tieman explained the donation requested the $2,000 be used for document cameras for the elementary school. The Partnership for Educational Excellence matched the anonymous donation with $2,000 of their money to allow technology coordinator Mark Carpani to order $4,000 worth of document cameras.
The Partnership for Educational Excellence matched the anonymous donation with $2,000 of their money
Elementary principal Angela Turcol explained the document cameras, which are the modern version of projectors, will be checked out by teachers. Turcol said teachers can put a book or any other teacher manipulative under the document camera to display it on the Promethian board for all students to view.
Technology Update
Superintendent Tieman continued with the technology subject by noting a new hard wired lab will be formed in the sixth grade hallway by the end of November. Tieman said the district has the counter top to install the new lab. “Sometimes an area to work on is beneficial,” Tieman explained. “We are looking to add a hard-wired lab each year if the funds are there. Mark Carpani does a lot of hard work and research to bring the cost down.”
Tieman said the high school teachers on the first level have requested a mobile lab for use in English and social studies classrooms, so the district deployed a mobile lab specifically for the first floor of the high school. “This lab will not go up and down stairs or in the elevator,” Tieman closed. “Second floor teachers can come down and use it in the library, but we are looking to add a mobile lab next year for the second floor.”
Tieman publically apologizes to Partnership
After closing the technology discussion, Superintendent Tieman publically apologized to the Partnership for Educational Excellence after reading no high school classrooms applied for the mini-grant opportunities.
Tieman explained the high school either did not receive any applications or why high school teachers did not receive the applications. The Partnership donated over $15,000 in mini-grants for the fall semester to students of Ben-Gil Elementary School and Gillespie Middle School.
District sells land to MCHA
The district #7 school board unanimously approved to sell a tract of unimproved real estate to the Macoupin County Housing Authority (MCHA) for a sale price of $80,000. The land was donated by the Schmidt family and is located adjacent to Western Avenue between Ash and Cherry Street in north Gillespie.
The MCHA plans to construct a single-family housing complex on the land. The plan to construct the complex was already established and the construction was going to take place regardless, but now the complex will have much more room between the homes after the purchase of the district’s land.
Pre-Kindergarten Program highlighted as District Focus
It is an overall awesome program and it’s a win-win for us
The administrative team highlighted the pre-kindergarten program during the October meeting. The program is comprised of teachers Mindy Savant and Colleen Favre along with assistants Nikki Zenner and Misty Parker. The program houses 60 students.
“The pre-k program is a play based program, but there are many parent activities,” elementary principal Angela Turcol explained. “We try to screen as many students as possible even if they aren’t enrolling in our pre-k program.”
Turcol explained the program has had much success thanks to the four teachers in the pre-k program. “It is an overall awesome program and it’s a win-win for us,” Superintendent Joe Tieman added.
Personnel
The school board unanimously approved Tara Allen as assistant girls’ soccer coach for the upcoming 2014-2015 school year. The board also accepted the resignation of Mark Kirk as high school cheerleading sponsor.
Administrator Updates
Gillespie High School extended their appreciation to the Mustangs Football Organization for the $1,500 donation to the Miner football team. Superintendent Tieman also reported that GHS and GMS teachers have been working on changing formal assessments following a ROE 40 workshop day help on October 10 during School Improvement Day.
Gillespie Middle School reported participation was at 52% for the student led conferences held in October. The teachers provided help with goal setting and parent strategies and student presentations of classroom work was displayed.
Ben-Gil Elementary Principal Angela Turcol also reported the conferences were well attended with the elementary school holding over 600 conferences.
October Bills
The October bills were unanimously approved:
Education Fund: $89,838.44
Transportation Fund: $7,582.65
Building Fund: $22,661.64
Grand Total: $120,082.73
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
There are plenty of ways to keep up on BenGil news:
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter
Follow us on Twitter for the fastest breaking news updates and score updates
Like us on Facebook for a slightly different take
Share this story
Comments
comments