Board Of Education Elects New Leadership

The Adair County School Board will have two new members taking the helm after Chris Watts and Marsha Walker were appointed to the Chairman and Vice-Chairperson positions last week.
Watts was nominated by Walker to take over as the board chairman previously held by Mike Harris while Floyd Burton nominated Walker to fill the position of vice-chairperson previously held by Greg Wells both positions were approved by a unanimous vote by the board.
In addition to the chair positions the board also re-appointed Superintendent Darrell Treece as the board secretary.
The board then moved onto the consent agenda that included an item concerning and out-of-state training trip for Adair County School Teachers Teresa Absher and Marian Grant in which Walker asked to discuss further before approval was given.
Walker stated that she was concerned about the cost of the trip in reference to the current budget issues that the school district is facing and asked if the money could be used to bring a trainer into the district instead.
However Treece stated that the trip was to be paid for through grant money and that the training the teachers would be getting was enabling them to come back and train the district teachers as well.
Although Walker voted against the trip, it was approved by a 4-1 vote.
Treece began the superintendent’s report with an update concerning the heating problems that Col. William Casey had been facing after returning from the Christmas break stating that once the part came in the heating unit is working great but are taking additional steps to prevent problems in the future.
“We have engineers coming in to find short term fixes to keep things moving smoothly and ensure our students have adequate heat in the classrooms,” said Treece.
Treece closed his report with a letter of commendation recognizing the board members as part of the 13th School Board Member Recognition Month by presenting each member with a certificate.
Following Treece’s report the board approved an offer of assistance in the amount of $51,256 for debt services.
According to Treece the assistance is used for bond money for any project up to $600,000 to $700,000.
The board then discussed a draft budget for the 2008-2009 school year in which Treece stated that it was not a budget that had to be voted on at this time.
“With the financial status of the state the budget is just guess work by taking the current budget and rolling it over to next year until we can see what the state is going to do,” stated Treece.
Treece also stated that he met with Education Commissioner Jon Dared and was informed that district funds would not be cut any further but the state was looking at other areas in which to cut costs.
Anita Wethington, Adair County Schools' Special Education Director, addressed the board about the current number of special education students currently enrolled in the district stating that a little under 12 percent of Adair County students are in special education categories.
Wethington stated that the State considers 12 percent a high percentage but added that the figure is affected by the number of special education students enrolled at the Adair County Youth Development Center.
Wethington also said, “Of the 63 Adair County Youth Development Center students enrolled in the district 44 of them fall into the special needs category.”
However, Wethington also informed the board that the number of special needs children dropped 16 students from December 2006 who were moved back into regular classes.
Jean Crowley of the Voluntary Participation Assistance Team (VPAT) addressed the board by commending the staff, administration, teachers and students for achievements the district has made and recommended continuing the emphasis on the Core Content, by maintaining focus on student achievement, maintaining communication with teachers, students, and the community and continuing to recognize student achievements at board meetings.
Adair County School District Instructional Supervisor Phyllis Curry closed the meeting with a report on the school's testing, which include two new tests called the Explore test and the Plan test that will account for 5% of the District's test evaluation.
The Explore test is predictor of how students will perform on the ACT and will be given to the students in the fall of their eighth grade year and will evaluate their skills in English, math, reading, and science.
According to Curry the Plan test is similar to the Explore test and will be used to see how the students will perform on the ACT  but will be given in the fall of the their 10th grade year.
Curry closed saying that Adair County students are currently 1.3 to 1.8 percent below the national ACT average of 17.5.