South Central Reporter

Centralia School District 135 Board met March 9.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

Minutes of the regular meeting of the Centralia City Schools Board of Education, District No. 135, Marion, Clinton, Jefferson and Washington Counties, Illinois, held at 6:00 p.m., in the Administration Building, 400 South Elm Street, Centralia, Illinois 62801.

Members Present: Ron Johnson, Blake Griffin, Lyle Gross, Sue Williams, and Jeremy Martin

Members Absent: Derek Harlan and Renae Bauer

Also Present: Supt. Craig E. Clark, Asst. Supt. Chris Becker, Mike Middleton, Craig Bland and Brittany Misencik

Board President Johnson called the regular meeting to order at 6:05 p.m.

MOTION #1:

It was moved by Griffin and seconded by Gross to adjourn to closed session to discuss personnel matters relating to the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees. Motion carried.

Adjourned to closed session at 6:06 p.m.

Reconvened to open session at 7:04 p.m.

MOTION #2:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Gross to approve the consent agenda as follows:

1. Approval of minutes of regular meeting held on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. 

2. Approval of bills in the amount of $420,424.85.

3. Approval of March payroll.

4. Approval of taking bids for the 2021-2022 school year at the May meeting for bread, food, and milk.

Motion carried.

MOTION #3:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Griffin to approve the Treasurer’s Report. Motion carried.

RECOGNITION AND COMMENTS FROM EMPLOYEES AND PUBLIC

BOARD COMMITTEE REPORT

1. The Calendar Committee met on March 8, 2021 and developed a proposed 2021-2022 calendar.

CURRICULUM REPORT

1. Asst. Supt. Becker reported on professional development recently offered to faculty and staff. Plans for summer school are underway, and new science programs are being explored for grades 6-8.

2.Principal Bland presented school improvement goals and objectives for Jordan School, along with examples of activities and strategies implemented to meet these goals and objectives.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

MOTION #4:

It was moved by Williams and seconded by Gross to approve the tentative 2021-2022 school calendar. Motion carried.

MOTION #5:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Griffin to tentatively schedule the Eighth Grade Graduation Program for Thursday, May 27, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. Motion carried.

MOTION #6:

It was moved by Griffin and seconded by Martin to accept the resignation of Tami Eller, SOAR Teacher. Motion carried.

MOTION #7:

It was moved by Gross and seconded by Griffin to accept the resignation of Marvin Creps, Bus Driver. Motion carried.

MOTION #8:

It was moved by Gross and seconded by Martin to accept the resignation of Chris Ray, Bus Monitor. Motion carried.

MOTION #9:

It was moved by Gross and seconded by Griffin to accept the resignation of Zach Robbins, Bus Monitor. Motion carried.

MOTION #10:

It was moved by Griffin and seconded by Martin to employ Mollie Strain as Speech/Language Pathologist. Motion carried.

MOTION #11:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Griffin to employ Andi Barnfield as Third Grade Teacher. Motion carried.

MOTION #12:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Griffin to approve the Resolution stating that Centralia City Schools District #135 wishes to adopt the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois Supplement Savings Plan by entering into an Employer Participation Agreement between the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois and Centralia City Schools District #135. Motion carried.

MOTION #13:

It was moved by Gross and seconded by Griffin to approve Glass and Shuffett, LTD to perform the annual audit. Motion carried.

MOTION #14:

It was moved by Williams and seconded by Griffin to approve the medical leave of employee #1581 for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year. Motion carried.

MOTION #15:

It was moved by Griffin and seconded by Martin to accept the intent to retire letter from Lisa Wysocki effective at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. Motion carried.

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Supt. Clark reported on the following:

1. Fourth Quarter Enrollment Update – Sixty-three students plan to return to in-person learning for the 4th quarter. Approximately 150 students remain on remote instruction and around 40 are being home schooled.

2. Building Celebrations:

Schiller

- Celebrated Black History Month by each classroom choosing a remarkable person to study for the month of February. Students researched the person and found very interesting facts and information about them. Each class then completed a special project to share with the school in the hallways. Schiller School turned into a Museum of Black History, showcasing individuals from the past and present that have changed the world. The second week of March students will explore the hallways with their teacher and experience the "Black History Museum" that Schiller students have created.

- “Read Across America” week was celebrated with each day reading and exploring a new book in the classroom. Students also enjoyed dressing each day that had a designated theme: Wear Green Day (ate green eggs and ham in their classrooms), Wacky Wednesday, and Pajama Day. Pajama Day was concluded with a Sock Hop where students danced on bubble wrap for our Good Conduct Party.

- Mrs. Matlock continues to rock remote learning! Thank you for your hard work! 

- BLT has been working hard with their charter teams to improve literacy, the social environment and school morale at Schiller School.

- Team building Friday was a great success with Mrs. Phoenix and Mrs. Patten planning a staff activity that required everyone to work together to complete a task in a hilarious manner. Thank you for organizing such a fun activity for our staff to let loose and work together!

- Schiller School staff continues to train in balanced literacy PD with ULLC every Friday.

Jordan

- Teachers attended the Tri-County Institute on Friday, February 12th. Feedback was very positive regarding the sessions that teachers attended throughout the day. 

- We were able to celebrate Valentine's Day with parties on Monday, February 22nd, upon returning to school after the winter snow storm.

- Students received valentine-themed books from the Jordan P.T.O. Second grade received “Love, Splat" and third grade received "The Chocolate Touch". 

- Our annual Lincoln Penny Drive took place from February 22nd to March 4th. Students brought in pennies to raise money for supplies for our school. The classroom that brought in the most pennies will receive a pizza party. 

- Our Social/Moral Charter is working on implementing CHAMPS. The team is also brainstorming ideas to boost morale among the students and staff. The heart project was a success, and they want to continue to promote positivity. 

- Our Literacy Charter is currently focusing on how to better prepare students for the writing portion of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR). Second grade will introduce Narrative Writing (short stories), and third grade will focus on Literary Analysis Tasks (written responses citing text evidence from two separate reading passages).

- Special Education teachers and students are utilizing and enjoying the Words Their Way program.

- All required emergency drills have been completed for the school year. 

- Mr. Bland will report on Jordan’s three student achievement goals and objectives at the March school board meeting. Members of the Building Leadership Team assisted in this presentation.

Central Middle School

- February Tiger Cubs of the Month:

4th Grade students – Isaiah Jones & Kynlee Rye

5th Grade students – Emma Cassidy & Day’Len Henson

- Building Leadership Team met with Mr. Clark and Mrs. Becker to revisit teacher concerns and determine how to move forward with a pandemic-like structure that has been positive.

- In-person opportunities for success:

A-week and B-week morning recess.

Keeping teachers in pods to align learning across the grade-level.

Increasing P.E. to 5 days/week.

Implementing typing into the day.

Scheduling common time for teacher grade-level planning.

- Teachers had an opportunity to socially distance and fellowship with colleagues over drinks and treats during a break on February 19th a remote-learning day. 

- Several teachers have been implementing the Nearpod afternoon engagement lessons.

- As a social charter valentine project, teachers wrote on a heart what they believed about their students. Students wrote on a heart what they believed to be true about them or what they believed they could be when they grew up. Dr. Hill wrote on a purple heart what she believed to be true about each member of the team. The hearts were displayed on a large heart on each teacher’s door and along the lockers at CMS.

- Team will begin using CHAMPS (Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Successful Students) every morning. The intent behind the CHAMPS model is to decrease classroom distractions and disruptions and to curb student misbehavior and encourage positive behavior.

- Several teachers assisted and participated in a Virtual Reading Night on Tuesday, February 23rd. Students logged onto a zoom link set in their Google classroom. They were treated to six reading selections. Students then participated in a Quizizz (game to test their recall of questions from each of the selections) and a winner was determined. The winner received a basket of goodies donated by parent, Crystal Koch. In addition, five other students received gift cards to McDonald’s, WalMart (2), Maurices, and one lucky winner received a Kate Spade bracelet.

Centralia Junior High School

- Our sports teams have been working extremely hard. They have been practicing and playing very well. We are so proud of all of their accomplishments. 

- We are excited to start scholar bowl matches with our students. We will have teams competing in these academic competitions. We will be following protocol for safety and sanitation.

- Our Universal Charter is making great progress with coming up with activities to continue to grow the climate and culture of our building. We will be focusing on building relationships and increasing our social/emotional learning for students.

- March 5th was our second Tiger teams meeting. We focused our lesson on leadership this week. Groups worked through a Prezi presentation.

- Andrew Martin, Eli Blair, and Deacon Snow competed on February 25th in the Math Counts Chapter Invitational. All three boys have qualified for the state competition and will compete in an online competition on March 25th.

- Administration provided hot chocolate and snacks to our teachers for all of their hard work.

- Mr. Cooley and Mr. Z's Leadership Team trenched to help keep water off the sidewalk.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MOTION #16:

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Gross to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.

https://ccs135.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Minutes-Mar-9-21.pdf