Board meeting summary: December 19, 2005

Building community trust and involvement in the Fayette County Public Schools is critical to achieving the district’s mandate to become a world class school district that educates all children to high levels.

In an effort to inform our community about the issues facing the Fayette County Public Schools and keep constituents up to date about actions taken by the Fayette County Board of Education, we now send out summaries of school board meetings.

Here is a summary of the December 19 meeting of the Fayette County Board of Education:

1. As recommended by the 2020 Vision Music Work Group, the board began its meeting with a student performance. Christa Spangler, a four-year-old Breckinridge Elementary student, sang the Star Spangled Banner and a group of second- through fifth-graders from Ashland Elementary School sang Siyahamba, a South African freedom march song, in honor of Kwanzaa.
2. The school board recognized the following students and staff who have earned state and national honors:
• Susan Marnatti, a German teacher at Beaumont Middle School, who was named the Kentucky World Languages Association Outstanding Teacher for grades K-8.
• Glendover Elementary School, for being named a runner-up for this year’s Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education.
3. The school board received the following reports:
• Glendover Elementary Principal Cathy Fine, Southern Elementary Principal Freida Collins and Stonewall Elementary Principal Bill Gatliff spoke about the experiences they and their staff members have had while visiting highly successful schools around the state. Glendover, Southern and Stonewall are among the many schools in Fayette County observing other schools in an effort to find successful instructional strategies that that they can replicate to help every student reach high levels of achievement.
• Monthly written reports on administrative positions, One Community One Voice strategies, treasurer’s report, and construction projects.
4. The board adopted resolutions honoring the passing of Robert Bishop, an 11th grade student at Henry Clay High School; Judith Hale, a veteran food-service employee; and David Quick, one of the parents who sued in 1971 to desegregate the Fayette County Public Schools.
5. The board voted to take the following action:
• Adopt Raising Your Lids for Kids, a song written by a group of students at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, as the official district song.
• Approve a change order reducing the cost of the Southern Middle School roof replacement project by roughly $4,800.
• Begin construction projects to air condition the gymnasiums at Jessie Clark Middle School and Tates Creek High School.
• Replace the chiller at Breckinridge Elementary School.
• Approve a bid with Preston Construction Group to build connector addition at Henry Clay High School. The total project cost is roughly $1.6 million.
• Accept a change order adding about $16,000 to the cost of the Bryan Station High School construction project in order to install ovens instead of deep fryers in the cafeteria, in order to better meet new state nutritional standards.
• Ask the staff to research a recurring $25,000 expense to the Prichard Committee.
• Handle routine matters like adopting minutes and approving bids, field trips and professional leave requests.

Last update: 12/20/2005 10:38:10 AM     Printer friendly view