Gentry School Board rehires administrative staff

GENTRY -- School board members in Gentry voted unanimously on March 17 to renew the contracts of the school district's principals and federal programs coordinator.

Contracts were renewed for the 2014-2015 school year for Gayla Wilmoth, primary school principal; Denise Waters, intermediate school principal; Larry Cozens, middle school principal; Brea Harper and Terrie Metz, principal and assistant principal (respectively) at the high school; and Judy Winslet, federal programs coordinator.

The board accepted the resignations of Daren Ward from his post as head volleyball coach and Kim Edmondson as girls' track coach. The board hired Lisa Suit to take over the girls' track duties and approved Greg Johnson as volunteer head volleyball coach (with no stipend). A family medical leave was approved for Robert Savage, a bus driver.

Randy Barrett, superintendent of Gentry Schools, told the board that Johnson is a certified teacher and was taking over the volleyball coaching duties as a volunteer, with no pay permitted.

The district's personnel policy committee recommended to the board an across-the-board pay increase for teachers in the amount of $2,000. In material passed out to the board, the PPC showed Gentry to be ninth in a list of 11 area schools in starting pay for teachers, at $33,300 for a new teacher with a bachelor's degree and no years of experience.

Barrett showed the board a state comparison showing Gentry to rank 62nd from the top out of 229 schools in the state for starting teacher pay. Barrett recommended that the board wait to take action on the PPC request for another month to better know where the school district would be financially before committing to teacher raises. Barrett said he would bring a proposal regarding teacher raises at the board's April meeting. Barrett did say the district was on course this fiscal year to finish with an approximate $1.5 million surplus as required by the state board of education to avoid the possibility of being counted as in fiscal distress.

The board took no action on the PPC recommendation at its March 17 meeting.

The board unanimously passed on their second and final reading a number of policy changes, most to bring the district in compliance with law changes and district practice. Included in the policies was the 2014-2015 calendar recommended last month by the PPC.

The board opened bid packets for the purchase of two new school buses -- a 77-passenger bus and a 42-passenger special education bus. Midwest Bus Sales, Inc., was selected as the apparent low bidder with prices of $91,198 and $92,369 on the two busses (respectively). Bids were received from two other bus sales companies.

The board heard reports from the school district's architectural firm and from the construction manager on progress with the new concession stand. Weather delays have put the project behind, but it was anticipated that the new facility would be complete within the next couple of weeks. A temporary occupancy permit was anticipated by the end of the week or early this week.

Barrett briefly explained to board members a new teacher evaluation system called SOAR, in which students are matched with other students of the same test scores and their progress is charted as it relates to other students of the same scores. Teachers are evaluated based on the progress of their students from last year's test to the test at the end of the year in which students were in their classes.

Barrett said the system, which will be implemented next year, seems fair in that it evaluates teachers based on student progress from year to year rather than comparing their test scores to the scores of all students across the state. A possible weakness, Barrett said, is that the evaluations of all teachers, including physical education and music teachers, is done based on student improvements in literacy and/or math. Barrett indicated that more details on the new evaluation systems would be coming in the near future.

Judy Winslet explained to the board a new state authorized program allowing schools to apply to be "Schools of Innovation" should they come up with a plan to better teach certain subject matter. To be accepted into the program, the district would need to apply by May 1 of this year and March 1 in future years. Proposed changes would have to be approved by 60 percent of teachers. The program provides no additional state funding and does not relieve schools from requirements to teach Common Core curriculum. It could, however, make it possible for a school or district to focus on certain additional areas and become somewhat specialized.

General News on 03/26/2014