The district 7 school board was pleasantly surprised Monday evening, July 27, when John Fassero, Jr., president of The Partnership for Educational Excellence, informed them of The Partnership’s commitment to purchase seven Promethean boards for classrooms in the middle and high school.

Fassero explained the purchase was made possible after The Partnership matched a generous grant from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing St. Louis. “The members of ECF have been our partners for half the life of our education foundation,” he said. “The employees of Boeing have supported our classroom mini-grant program to help put academic resources into the hands of district 7 students.”

The Promethean boards are large, wall-mounted interactive computer screens that allow entire classrooms simultaneous access to myriad web-based teaching resources. Every classroom in the new Ben-Gil Elementary school is equipped with the Promethean boards and now every core classroom in the middle and high school will have one as well.

Superintendent Joe Tieman was beyond ecstatic Monday evening as he expressed how humbled and overwhelmed he was of The Partnership’s contribution. “Over and over again, we thank you,” Tieman said. “We greatly appreciate the funds being brought into our school district.”

Tieman continued by saying that he would have told anyone they are crazy if they told him that the district is on the brink of having a Promethean board in every classroom throughout three school buildings. “It’s amazing,” he added. “And I’m grateful that our technology department can install these in-house to save that expense.”

Fassero explained that funds from the ECF were previously devoted to classroom mini-grants, but the ECF has chosen to match The Partnership dollar for dollar the last two years in the latest technology project – equipping classrooms with Promethean boards.

“We know elementary classrooms have Promethean boards in every classroom and we believe students in this district should have the same learning style as they advance,” Fassero closed. “That’s why we are committed to equipping every appropriate classroom with a Promethean board in the middle and high school so the students have the same tools they were taught with in elementary.”

Athletic Field Improvements

Superintendent Tieman updated the board on the progress of the many improvements the district is currently working on. Despite heavy rainfall totals since the district’s last board meeting in June, Tieman said the projects are still progressing – just not at his desired pace.

Tieman explained the underground irrigation system for the football field is completely installed, but will not be operational until a pump house is complete. He said the pump house is a block building with a concrete pad and he hopes that can be completed in the upcoming weeks with weather cooperating.

No work on the softball or baseball field has been completed except lime and sand installed on the baseball field, but he said he hopes most of the softball field work can be completed before the weather gets cold. Tieman said he has continued to speak with tiling experts about the baseball field, but a decision hasn’t been made and he will continue updating the board on the progress.

He went on to inform the board that the high school basketball gym was outfitted with four new glass sideline backboards to replace the former old, white backboards. Tieman said the purchase was completely covered by the youth basketball program conducted by Kevin and Elaine Gray. “I know many people have put in countless hours with the youth basketball program and I thank everyone of them,” he added. “Kevin has been doing it for more than 10 years and we have four beautiful backboards because of it.”

Tieman closed by saying the padding on the new backboards is much brighter than the padding on the game backboards, so he is checking into how much replacement padding will be so the padding will match on all six of the backboards in the high school gymnasium.

Personnel, FOIA & Sales Tax

The school board unanimously approved to hire Kyle Kozer as seventh grade volleyball coach and Mark Goldasich as volunteer football coach.

Superintendent Tieman informed the board that the district had one Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request since last month’s meeting and it was requested by Scholz, Loos, Palmer, Siebers & Duesterhaus LLP. He explained the law firm who represents Kohl Wholesale, a foodservice distributor, requested records pertaining to the district’s food and non-food products bid.

Tieman said the district will honor the FOIA request and will respond in a timely manner.

He continued by saying he is going to talk to other Macoupin County superintendents to see if other school boards around the county are interested in pushing the county facilities sales tax initiative for the March 2016 ballot. Tieman reminded the board that if that initiative passes, district 7 is expected to receive $385,000 annually.

Other Business

In other business, the school board unanimously approved the following:

• 2015-2016 student handbooks
• Milk bid by Prairie Farms and bread bid by Flowers Baking Company for the 2015-2016 school year
• Closing the executive session minutes from March 2014 through February 2015
• District wellness plan
• Purchasing a treasurer’s bond from Commercial Lines Insurance with a $4,494 premium, which the district is required by law to purchase

Administrator Updates

Lori Emmons, the high school principal, explained that Jill Rosentreter, the middle school principal, and herself met with the district coaches on July 20 to review the coach’s handbook and to answer any questions they had. She continued by saying the high school is ready to go and announced that registration will take place August 3 through 6.

Rosentreter said that improvements have been made to the middle school master schedule and student schedules are currently being created. She added that preparations for student orientation and open house are underway, which is scheduled for August 12 beginning at 6 p.m.

Elementary principal Angela Turcol informed the board that the Wonders reading series has arrived and teachers have begun reviewing and working on the curriculum for the upcoming school year. She said a training day is set for August 14. The elementary school’s stop and drop/open house is scheduled for August 12 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

July Bills

The school unanimously approved payment of the July bills:

Transportation Fund: $8,507.71
Education Fund: $65,020.32
Building Fund: $38,729.07

Grand Total: $112,257.10

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