News
»School attendance improves
Posted Local at Oct 21, 2010
By Tim Huether
The attendance at Martin Grade School is looking great at this point in the year, sitting at 95.44 percent to date, according to grade school principal Stacy Halverson. The Grade School needs to be at or above 94 percent to meet the state standards.
Halverson also reported grade level meetings will continue on a monthly basis to discuss data and interventions for student achievement. Teachers are working on the development of quarterly pre/post tests in the areas of reading, math, LA, science and social studies.
Character Counts week is Oct. 18-21 and the Student Council presented a skit to students and staff. Red Ribbon Week is October 23-31.
The Little Warriors girls basketball program is underway.
Halverson said in the area of discipline, there were 14 referrals to the office with one suspension and four placed in the ALP.
The first quarter ends Oct. 21 and there is an in-service on the 22nd.
Halverson met with Eileen Janis to discuss Suicide Prevention as a follow up to a previous board meeting.
Belinda Ready went over the school lunch program and explained what is served and why. Ready said the fresh fruit program will run out of money but asked the board if they wanted to continue with something like fruit and other nutritious snacks. She recommended they continue with a snack because the younger kids are eating lunch at 11 a.m. and get out of school at 4 p.m., and said it is a long time to go with no food for the students, especially the younger ones.
The board agreed with Ready and said to continue providing afternoon snacks.
Ready said the lunch salads have been popular and told the board they may be surprised at how many kids like salads for lunch.
Superintendent Wayne Semmler reported on the technology issues with the school, citing a concern over state funding for it.
High School principal Bob Graham told the board they attended a retention workshop and suggested they need an attendance program, not an attendance policy. He said they are doing all they can do by calling parents and said they may need to consider going the truancy route. He said if the kids who are missing school, continue to miss, they are going to fail.
Graham discussed bullying, pointing out there is a bullying policy in the handbook. He said they have had just a couple of cases, but because it was caught on the video cameras, it has been dealt with and it is not happening any longer. He pointed out there still may be comments made in the hall that you can not catch on the camera, but for the most part, it’s not an issue.
Semmler added that the cameras are a big help on issues like that.
Graham said discipline issues at the high school are basically disrespect and not physical issues.
Ready informed the board they are working diligently on school improvement plans and have an Oct. 25 meeting scheduled with core teachers on reading.
She said they are working on a new school web site and are talking with a company that has put together a site for other schools.
Dondee Krolikowski updated the board on the committee looking at improvements to the American Legion Auditorium. The locker rooms were discussed with Krolikowski suggesting they not add additional rooms if the number of basketball doubleheaders does not increase by much. The committee recommended waiting another year on replacing the floor because of the Martin Centennial plans for this coming summer. She said that will give them more time to work on possible sponsors for the floor going around the edge of the floor.
They are also getting a quote for re-doing the wood bleachers on the west end and they discussed better parking for senior citizens. They are also looking at a new stage curtain and moving the stage back six feet for safety of the players. Krolikowski said they could move back the stage and still fit the storage items under the stage.
The next school board meeting will be November 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the Bennett County School District Business Office.