Wamego’s USD 320 Board of Education received a good grade in several areas. At Monday’s meeting, the Board heard the results of the District’s annual audit from Agler & Gaeddert CPA’s. He said the audit found the District in compliance with no deficiencies in everything the audit examined. He again stated that school districts are required to follow the General Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) rather than GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles) due to the District operating on a cash basis. USD 320 voted at an earlier meeting to opt out of the GAAP accounting method. A motion was made to accept the audit report as presented and passed by a vote of 7 to 0.
In other business, Dr. Mary Kaye Siebert went over Assessment Report for the 2014-2015 school year. She said the assessments are all about academic achievement and is proud of the students and what they’ve accomplished, but emphasized the report cannot capture what is going on in the lives of the students. She said the assessments indicate Wamego students are academically on track. She did say KSDE (Kansas State Department of Education) will be focusing on non-academic skills being introduced in the upcoming school year.
In other business, the Board approved a new high school English course for seniors who will be going straight into the workforce, technical school or the military. This course will allow students to focus on improving their reading and writing skills with an emphasis on workplace tasks. The course was approved by a vote of 7 to 0.
The board also recognized educators. Principal Amy Flinn recognized the accomplishments of teacher Angela Dau, who was not present. According to Flinn, Dau (dow) applied for and was selected to attend the Library of Congress Summer Institute in Washington, DC for one week this summer.
The Board recognized Teacher Adam Topliff for being selected as the Kansas delegate to the National Council of Social Studies Summer Leadership Seminar in Washington, DC this summer. Topliff was the lone delegate from Kansas.
Other recognition went to the Food Service Director Laura Fails and Food Service Employee Robin Perkins for achieving the Certified Child Nutrition Manager 2 and 1 respectively. The recognition is sponsored by the Kansas State Department of Education Child Nutrition and Wellness.
In addition, the state qualifier cross-country runners were introduced by their head coach Rick Patton.
And at Monday’s meeting, the Board approved a travel request from European History and World History Instructor, Ron Cook to take students to the Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery in Kansas City in December. He said this year’s visit to the Gallery takes on special significance because of the recently revised testing requirements for the course. The students are assessed on their ability to interpret, analyze, and understand the significance of primary documents and artifacts, and Gallery provides the optimal experience for the students to be exposed to primary sources. Approval was given by a vote of 7 to 0.
The Board approved the school policy updates recommended by the Kansas Association of School Boards on the 1st reading by a vote of 7 to 0. The updates will be reviewed at the next board meeting and will become policy on the 2nd reading.
In addition, the Board voted to accept the bid from Von Lintel Refinishing and Flooring of Hays, Kansas in the amount of $13,893 to repair the gym floor of Central Elementary. The damage to the floor was caused by foundation leaks from the spring rains, and are subject to reimbursement from FEMA (75%) and the State (10%) if approved. Operations manager, Larry Hannan said there were four requests for proposal sent, but only one responded and this company did earlier work on Central. The vote to accept was 7 to 0.
