The Perry County District No. 32 Board of Education was looking into the future at its latest meeting on Dec. 13. The board approved the 2024-2025 school calendar. According to Board President Nancy Voelker, it was “one of the best calendars in recent years.”
The calendar allows the students to still go the same number of days, but more importantly to District Superintendent Dr. Fara Jones, the hours and minutes far exceed the minimum requirements set forth by the state.
The Department of Secondary Education requires 1,044 hours, while Perry County School District has 1,126.3 hours. This allows 10 snow days for the district that they would not have to make up and the students would still be able to get adequate learning time. Last year, the district had seven snow days.
“This exceeds the minimum requirements, and if we have a bad winter we would still be fine,” Jones said.
Jones said that the extra hours and minutes will also provide a buffer that the students would not have to have AMI days (online learning) when out of school for bad weather. AMI days would still be used on non weather related postponements. AMI has been used since 2021 during inclement weather.
“We talked extensively with parents and teachers and got feedback and it was determined that it was creating hardship on our parents when it came to online learning,” Jones said. “Some were having to take off work to help their younger students and we don’t want that. Everyone agreed that nothing is better than having the kids here at school and learning in person.”
Jones is very confident in the calendar. Perryville High School Math Teacher John Cross said that parents and guardians should be able make appointments months into the future that should not be affected by possible make-up days.
“Everything should be locked in and there should be no changes,” Jones said. “Staff is excited about the number of collaboration days as well. We will all start on the same day and end on the same day.”
Jones did mention that if the area does not have any snow days, the district will not be let out early.
“That instruction time is important, and every minute counts and we need it,” Jones said. “If we have only two snow days I’m not going to budge and give up on that instruction.”
In other news, the district sent out a second climate and culture survey. The purpose of the survey is to understand students, families, and staff perspectives. The district leadership teams consult the overview data to better serve the students and other stakeholders. Survey data also guides the district’s Comprehensive School Improvement Plan process, which informs everything happening at District 32. The goal is continuous improvement in all areas of school operations, including the overall experience of being a student, parent/guardian, or staff member at District 32. The survey was open until Dec. 18 and will be used as comparable data with the survey that was completed last April.
There will also be meetings in January about CSIP revisions.
“We have taken some stuff out and added some new programs, so we need to discuss some changes to the CSIP,” Voelker said. “This is the first time we have had to revise it.”
The board approved St. John’s, LLC to help test the campus water as part of the Get the Lead Out of School Drinking Water Act.
On or before January 1, 2024, each school shall complete requirements outlined in the act including: conducting an inventory of all drinking water outlets and outlets used for dispensing water for cooking or cleaning utensils in each school building, develop a plan for testing each outlet and make such plan available to the public and providing general information on the health effects of lead contamination to employees and parents of children at each school.
Before August 1, 2024, or the first day on which students will be present in the building, whichever is later, schools shall conduct testing for lead as stated in the act. Within 2 weeks after receiving test results, schools shall make all testing results and any remediation plans available on the school’s website.
The board approved St. John Environmental Consulting, LLC to complete all necessary water
sampling and testing as outlined in their proposed bid.
In her report,
Dr. Jones presented the district’s financial report and the attendance report. She announced Dan Querry, wrote a safety grant that was approved. The focus of the grant is “access entry.” The high school lobby entry access is one of the projects being considered along with alerts being sent when any exterior door is propped open. The newsletter and event calendar was shared with the board. The middle school ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 3 at 4 p.m. Blake Bodendieck, a senior high student, was introduced to the board. Bodendieck will serve as a student representative on the school board and be inducted at the next meeting.
