South Nodaway BOE

The South Nodaway R-IV Board of Education met in open session on September 21 to handle the following school district business:

The Guilford Sports Complex project is progressing. The fence is being put in and concrete pouring is planned for the dugouts and field house. Once the fence is up, Game Time Athletics, Weston, will return to finish the mound, base anchors, dirt work and seeding. The field is already drying out quickly, according to Superintendent Johnnie Silkett.

As the fence is put up, the conduit is being laid for future lighting.

The school district has $4,176.02 in donations for the purchase of two 27-foot three-row bleachers to be purchased for $5,261 from Heartland Seating, Inc., Shawnee, KS. The board agreed to pay the difference between the donations and the purchase price.

Silkett acknowledged Sue Nothstine of the Greater Southern Nodaway County Community Foundation for her help in securing $40,800 in grants for the project. Another grant application was planned to be turned in the week of September 25.

“Our annual performance rating score this year will not include our English II and Algebra I scores due to an issue with the form that was used either this year or last year from the testing vendor,” Silkett said.

“DESE is deciding how they will proceed in scoring us this year. Unfortunately, the hard work that was put in by our freshmen and sophomores will not be used in this year’s calculation. Which unfortunately makes this year’s APR not valid in my eyes as a tool to measure South Nodaway’s performance this year.”

Tyler Pedersen, Jefferson C-123 PE/health teacher, was approved to be the Platte Valley Co-op assistant junior high girls basketball coach.

Counselor Nick Wray, Silkett and Principal Darbi Bauman toured the Hillyard Technical School, St. Joseph, and visited with the director. Although Hillyard has twice as many programs as the Northwest Technical School, Maryville, the travel distance is greater. Silkett wanted the board to be aware that SN is looking at utilizing Hillyard for students vo-tech classes. No decision will be made this school year.

Silkett reported that last year’s seniors were 3.1 points higher than the state average on the ACT test. The composite score was 23.5 compared to the state average of 20.4.