West Nodaway

The West Nodaway R-I Board of Education met in regular and two closed sessions on December 14 to take care of the following school district business:

The district is starting to utilize Google email, calendar, document and drive systems for teachers, staff and board members. The staff and teachers received training at the January in-service.

Superintendent Shannon Nolte assisted the board members with logging into their new Google email accounts. He also showed them how to look up and search board policies on the wnrockets.com website.

Nolte attended a workshop to learn more about writing the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. WN is currently in the fifth year of the current five-year grant and wants to apply for the next five-year cycle when the grant opens in February.

“We believe this is an important service to offer our students and parents,” Nolte said. “This program could also be a key part of our focus in STEM education over the next five years.”

The first reading was held of the proposed 2017-18 school calendar. The 2016-17 school calendar was amended to move parent teacher conferences to Thursday, February 9.

A review of the Apple Bus contract, mileage and costs was made from the beginning of the contract, in January 2014, through the 2015-16 school year. District-owned transportation was included. No figures were given for the current 2016-17 year.

Transportation costs were:

• 2013-14: Apple: $57,717.85; district-owned: $120,639; total: $178,356.78.

• 2014-15: Apple: $108,235.96; district-owned: $55,215; total: $163,451.03.

• 2015-16: Apple: $112,417.81; district-owned: $44,850; total: $157,267.36.

During the second closed session of the evening, Joni Voss was hired as the head play and drama club director for the 2016-17 school year. She will be paid $540.