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School lunch cost to rise 25 cents next year
Board also looks at class ranking system, policies

The Grand Canyon School Board voted last week to raise the school lunch cost by 25 cents for the 2007-2008 school year.

School Business Manager Lee Metheny said that the school has charged $2 for lunch for at least the past 10 years and is subsidizing the program at a cost of about $14,000 a year.

"Unless we want to continue subsidizing from the general fund, maybe we should increase it," Metheny said. "Most districts around the state are definitely about $2 now for lunch, especially in the high schools."

"I think 75 cents is way too big a jump but it seems to me we should add a quarter on this year and see what impact that may have on reducing the subsidy," said Board member Chuck Wahler.

The increase is expected to add about $9,300 in revenue.

Class ranking

School Superintendent Sheila Breen presented a draft regulation outlining requirements for selecting valedictorians and salutatorians, saying that while the school followed a procedure, there was no written policy on the books.

"What we're trying to accomplish is getting a regulation into place that lets people know what will be taken into account when selecting valedictorian or salutatorian," she said.

The draft reflects some long-established practices already in place, such as taking into account the difficulty of a student's course work when determining class standing. It clarifies a policy in place for over a decade requiring a student be here at least four semesters to qualify and it adds a disqualification for students who have had long-term suspensions or expulsions in their high school career.

"One of the concerns we had too was having students go all the way through Grand Canyon High School and then get bumped out the last semester of their senior year by somebody who just moved in," Breen said.

Dean of Students Becky Crumbo said that this had happened in the past and in fact drove the rewriting of the policy.

"That's why the plan was rewritten in 1996," she said. "It did entail a person that moved in who was going to bump two longtime residents and did in fact bump two longtime residents."

GPA is figured on high school grades through the second-to-last semester of the senior year. After some discussion the board agreed with Crumbo that it should be extended to May 1 to allow time for transcripts from distance learning courses to be included.

Responding to a question from Board member Bess Foster, Crumbo said that the district currently has one honors class, actually an add-on to an English class requiring extra work. Next year, she said, 11th and 12th graders may participate in an AP English literature class through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under a pilot program aimed at rural schools.

"If we get between four and seven students, we will be a part of that next year," she said.

Wahler said that the full policy should not be enacted until next year.

"My feeling is that if we're going to do something to change what's been our practice and what you've been telling folks, then this takes effect for a year from now and we sort of live with what we're doing," he said.

Fee schedule

The Board adopted the extracurricular fee schedule for 2007-2008.

"There's no change from the current fee schedule but we have to present it to you

for adoption each year," said Breen.

The schedule sets a $1 fee for K-eight activities like extracurricular band, art, Odyssey of the Mind and high school activities like Yearbook, and off-season sports clubs. Other fees: $20 for annual high school instrument rental, $10 for high school art, $25 for Camp Colton, $75 for annual sports participation and $20 for a high school student parking permit.

Board member Suzette Streit asked if the school was still assessing the high school parking fee.

Breen said that they hadn't and don't anticipate needing it in the short term.

"We did it for a little while and decided it's not worth it," she said. "But we want to leave it in there in case we want to use it ­ which we may if we get another class of 35 or 36 kids. But right now there's no issue with parking. We don't have the parking lot wars that we had two years ago."

Streit also asked about the distinction between art or band as an extracurricular vs regular class activities and how the fees applied.

"Because they're not required classes," Breen explained. "The other reason why we do that, we make it $1, is because if we have an extracurricular fee set, we can collect outside revenue from the tax credit."

Streit also asked about the $25 Camp Colton fee, saying she had never paid it for her kids. Breen said that amount is often covered in the fund-raising and what isn't is usually covered by the school.

"It's always been there but the commitment from the Board has been that any money that isn't raised to send the kids to Camp Colton will be made up in the general budget to guarantee that the kids will go," she said.

Board member Emmons Berry asked if the sports fee went directly back to sports and if fees covered costs. Breen said yes to the first and no to the second. He asked about the possibility of a fee per sport rather than a flat fee for the year, saying it could raise more money while giving a break to those playing only one sport. Breen said the flat fee was developed to keep the cost low for everyone.

Streit asked if scholarships were available for students who may want to play but couldn't afford it.

"Always," said Breen.

Audit

Metheny reported on the results from the audit carried out in December.

"They didn't uncover or turn over any acts of non-compliance," he said. "It's as clean an audit report as we'll ever have."

Board President Clarinda Vail noted there was an error in the report. Though the totals were correct, some of the figures from 2006-2007 had not been changed from the previous year.

"It looks like in '06, they basically plugged in the '05 number and never changed the formula," Metheny said.

"We may want to let (the auditors) know about it," Breen said.

IB

In his report, Principal Bob Kelso provided an optimistic follow up report to last month's authorization visit from the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme team.

"They did present some recommendations. But I think the great news about that was that they listed no areas to be addressed," he said. "With the PYP we did get authorized but I believe there were four areas to be addressed that we received. So I'm looking at that as a very good sign for MYP authorization."

The team had commendations for those involved at every level, from teachers for their hard work implementing the program to the governing board for financial support. Commendations also went to Crumbo for her vision and work as MYP coordinator, the superintendent and administration for selecting an excellent staff and the school as a whole for changing the climate.

Recommendations included focusing staff development on assessment and raising academic rigor in math and content literacy.

They also recommended that Crumbo receive clerical support.

Vail asked if that was possible given budget constraints.

"I think we probably have to take a look at how we can do that with current staff," Kelso said. "They're saying that Becky needs some access to somebody to help her with clerical tasks, and I agree, but I don't think we're in a position to look at bringing additional people on board. That's my view."

The team also recommended that teachers have more time to write IB lesson plans and to produce only four a year, "that quality rather than quantity be the focus," Kelso said.

Streit noted that Kelso's report included an apology to teachers who had written more than the required four.

"They were definitely pushing and we acknowledged that," Kelso said. "And it will be a little smoother sailing for next year."

"Do the teachers know the pace is going to be slower?" Streit asked. "Some of the new ones and some of the established ones have said that if it continues like this, they won't be here. I hope you know that."

"I've had those conversations too," Kelso said.

Later, the Board also approved out-of-state travel for teachers to attend Level II IB training in Austin, Texas, in July. Foster dissented.

Credit cards

Breen presented a draft regulation regarding credit card use, saying it would bring written policy in line with the way the district already operates, with only four card holders who do the actual charging on behalf of teachers and staff. The policy would not apply to store cards.

"For instance if Andrew does a lot with Sam's Club, we might get him a Sam's Club card," she said.

It also doesn't apply to gasoline cards, which the district signs out to teachers taking the school van on official business.

Streit asked if the cards could be used by groups like the Booster Club to book rooms.

"We would like to get this so we can use it for Hands Across the Border and some of those things where we need to have a credit card, but we don't have that set up yet," Breen said. "If we can get something worked out with the bank, they have to have the district credit card that matches their ID and that's where we run into problems. We'll keep working on that until we get something figured out."

Finances

Metheny said that he would have the 2007-2008 budget to the Board for approval at their May meeting, in time to get it to the state by the May 15 deadline.

The Board also approved payment of payroll vouchers for $90,596.59 and $104,308.91 and other spending vouchers for $68,262.43 and $27,592.35.

Training

The Board approved a contract with Learning Keys to provide required English immersion training on site for teachers. Breen said teachers must have 60 hours of such training by 2009 and had completed 15 hours last year. Using a Department of Education reimbursement of $275 per teacher for the next 45 hours, she said they could offset the cost of an on-site trainer for 20 teachers who have committed to attend.

"Basically we're getting all of our staff trained for about $3,000," she said.

Of those who haven't signed up, some already have the training and others want to complete it on-line, she said.

Discovery

Focus referrals continue to be at a third less than for the same time last year. As of April 3, there were 266 focus referrals, down from 404 the year before.

OM recognition

Kelso congratulated the Odyssey of the Mind teams for their showing at regional and state competition. The Division I team took first in regionals while the Division II team placed second in regionals and fourth at state.

"They did extraordinarily well once again, especially considering the fact that we are one-third, or one-fourth or even smaller than every other school that competes," he said. "Our basketball team is a Division I team and they compete against similarly-sized schools. OM has no such consideration."

He added that even as the smallest school, Grand Canyon has high participation from parents and staff.

Sex education training

Breen reported that training for the state Department of Education high school sex education curriculum had to be canceled on Friday, April 6, because the trainer had a medical emergency.

"What we're trying to do now is reschedule for when we can get a group of people to look at both the middle school and the high school curricula and target a program for sixth graders and ninth graders," she said. "Once we get some feedback from people after the training, then we'll know if we want to bring that to you for adoption."

Emergency exercise

Breen said that park emergency response officials plan a table top exercise playing out a pandemic flu scenario on Monday, May 15. She said she would be involved and invited School Board members to take part.

Calendar committee

Breen asked board members Foster and Streit to join a committee to look at how the school structures learning time on its calendar and report back with findings and recommendations. Once a committee is assembled, Breen said she hopes to meet at least once, hopefully twice, before summer break.

"We will be sending out letters this week inviting people to participate," she said.

The school calendar for 2007-2008 has already been approved. Any changes from this committee would take place in 2008 or later.

Grade 8 graduation

Breen reported that the state legislature is considering doing away with eighth-grade graduation because it gives students a false sense of completion.

"The discussion is centering around not allowing certificates to be given for eighth-grade graduation as a way to keep these kids from thinking, 'I graduated once. I'm done,'" Breen said. "But we can still have promotion certificates and promotion ceremonies."


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