Kalli Erwin updates the school board on the mentoring program aimed at freshman students.

With little public discussion, members of the Community Unit School District 7 Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to post vacancies for two new social worker positions to be hired for the 2018-19 school year. The action, along with other personnel decisions, followed an unusually long 90-minute executive session.

After the meeting, Supt. Joe Tieman told the BenGil Post that the board created the two new positions in response to recommendations from all three building principals. A single social worker position was eliminated about four years ago, he said, as a cost-cutting measure. Last month, Gillespie Middle School/High School Counselor Kalli Erwin told the board that although she was trained to in college and solution-based counseling, she was spending more and more of her time dealing with social and emotional issues affecting students’ academic performance. Responding to a question from Tieman, Erwin told the board her job would be “significantly” improved if the district hired a trained social worker.

Tieman told the BenGil Post Monday night that social and emotional counseling duties have fallen in recent years to building principals and the counselors office. Some students requiring social worker services were referred to Kevin McNicholas, a social worker employed by the state-funded Screening Assessment and Support Services (SASS) agency, who also provides services to students in three other area school districts.

In other personnel action, the board:

• Posted a vacant position for a high school science teacher for the coming school year.
• Posted a vacant position for a high school custodian for the coming school year.
• Accepted the resignation of Kenna West as Gillespie High School cheerleading coach and posted the position as vacant for the 2018-19 school year.
• Voted with one dissension to appoint Casey Fellin as a volunteer high school girls soccer coach for next year pending certification and completion of a background check. Board members Mark Hayes, Don Dobrino, Weye Schmidt and Bill Carter voted in favor of the appointment. Dennis Tiburzi voted “no.” Peyton Bernot and Jenni Alepra were absent.
• Voted to appoint Kelcie Reinhardt as a volunteer middle school girls softball coach for the coming year, pending certification and a background check.
• Voted to appoint Jim Matesa as a volunteer assistant middle school girls softball coach, pending certification and a background check.
• Voted to hire John Weimers as a substitute bus driver, pending certification and completion of a background check.

A measure to hire an assistant high school volleyball coach was tabled, as was an agenda item to approve principal contracts and salaries for the 2018-19 school year. Supt. Tieman said the contracts and salaries issue for building principals was tabled only because two board members were absent. “We had two board members who weren’t here, so it wasn’t even considered (in executive session),” Tieman said.

Also during the board’s regular February meeting, board members approved an agreement with Graphic Edge, Jacksonville, to participate in an agreement to purchase Under Armour athletic gear in exchange for “promotional dollars” that will allow the district to offer athletic uniforms at a discount and/or expand the district’s uniform program to programs such as the school band or academic team. The board also voted to advertise for bids to resurface the all-weather track at the high school athletic complex, accepted a bid to supply fuel for the year and discussed the possible purchase of two new school buses to be voted on at the board’s March meeting.

MENTORING PROGRAM

Board member Schmidt and Supt. Tieman urged High School/Middle School Counselor Erwin and high school teacher Ashlee Gibbs to continue with a fledgling mentoring program aimed at freshman students even though preliminary statistics indicate the program may not be achieving its goals.

“I think you need to do it for more than one year to see if it does make a difference,” Schmidt said after hearing a report from Erwin. “I think you need to stick it out and not throw something away on the basis of one class.”

“What I would say is: ‘What would these numbers be without mentoring’?” Tieman said, suggesting that one semester may not be enough time to make a judgment about the program’s effectiveness. “Some of these kids maybe don’t have much support at home and for at least that 30 minutes every week, someone is paying attention to them. Someone paying attention may not translate into better grades or attendance, but I would say it has an impact on their life.”

Erwin told the board she and Gibbs began talking last year about the “need for some kind of support system for high school freshmen.” Eventually they took the idea to Middle School Principal Jill Rosentreter who green-lighted a pilot mentoring program for this year.

“Ashlee (Gibbs) had a number of students she thought would make good mentors,” Erwin said. Those 25 students, mostly sophomores and a few juniors, were paired with 25 incoming freshmen, many of whom had been identified as having problems with grades, attendance, discipline or other issues. Not all of the “mentees” are problem students, Erwin pointed out. Some were enrolled “as more of a safety net to ensure they continue to find success in school.”

Mentees meet with mentors for 30 minutes once a week just before the end of the school day on Friday. During the meetings, mentors work with mentees on such things as developing good study habits to successfully transition from middle school to high school.

“It’s a pretty diverse group of students,” Erwin said. “When you’re running something like this, you want to make sure you have a variety of types of students—grade-wise, discipline-wise, male and female.”

After a semester of the program, Erwin said the program has not been statistically as successful as she and Gibbs had hoped. The objectives of the program include boosting attendance, reducing the number of failing grades and reducing the number of freshmen students held back to repeat their freshmen year. Compared with last year’s freshman class, the number of excused and unexcused absences for the first semester actually increased from 216 to 223. Among the mentees, the number of F’s on student transcripts fell from 44 last year to 28 this year, but the number of students failing one or more class increased from eight last year to 14 this year. For the entire freshman class, including mentees, the number of failing grades increased from 32 to 40 at the end of the first semester last year, and the number of students with failing grades increased from 18 to 22.

“What I’m finding is that we’re not increasing attendance, we’re not decreasing F’s.” Erwin said, “It’s not what we were expecting.”

[pullquote]While the program’s overall numbers have been disappointing so far, Erwin said there have been some successes individually. [/pullquote]

While the program’s overall numbers have been disappointing so far, Erwin said there have been some successes individually. One student who had 48 absences last year has reduced his number to 8.5 for the first semester this year. Another student with 18 absences for the year last year has had only four absences this year.

“While our overall numbers aren’t showing growth, there are individual students who are stepping up their game regarding attendance,” she said.

She said she and Rosentreter have been working with the county’s truant officer, but while the officer is doing what he can there is little he can do to enforce attendance laws if parents refuse to comply.

The problem of chronic absenteeism on the part of some mentees poses another problem for the program. Students chosen to serve as mentors typically are highly motivated, successful students to whom school attendance and good grades are unimportant.

“Is it fair to our mentors to have a mentee that doesn’t show up?” she asked. “We decided to do it anyway to see if it made a difference and obviously, it isn’t.”

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In an effort to improve the program and its results, Erwin said she and Gibbs surveyed both mentors and mentees at the end of the first semester. An overwhelming majority said the mentoring program was serving its purpose “of supporting freshmen in finding success in school.” The students being mentored, however, also told Erwin and Gibbs they would like to see the program include more of a tutoring component to help them improve grades.

“They actually wanted to use their time with mentors for tutoring,” Erwin said. “I did not realize that before they told us. That’s why we are trying to include more tutoring—not just tutoring but some.”

Erwin and Gibbs also agreed that “the last 30 minutes on Friday before the weekend probably isn’t the best time” for the mentoring program. Next year, they hope to fit the program into a different time slot. They also plan to improve the program by adding guest speakers to talk to students about career options, enabling counselors and teachers to then work with students on selecting classes to help them prepare for their preferred career.

Students chosen to participate as mentors are highly motivated, successful students who sometimes become frustrated with students who are not as motivated as themselves or exhibit behavior problems such as low attendance.

“We see mentors getting a little frustrated because they are intrinsically motivated and it’s hard for them to wrap their heads around kids that just don’t care,” Erwin said. While the program administrators do what they can to mitigate against “mentor burnout,” Erwin said the mentors take the program “super-serious” and that she sees “some really beautiful relationships forming” between mentors and mentees.

UNDER ARMOUR AGREEMENT

On the recommendation of High School Principal Shane Owsley, the board approved an “all-school” agreement with Under Armour Sportswear via The Graphic Edge, Jacksonville, to purchase Under Armour athletic uniforms and gear at a discount and in exchange for “promotional dollars” that the school can use to purchase additional gear. Owsley said he has been involved in similar agreements at other schools and recommended the program as a way to realize cost savings on athletic uniforms.

Two other vendors submitted program proposals—First to the Finish and BSN Sports Rewards Program.

Under terms of the five-year agreement, all varsity teams would be in Under Armour uniforms by the end of the third year. Under Armour apparel for athletic teams will be offered at up to a 40 percent discount. In exchange for entering into the agreement, The Graphic Edge will provide $20,000 in promotional credits per year in four installments, which can be used by the school district to purchase additional Under Armour apparel.

Owsley said the promotional credits could enable the school to buy uniforms for activities such as the academic team, which normally does not have a team uniform.

“We’re trying to essentially ‘brand’ our school” by providing uniforms that are consistent across all sports and activities. “That’s hard to do, particularly in areas with high poverty rates. These kinds of programs ensure that the student in scholar bowl will be treated the same as the star athlete.”

Responding to a question from a board member, Owsley said putting athletes participating in parent-sponsored sports “might be a good place to spend some of those promotional dollars.”

The agreement applies to uniform components that can be seen—shirts, pants or trunks and socks. Undergarments and shoes can be provided by a manufacturer other than Under Armour. Moreover, while The Graphic Edge prefers the school to buy Under Armour garments from them, the agreement is not exclusive. The school could buy some items from other vendors but would not get the discounted pricing the agreement offers.

Supt. Tieman said the school’s running sports athletic programs have enjoyed a long association with First to the Finish, owned by Gillespie High School graduate Mike Viano. “We made it clear to The Graphic Edge that we would not sign a contract if we could not honor our commitments with First to the Finish,” Tieman said.

The board voted unanimously to enter into the agreement with The Graphic Edge on a motion by Carter, seconded by Schmidt.

ALL-WEATHER TRACK SPECIFICATIONS

On a motion by Carter, seconded by Tiburzi, the board voted unanimously to seek bids for resurfacing the district’s all-weather track.

Tieman said the track is due for resurfacing, and the estimated cost is expected to run from $55,000 to $65,000. The All-Weather Track Committee is committed to paying for half the cost up to a maximum of $35,000, he said.

Delaying the project, Tieman said, could result in the board spending more money later to bring the track up to standards.

“I’d rather be pro-active,” he said. “It can be more expensive if you put it off, especially in lanes one and two.”

MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOM DOORS

Tieman reported to the board that as a result of an “active shooter” drill held two days after the deadly school shooting in Florida, it was discovered that classroom doors in the Gillespie Middle School may not be adequate from a security standpoint.

“We need to look at the middle school classroom doors,” he said, adding that he plans to solicit pricing for replacing the doors to present at a board meeting in March or April. “I want to replace those doors in the summer if at all possible,” he said.

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BUS PURCHASES

Tieman told the board he plans to bring proposals to the board next month for purchasing a bus equipped with wheelchair access and one or two regular route buses.

“This is something the we need to do every five years to maintain the fleet,” he said. The last buses purchased five years ago were financed with a five-year loan that has been retired. “I hope to come forward in March with a recommendation to buy a wheelchair bus and at least one regular route bus.”

FUEL BIDS

The board accepted a bid from M & M Service Co., Carlinville, to furnish gasoline and bio-diesel fuel to meet the district’s needs through June 30, 2019. Submitted in response to a bid request from a consortium of area schools, including Gillespie, Bunker Hill, Staunton and Mount Olive, M & M agreed to supply gasoline for 34.1 cents in excess of the bulk rate per gallon, and 35.6 cents in excess of the bulk rate per gallon for bio-diesel.

MIDDLE SCHOOL SCIENCE LAB

Supt. Tieman reported to the board that High School Principal Rosentreter and science teachers have met several times regarding recommendations for furniture and equipment for a proposed new Middle School science lab classroom space. Those recommendations have been given to architect Tom Hyde to begin working on design and specifications prior to advertising for construction bids.

BENGIL GYM FLOOR

Tieman also reported that repairs to the water-damaged floor at the Ben-Gil Elementary School have been completed.

“It’s a beautiful new floor,” he said, “but when the floor moves a little bit there is some glue that shows up between the boards.” He said he is asking the company to come back and repair the problem. In the meantime, he is withholding a percentage of the contract.

He said he has no doubts about the company correcting the issue.

“They’ve been a good company to work with,” he said.

SENIORITY LIST

The board approved a seniority list for certificated and non-certificated personnel. Board President Hayes said action on the lists was tabled from last month’s meeting to give affected staff members time to review the document

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