Mount Olive Community Unit School District 5 Board met Feb. 16.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
The board of education met in regular session in the library. The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by President Brunnworth. Present at roll call were Brunnworth, Essington, DeVries, Osmoe, Remer, Rimar, and Skertich. Also present were Superintendent Murphy, Principal Scheller, Secretary Butler, John Hanafin, Marcia Schulte, Julie Heyen, Clarence Aramowicz, Melissa Goymack, Jeremy Hudson, Phillip Dean, Aimee Baker, Emilee Krinkel, Lauri Wall, and Donald Wall.
Motion by Remer, seconded by Osmoe to adopt the agenda, approve the minutes of the regular school board meeting of January 19, 2022, and approve the minutes of the special school board meeting of February 7, 2022. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Osmoe to approve the bills and activity accounts as presented. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.
Financial Report for January 2022:
Mr. Murphy reported that the Education Fund is at $1,148,333.90. We have received all of our Macoupin & Montgomery County tax revenue for the fiscal year. The Building Fund is at $587,213.03. Our electric and gas bills are the main source of expenses in the fund. The Bond and Interest Fund, our copy lease account, is at $15,298.33. The Transportation Fund balance is $299,333.58. We are in great shape receiving our categorical payments in a timely manner this year. The IMRF fund is at $156,280.55. Site and Construction is at $43,529.04. This revenue is affected by the amount of money people spend and by our enrollment. Working Cash Fund is at $158,114.05. Tort Immunity Fund is at $82,954.20. This fund is down because we made our annual risk management shift. Health Life Safety balance is $127,781.01. The total of all funds is $2,618,837.70. The Operating Fund balance is at $2,192,994.60.
Budget Report for January 2022:
Revenues vs. Expenses by fund: 69% vs. 61%
Ed Fund: 66% vs. 59%
O & M Fund: 98% vs. 74%
Tort Fund: 95% vs. 100%
Transportation Fund: 90% vs. 81%
IMRF: 95% vs. 62%
Motion by DeVries, seconded by Remer to approve the financial report and the budget report for January 2022. All ayes. Motion carried.
Recognition, comments, and correspondence from employees and public:
Melissa Goymack held a presentation regarding the Sorento School District being shut down by the 2022-2023 school year. The citizens of Sorento would love for the Mt. Olive School District to conjoin with the Sorento School District, if possible.
Principal Baumberger arrived at 8:00 p.m.
New Business
Mr. Murphy discussed the first reading of the 2022-2023 school calendar.
Motion by DeVries, seconded by Skertich to approve the sequence of dismissal list for the Mt. Olive certified staff. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Osmoe, seconded by DeVries to approve the noncertified staff seniority list. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Remer to hire Loy Miller Talley, PC for the 2022 audit. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Osmoe, seconded by Essington to hire Loyet Architects for the 10 year health, life, safety survey. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Osmoe to accept the resignation of Charlie Lueken as Jr. High girls’ basketball coach. All ayes. Motion carried.
Principal’s Report:
Mr. Baumberger reported the following:
∙ The high school recently met with representatives from the Litchfield school district to discuss the vision of a regional vocational center. Mr. Winsel and I took a tour of the possible future facility site and discussed the opportunities that would be available to local school districts including Mt. Olive. There is still much discussion to be had in determining the best possible direction for the students.
∙ The high school is currently working the Lincoln Land Community College in exploring a pilot for the distance learning classroom. There is still much fluidity in this area, but our high school is looking to partner with another school district to make dual credit courses available at their school. Developing a one to one partnership with another district within the boundaries of Lincoln Land’s services will be the first step in furthering the development of this program.
∙ Students in the high school fulfilled our participation requirement for our 5 essentials survey. We are currently sitting below (5%) the mandated threshold of 20% for the parent participation in the survey. We sent an all call out on Tuesday to parents and guardians attempting to encourage their participation in the survey.
∙ Third quarter midterms were recently mailed home to any student with a grade D or lower.
∙ Mt. Olive and Litchfield are in a cooperative agreement for wrestling. We had three students participate this season. Of the three, two of our students advanced to sectionals. I’d like to congratulate Ian Mitchell and Isaiah Johnson for their accomplishments.
∙ Girls’ basketball season has concluded. I am pleased to report that the team grew throughout the year and they were able to win their final regular season game. This year’s team marks the first year we’ve been able to host our own program in recent years. I’d like to thank the participants for their contributions this season in rebuilding this program at our school.
∙ Trent Markezich was named to the Carlinville Rotary Club All-Star Basketball Classic all area team. The all-star game will be hosted at the Carlinville high school at 5:15 p.m. beginning with a 3 point shootout with the game following after. We’d like to congratulate Trent and his coaches on this honor and wish him the best of luck in the game. The boys’ basketball team will play in the regional tournament this Saturday against Greenfield at 6:00 p.m.
∙ The upcoming softball season was cancelled due to lack of participation in the sport. Students that had signed up to participate were informed of the situation and outcome after all avenues for participation were exhausted. Parents and guardians were also informed. The athletic director and administration will continue to look into opportunities for participation next season.
∙ Baseball participation is also showing low participation numbers. We are going to continue to make the push for our school to host a team for the upcoming spring season. Even though there are concerns for the season, as of now we are showing enough participation to warrant our own team.
∙ After a discussion with Mrs. Osmoe for future participations and considerations of cooperative agreements, we would like to host a meeting in the spring to gather participation numbers with prospective athletes and their parents. The commitments that they will be looking to provide the school district will assist in determining what directions our district will need to consider to ensure students who wish to participate within sports have the ability to do so. This will allow the district to make proper and timely decisions for the directions of our programs. We will be determining a date for this meeting in the late spring.
∙ The high school held a parent and participant meeting to discuss the upcoming 2022 football season. We had roughly 9 students and parents attend. I will be working on this to present you with overall numbers in the future.
Mrs. Scheller reported the following:
∙ I’d like to thank Focus5 for providing snacks and drinks to our classes for our Valentine’s Day parties last week.
∙ Read Across America takes place the second week of March. During that time we typically have dress up days for staff and students.
∙ The elementary will be calling March “Marching through March.” Throughout the weeks of March we plan to host fun activities for students to help get through the long month.
∙ This summer we will be having summer school and summer camps. We are trying to get the word out sooner than what we were able to last year in hopes of having more students participate this summer.
∙ The 5 essentials survey deadline is March 11th. We are currently at about 6% participation of parents, but the students and staff will be at 100% before the deadline.
Superintendent’s Report:
Mr. Murphy reported the following:
1. Marching Through March
As Karrie said, we will be hosting more activities in March to better get through the long month. One of the days we will have a band assembly for all students. We haven’t been able to host assemblies since COVID, so that is exciting. On Tuesday 2/22/2022 we will also have something fun for the students to do.
2. Property Tax Relief
The district applied for the property tax relief, but unfortunately did not get approved. If approved, the district would receive additional evidence based funding money.
3. Solar Panels & Electricity
Our electricity contract ran out at the end of January. The future rates are noncompetitive and fixed this year and have increased by nearly 30%. We recently signed a non-fixedrate at 0.58, but can get out of the contract at any time if necessary. Because the rates are increasing, I’d like to revisit the possibility of installing and using solar panels. I will put this out to bid. Using solar power will in turn will eventually decrease our monthly/annual electricity costs.
4. Summer School
The district will be offering summer school and summer camps again this year. This is a completely self-funded program. Students not only get to participate in their essentials such as Math or English, but can also participate in art, band, or sports.
Motion by DeVries, seconded by Osmoe to enter into closed session at 8:36 p.m. for the following purposes as allowed under the Illinois Open Meetings Act (5 ILCS 120/1 et seq.): Discussion of the appointment, employment and dismissal of employees of the public body and collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Remer to return to open session at 9:49 p.m. Roll call: 7 ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by DeVries, seconded by Rimar to hire Thomas Gipson as a health aide for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year. 6 ayes, 1 nay. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Essington to hire Donna Gipson as a bus aide for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Osmoe, seconded by DeVries to hire Rebecca Leitschuh as a bus aide for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Essington, seconded by DeVries to approve the MOU between the certified staff regarding teacher bonuses. All ayes. Motion carried.
Motion by Remer, seconded by DeVries to extend the contract of high school principal, Jon Baumberger, by one year. 6 ayes, 1 nay. Motion carried.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Remer to extend the contract of elementary principal, Karrie Scheller, by one year. 6 ayes, 1 nay. Motion carried.
The next special meeting will be held on Wednesday March 2, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. in the school library.
The next regular board meeting will be held on Wednesday March 16, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. in the school library at 804 West Main St, Mt. Olive, IL.
Motion by Skertich, seconded by Osmoe to adjourn at 9:55 p.m. All ayes. Motion carried.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NEWcMhbkUQqjFTscCFJGSzT83rWIzuSo/view
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