Community High School District #71

Central Community High School District #71

7740 Old U.S. 50, Breese, IL 62230
BOARD OF EDUCATION - REGULAR MEETING
Monday, August 15, 2022,   7:00 PM

AGENDA

The regular meeting of the Board of Education of Central Community High School was held on August 15, 2022 at 7:00PM in the Boardroom.

Members present were Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss , Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Kori Voss and Jeff Kampwerth and Tim Richter.  Visitors included Ami Shanafelt.

The agenda was approved on a motion by Tim, second by Kori.  Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

The minutes of the previous meeting were amended and approved on a motion by Jeff, second by Amy. Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

The financial report and payment of bills were reviewed and accepted on a motion by Tim, second by Mary Lou.   Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

Dr. Foutch gave information in regards to our bond sale.  We “caught lightning in a bottle” so to speak with the municipal bond rates this summer.  The beginning of August saw a large dip in interest rates and we were able to capitalize on the opportunity.  The 2018 Bond refinance resulted in a savings of $386,000 due to the reduction in our interest rate from 4.08% to 2.85%.  We were also able to secure $3.16 million in new (working cash) money at an interest rate of 3.15%.  The average interest rate on the entire deal was right at 3%.  Three local banking institutions were part of the deal.  First National Bank in Carlyle, FCB, and Germantown Trust purchased nearly 50% of the bonds.  We are very appreciative of their willingness to invest in our district.  We should also be very proud to say that we were able to secure the funds necessary for our new construction projects while lowering property taxes for our constituents. 

Dr. Foutch met with the architects from FGM on Tuesday, August 9^th.  During the meeting, they stated that due to the current nature of the construction industry, the earliest we would be able to start on the pre-engineered steel building would be January of 2024.  FGM stated that it would take 52-56 weeks just to get the materials on-site and the design and bidding processes would need to be completed prior to ordering materials.  This was somewhat disappointing, but it is the nature of the beast.  Also, the architects stated that if we pushed the parking lot project back to the summer of 2023, we would get much better bids.  They were worried that if we tried to bid the project for this fall, many contractors will already have work scheduled for that time.  We could begin the project in the spring, but since we are really in no rush (due to the delay in building the field house), Dr. Foutch would prefer just to push the project back to the summer and avoid potential problems with student/parent traffic in the front circle drive while construction is taking place.

For those members who will be seeking re-election to the board, Dr. Foutch reminded them that the petition period begins on Sept. 20^th.  I believe we have three members (Mr. Richter, Mr. Nettemeier, and Mrs. Kampwerth) who would need to complete this process.  

As usual, the Maintenance and Custodial staff should be commended for their work this summer in preparing our facility for the upcoming year.  Clay did a great job coordinating work on general maintenance in addition to working with several projects this summer. The entire staff did a great job in preparing everything (both inside and outside) and completing the cleaning, waxing, painting, preparing, moving tables and chairs, etc.  Simply, the guys went above and beyond this summer.  Mike Kuper, Dave Ratermann, and Wayne Deiters, along with our student workers Dylan Ziegler and Nick Helmink deserve to be commended for their efforts.

Dr. Foutch thanked Jamie Hewlett for taking the time to work the Welcome Desk at our registration.  This worked out extremely well as she was able to explain to parents all of the details in regards to the required health paperwork to start school.  Currently, we are emphasizing the completion of physicals for 9th graders, and the completion of the meningococcal vaccine for seniors, prior to the start of school.

As always, this summer has been a big deal in the Technology program.  Anthony and his “Dream Team” of Daniel Duncan and Brendan Reynolds have done an excellent job preparing for the new school year.  The Technology program we offer our students and staff at Central is outstanding.  The program was vastly improved this summer with the installation of 25 new touchscreen presentation systems in classrooms.  We are an advanced technological school and need to get better and better as the rapid pace of technology continues to build.

We received some concerning news last week from our science lab cabinetry provider.  The manufacturer has experienced delays all summer and the cabinets aren’t going to be at Central in time for the labs to be completed to start the year.  This is very unfortunate.  As you may remember, we purposefully put the contract out for bid in December for the specific purpose of making sure that the cabinetry would be completed on time.  We were told by the manufacturer that the "lead time" was 3 months and that if the cabinets were ordered by February, we would 100% be good to go.  Well, the cabinets were ordered at the end of January and we are still in this predicament.  It looks like we will be starting the year using alternate locations for our science classrooms.  The new classroom locations have already been shared with our teachers.  We hope that all the labs will be done by Monday, August 22^nd and this will only be a temporary inconvenience. One piece of good news, all the flooring is complete in the west wing and it looks great. The cabinets and countertops in the foods lab also look really good, and we are still waiting on the final touches to be completed in that room.

Becky Boeschen and Dr. Foutch presented the Preliminary FY 23 Budget figures and information.  The new Evidence Based Funding (EBF) system was implemented three years ago, but our increases in revenue from the state were flat with our total increase in state funding totaling $53, 975.  We expect flat funding again this year.  Even with this increase, we are still roughly $1.3 million below our designated Funding Adequacy target.  We also never know how much to expect in actual mandated categorical payments, so the unknown continues to create difficulty in preparing a budget. With that, in order to uphold our responsibility to the taxpayers, we must create a budget assuming the “worst case scenario” in regards to both our potential revenues and expenditures.   Local sources of revenue are the easiest to predict and will still be the largest percentage of our income as a district.  As always, we will plan for revenue streams that are conservative and work throughout the year to reduce spending in a myriad of ways.  A motion to set the FY23 Budget hearing for September 19th at 6:45PM was made by Mary Lou, second by Jeff.  Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

A motion to approve Laura Duessing as a volunteer assistant cheer coach pending all necessary requirements are met was made by Amy, second by Tanya.  Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT:

Mr. Freeze thanked Codi Swires, Chris Solis, Jamie Hewlett, Trisha Lohman, and Wendy Jones for all their work throughout registration. We had approximately 140 out of 165 freshman come in to register, and 15 new students to the district (7-9th, 3-10th, 2-11th, 3-12th). Our new enrollment numbers as of 8/8/22 are as follows…

• Freshman:               165
• Sophomore:             148
• Junior:                     156
• Senior:                     152
• Total                        621

Also, for the first time we allowed students to come in and get their picture taken early. We had a great turnout with Anna photographing approximately 400 students. This will help her out greatly and allow her more time to ensure top quality photos for our families.

Mr. Freeze recognized Candace Schomaker (senior) who was crowned the Clinton County Fair Queen for 2022 and Audrey Moran (2022 graduate) who was First Runner Up.

He also recognized many FFA accomplishments and Central for their help with the State Legion Tournament in Aviston.

For the first time, Mr. Hamon conducted an all athlete parent meeting. The meeting was held on Sunday, August 7 after the annual football parent meeting. We had approximately 300 parents/students in attendance.  Mr. Hamon did a very nice job explaining the details of the 8to18 app and how to keep connected with Central Athletics.

Mr. Freeze spoke about our FLS Summer Camp.  We had 100% participation from the FLS students.  We did have students take some time off for family vacations, but that's understandable.  Students were motivated and excited to join us each day.  Teachers and paraprofessionals were: Beth Schubel, Karen Kreke, Vicki Pittmann, and me.  Amber Kuhn subbed a few times for us too.  We also had a former Central grad and Golden Apple Scholar, Kayla Shanafelt, volunteer for 5 weeks.  Last year we found that summer camp completely eliminated the regression we saw in years prior to starting the program.  When school started in August, we picked up where we left off a few weeks before the first day.

The board entered into closed session on a motion by Jeff, second by Kori to discuss student discipline. Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None. Motion carried at 7:47PM.

The board entered back into open session on a motion by Jeff, second by Tanya. Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None  Motion  carried at 7:51PM.

The board adjourned the meeting on a motion by Amy, second by Kori  at 7:52PM. Roll call vote: Aye –Mike Nettemeier, Mary Lou Voss, Kori Voss, Amy Kruse, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter.  Nay – None

 Mike Nettemeier           Tim Richter                     

Board President                        Board Secretary