The Mauston School Board approved a revision to the 2014-2015 school calendar. Superintendent Dr. Christine Weymouth said this is due to the facts that the staff was able to discuss the changes and that the state said there was no longer a set number of days for students to be in session. Weymouth said what the administration recommended to the board was to take away the Wednesday early release periods, and moves that type of work day to a Friday once a month instead, which would be a full day for teachers. The administration sent out a survey to parents to see which day would be preferred to have a day when a child might not have school and the result was Fridays. Weymouth said that they also added 10 instructional minutes to the schedule, and this will add 30 hours to the schedule, which is beneficial to the students and gives the district flexibility with the requirements, as they have surplus hours.
It also approved the purchase of new cameras on school buses. Business Manager Julie Lankey-Smallwood said there are 19 buses and there would be two cameras on each one, one to watch the front and back part of the bus. The cost of the project would be almost $21,000, however, if the district agreed to put cameras on the buses, JEVCO would agree to a one percent increase, instead of a two and half percent increase in its new contract. That would help pay for project and it would drop the price to a little over $13,000. It would include the purchase of the cameras and the installation. Lankey-Smallwood said the money is there in this year’s budget to make this purchase. There was also a survey done that asked parents how they felt about cameras on the buses, and the results showed a majority of parents wanted cameras on the buses. The reason the district is paying for the cameras is in the off chance the district decided to changed bus carriers; it would be able to move the cameras to the other buses. In addition, it would be only ones with control over the memory cards. There have been cameras on the school buses before, and currently, there is only one working camera.
The board also discussed the ongoing facilities study. It discussed what the major maintenance items would be at Lyndon Station, Olson Middle School, and Grayside Elementary and what items could wait to bring the preliminary budget analysis total down. As it stands now, the preliminary budget, the project cost is between $8.3 million and $8.73 million. The board also discussed about maybe going to a February referendum instead of November. More discussion about the study
Other items the board took action on:
- Accepted the resignations of Karry Reicks, Jennifer LaChapelle, DeAnn Timm, Kelly Kroon, and Sandy Stevens
- Approved two staff contracts for a school nurse and a Family and Consumer Education (FACE) teacher
- Approved a policy for Use of School Facilities
The next meeting for the board will be June 23rd to continue its discussion regarding the school’s facilities study.