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, November 18th, 2024  7:00 PM

AGENDA

The E-Learning Day Plan hearing was held on November 18, 2024 at 6:45PM in the Media Center.

Members present were Mary Lou Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Kori Voss, Laura Jansen, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth and Amy Kruse  Visitors included Steve Ellis.

The board adjourned the hearing on a motion by Kori, second by Tanya at 6:51PM.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

The regular meeting of the Board of Education of Central Community High School was held on November 18, 2024 at 7:00PM in the Media Center.

Members present were Mary Lou Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Kori Voss, Laura Jansen, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth and Amy Kruse  Visitors included Steve Ellis, Girls Golf Team and parents and Kelly Ross.

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

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

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

As you all know, Central High School was recently awarded the “Exemplary School Designation” from the State of Illinois.  We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the board for the celebration festivities that were conducted on October 25th.  It was a truly awesome day to be a Cougar. 

A motion to approve the E-Learning Day Plan as presented was made by Kori, second by Tanya. Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

Becky and Dr. Foutch worked to develop a preliminary tax levy for review by the board. We will give several options for this year’s levy that will take into consideration our financial situation and long-term financial needs. Our estimated assessed valuation continues to grow. The assessor stated we should expect an approximate 10% increase.  We must still maintain a goal to establish a levy request that garners our total revenue potential,  and with little information on which to base this, it must be sufficient. A poor decision could mean a scenario that sets a request for funds too low and leaves potential dollars inaccessible.  A motion to set a Truth in Taxation Hearing on December 16th at 6:45 was made by Laura, second by Tanya.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

Our district applied for and received the “Local Food to Schools” grant. This grant will provide additional dollars for our school lunch program if we provide beef in our cafeteria that is raised by local farmers.  These farmers must  have a production program that is USDA Approved and be located within a 400 mile radius of our district.  We have multiple, local farmers who meet this criteria.  The money provided by this grant will allow us to provide much higher quality beef products for our students while also helping out one of our local producers.  The grant requires that we complete a competitive bid process prior to selecting a producer, and this is the first step in that process.  Once the bids are received, we will be able to determine if it will be cost effective to use grant funds to purchase local beef.  (Obviously, if the price we are required to pay for local beef is significantly higher than our current prices, then the purchase may not make financial sense.) Also, this program will require grant funding.  If the grant funds were to not be renewed, then we would no longer be able to continue the program.  A motion to approve Dr. Foutch for the letting of bids on a purchasing agreement for local beef producers was made by Kori, second by Laura.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

A motion to approve the purchase of a 2024 Suburban for K&J Chevrolet for $57,796 for STEP student use was made by Amy, second by Tanya.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

A motion to approve the resignation of Cathy Kohnen as Head Volleyball Coach was made by Kori, second by Amy.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

A motion to employ Mallory Moss as an assistant Girls Basketball Coach pending all necessary requirements are met was made by Tim, second by Jeff.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Jeff Kampwerth, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT:

IPA Annual Fall Conference 2024 - Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to attend the state conference each year. The conference provides valuable collaboration, relationship building opportunities with other principals, and small group sessions that are designed to ignite. 

October 22 - Parent Teacher Conferences, along with our Junior parent meeting on College and Career Readiness Information, and our Senior parent meeting on Financial Aid. The junior meeting had 35 families in attendance, and the senior meeting had 25 families. Both of these numbers are higher than previous years and as normal, the highest percentage of parents attending conferences are our freshman parents and specifically in the areas of ELA and Math.

October 25 - Teacher Institute - the morning began with a great breakfast from our kitchen staff before digging into Artificial Intelligence (AI) with nationally known speaker, Joe Fatheree. Joe was the 2007 Illinois State Teacher of the Year, a top 10 finalist for the 2016 Global Teacher Prize and since retiring serves as an innovation specialist in the Oak Ridge School District. One of our goals last year was to keep up with AI in the school setting and as it will be impossible to stay ahead, we are committed to the goal because our students need us to be! Our staff understands the value of learning everything they can about AI, all in an effort to prepare our kids for the future. 
After the morning of hard work, we headed to the Breese Legion to celebrate our Exemplary designation for the third straight year! Thank you for allowing us to show our appreciation to the staff and thank you for supporting our district like you do.
 
A big shout out to Parker Lawrence and Luke Voss from Jostens for taking care of all our cap and gown needs, as well as class rings. These two are simply amazing and extremely efficient with their work.

The annual Chance to Dance was held on Wednesday, October 30 at the Bretz Winery. This was a tremendous event for our FLS students and provided some life learning experiences for our over 20 students volunteers.

On Saturday, November 2nd the Cougars’ JV Scholar Bowl team made their way to Granite City to compete in the IHSSBCA Tournament. With determination and skill, the team battled through 8 challenging matches, ultimately securing a 2nd place finish.Kudos to team members Adelyn Schroeder, Janae Toennies, Ellie Bowen, Hunter Farrington, Xavier Knapp, and Caden Klay for their impressive performance and teamwork.

The HOSA Blood Drive was a huge success. Forty-eight people showed up to donate, 42 units were collected and 67% of those who were able to donate were first time donors. HOSA would like to give a huge thanks to all who stepped up and offered to donate.
 
On Tuesday, November 12 we hosted Donovan Tolbert, a nationally known motivational speaker all the way from Greenville, South Carolina. Donovan’s message was on point and drove home the don’t quit attitude. Another big part of the message was to not worry about what others think 
about you, be you and own it! He was energetic and passionate, and truly just wants to help kids be the best version of themselves.

Our School Improvement Team met on Wednesday, November 13 for our monthly meeting. A large part of our meeting was about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the restructuring of our 8th grade shadowing program. Please see the attached agenda.

On November 13th at the FFA Agronomy contest, 14 schools from Section 22 competed at Valmeyer High School, participants had the task of identifying weeds, crop seeds, and judging crop rings. After the scores were tabulated Central landed themselves a second place team score. They also had the second and third highest individual scores in the contest with Celia Huelsmann and Cara Carrillon. Other team members were Peyton Markus, Addison Tebbe and Blake Wolter. Congratulations on a job well done.

Congratulations to Greg Kruse on being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award through the Kaskaskia Region of the Illinois Principals Association. The banquet will be held on December 5th at the Bretz Winery.


The board entered into closed session on a motion by Kori, second by Tanya to discuss personnel. Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None.  Motion carried at 7:34PM

The board entered back into open session on a motion by Kori, second by Tanya. Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None  Motion  carried at 8:05PM.

The board adjourned the meeting on a motion by Tim, second by Jeff at 8:16PM.  Roll call vote: Aye – Mary Lou Voss, Laura Jansen, Kori Voss, Tanya Kampwerth, Jeff Kampwerth, Tim Richter, Amy Kruse.  Nay – None

Mary Lou Voss                    Amy Kruse                  

Board President                                    Board Secretary