USD 333 to honor Class of 2020

Concordia Unified School District 333 will honor its high school seniors with a “Be the Light” campaign beginning Friday night.
Superintendent of Schools Quentin Breese announced the campaign during the board of education meeting Monday night, that was conducted via Google Meet.
With school shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the class of 2020 are missing out on the final weeks of their high school careers.
The “Be the Light”  campaign is a nationwide initiative to pay tribute to those high school seniors.
Each Friday night through May 22 the lights at Harold M. Clark Stadium will be turned on at 8:20 p.m. (20:20 military time) and remain on for 20 minutes.
The lights are a symbol of hope and a reminder from districts that their students are still at the top of their minds, even when not in the building.
Community members are encouraged to turn on their front porch lights to join the tribute.
Breese said the district wants to encourage support by the district patrons, but those going to the stadium while the lights are on should remain in their cars and not honk.
“A number of communities across the state and across our country are doing this. That is also tied into our Continuous Learning by trying to get some community engagement,” Breese said.
The district is also planning a teacher caravan on Friday. The route will be announced later in the week.
Participating teachers will drive around the neighborhoods in Concordia and wave to the students who are unable to attend school during the shutdown.
Also on Friday, the district school buses will run their usual routes from 4-6 p.m. Bus drivers will wave to the rural students on those routes.
Breese and the district administrators provided the school board with an update of the Continuous Learning plan, being implemented after Governor Laura Kelly issued an order on March 17 that all public and private schools be closed for the remainder of the school year.
With guidance provided by a Continuous Learning Task Force convened by Kansas Education Commissioner Dr. Randy Watson, USD 333 launched its effort on March 30.
“I am very pleased with our staff. They are doing a tremendous job with our Continuous Learning Plans. They seem to be going very well,” Breese said.
Breese said that the district staff will continue to adapt and adjust to do the best it can for the students.
“We have really got to focus on engaging our students. So that is what our focus is. That is what the messaging has been to our staff,” Breese said.
Concordia Elementary School principal Derek Holmes said that he is extremely proud of the staff, community and everyone involved with the district.
“Everybody has stepped up. We have learned a lot during these difficult times,” Holmes said.
Elementary school assistant principal and K-12 curriculum coordinator Krystal Breese recognized those that are helping distribute the meals to the students.
Concordia Middle School principal Larry Myers said that it is not a good situation, but good things have come from it. He said that the sixth grade teachers shared that they are collaborating more than they had previously.
“Overall we have had positive results. And I haven't had anything negative,” Myers said.
Breese informed the board that the district would be conducting a survey of the families.
“We really value that feedback. And are there problems, and we are assuming there are, we are encouraging our families to give us productive feedback in the survey and not just tell us everything bad about it, or everything good, but give us some guidance on how we can make it better,” Breese said.
In action taken by the board during the meeting, a memorandum of understanding with the North Cloud Education Association regarding continuous learning due to school closures related to COVID-19 was approved.
The memorandum states that continuous learning shall be limited to 39 days. If additional days are required, the school board and association agree to negotiate the agreement.
The board also approved a resolution that authorizes the district to adopt a local option budget each school year in an amount not to exceed 33 percent of the amount of total foundation aid.
Previously the maximum for the district's local option budget (LOB) was 30 percent.
Breese said that the benefit of taking advantage of being able to increase the LOB is that it bumps up state aid.
USD 333 is about a 49-percent state aid district.
“If we would raise another $100,000 locally we are going to get another, roughly, $100,000 pitched in from the state,” Breese said, “This has essentially given us the ability to go get a matching grant.”
The resolution may be adopted unless a petition in opposition to it, signed by not less than 10 percent of qualified electors of the school district, is filed with the county election officer within 40 days of publication.
The board approved an annual fee of $2,100 for legal/policy services from the Kansas Association of School Boards Legal Assistance Fund.
Boards of education participating in the Legal Assistance Fund shall have access to legal counsel through telephone or email communications; legal research; access to important court decisions and interpretation of laws affecting schools; written memoranda on specific legal questions asked by a participating board; and legal research resulting in a written legal opinion.
In personnel matters, the board approved the hiring of Morgan McCabe as junior-senior high school vocal music instructor. She replaces Landon Slipke.
The hiring of Krystin Will as the new Pre-K teacher at the elementary school was approved.
Will, who had served as the director of district's Kansas Reading Roadmap program, replaces Tina Brewer.
Brewer is retiring after 31 years with the district.
Carla Crutcher was hired as a special education/procedural coach for the Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas.
The board approved the resignation of Julie Myers from the position.
Among the classified staff changes approved by the board was the hiring of Steve Nelson as the high school boys' and girls' golf coach, replacing Gene Rundus, and Zoe Brichalli as high school dance sponsor, replacing Maria LeDuc.
The resignation of Michael Loring as assistant high school boys' basketball coach was accepted.
Breese discussed the demolition of property owned by the district at 902 Cedar St. with the board.
The district had received an estimate of around $12,500 from Snavely Construction to take down the structure and remove the fence and some trees.
It was discovered that there is some asbestos in the building.
Breese said that it was going to cost around $5,000 for Geisler Roofing to remove the asbestos.
The district has received new estimates for the demolition and asbestos removal, with an increase of just about $300-$400, according to Breese.
“We feel like we want to go ahead and get that taken care of. There is not any traffic around the building, so we feel like it can be done safely,” Breese said.
No action by the board was required.
Breese presented the board a letter from Bill Thompson with the Concordia Lions Club, stating that the club has voted to discontinue sponsorship of the annual Concordia High School football banquet.
The Lions Club has sponsored the banquet for 61 years.