Wamego’s USD 320 Board of Education welcomed three new board members recently. At Monday’s board meeting, Vice President Rob Adams opened the meeting with a welcome to the new Board members, Ryan Hargitt, Bruce Coleman and Nicolette Zeigler. Then it was down to business, electing the new Board President and Vice President. Rob Adams was elected as the new Board President and Joe Steele (absent at this meeting) was elected to the position of Vice President.
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Wamego’s USD 320 Board of Education is preparing for the 2015-16 school year. At Monday’s board meeting , preparations began by adopting a 1116-hour school term. State law provides that the board of education may adopt either a 1116-hour school term OR a 186, six-hour day term. The hourly or daily schedule that the State requires is minimal, and the Board has the prerogative of adopting a school program longer in hours or days. The advantage of the hourly plan is the flexibility it permits in the event of school closings for weather or other emergency conditions.
On the hourly plan, the time each day in excess of six hours become a bank of hours that the district can draw upon to make up for lost instruction time. In either case, the district is to designate an hourly or daily plan and inform the Kansas Department of Education of the plan by September 16th.
In other business, the Board adopted the resolution to establish Home Rule by the Board of Education. According to the resolution, Kansas law authorizes the Board to transact all school district business, and the powers granted by the law does not create any responsibility on the part of the district to assume the duties or responsibilities required by another unit of government. Both resolutions were approved by a vote of 6 to 0.
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Wamego’s USD 320 Board of Education continued to prepare for the 2015-16 school year, on at a board meeting on Monday.. The Board is required by statute to adopt certain resolutions annually. One is a resolution specifying the dates and times for the Board meetings for the upcoming school year. Superintendent Denise O’Dea said there were three exceptions to the schedule; July 27th – a budget public meeting is necessary because of the required filing date, the Board Retreat in August, and the March 2016 regular meeting will be on the third Monday due to Spring Break beginning on the 2nd Monday.
The resolution seeking a waiver of requirements by law applying GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) to the USD 320 financial reports and audits was approved. The Legislature established school districts could seek a waiver from the GAAP requirements applied to other municipalities because school district’s operate on a cash basis that was specifically established for school districts.
In other business, the Board adopted a resolution for the annual destruction of old records. The District is required to keep all records for 5 years, so the oldest one-year’s records will be destroyed. The resolution to rescind and adopt all previous policy and rule statements in the USD 320 Policy Manual was adopted. Also, Board member Amy Schwein was appointed the 2015-16 voting delegate to the Kansas Association of School Board annual convention.
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Wamego’s USD 320 Board of Education got an overview of the District’s Food Service. At Monday’s meeting, Food Service Director Laura Fails, who’s served as Food Service Director for 7 of her 10 years with the District, highlighted that USD 320’s Food Service is self-funded, with a self-supporting budget, which is now 1 million dollars. Fails said everything related to Food Services comes from the Food Service Budget, such as equipment, repairs, food and wages.
Fails said Food Service is governed by the USDA and monitored by the KSDE (Kansas Department of Education), CNW department (Child, Nutrition & Wellness). She added that Wamego’s free/reduced meal percentage is about 27 percent, while the State average is 55 percent.
The Board approved the updated Food Service Policy – First Reading. With the updated policy approval, adult meal prices will increase by 5 cents to $3.45 for the 2015-16 school year. Other changes in the policy will be announced at the next board meeting.
In other business, the Board had a lengthy discussion on the Middle School’s requirement for physical education (PE) uniforms. Several parents complained and received a waiver from Middle School Principal Vici Jennings. Superintendent Denise O’Dea said she didn’t know if the requirement or using the same vendor was the issue. A motion was made to continue with the current practice of requiring PE uniforms, and use the same vendor for the upcoming school year, but bid out PE uniforms for both the MS and HS for the 2016-17 school year.
