West Nodaway BOE

The West Nodaway R-I Board of Education met in open and closed sessions on June 12 to handle the following business for the school district:

Elementary Principal Holly Brady explained the aspects of the new reading program the district is purchasing for prekindergarten through fifth grade. The program, called Core Knowledge Language Arts, will cost $30,166 and teaches skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. It deals heavily in nonfiction. There are three different web trainings teachers will use as professional development. The program is a line item in the 2019-20 budget.

Superintendent Shannon Nolte brought a map with the locations of 114 wind turbines in the Clear Creek Wind Project. He sketched the WN district boundaries and determined there will be 13 or 14 windmills within the school district. These windmills will generate a fixed income amount for 20 years for the school district. Nolte said the board needs to think about whether to use the income for projects or for debt service.

The new WN app will be unveiled on August 12 and will replace the textcaster alerts now sent. The app will also feature other WN school information.

Changes in the 2019-20 handbooks for students, staff and activities were reviewed and the handbooks approved.

Board member Amanda Walker brought up her misgivings of having attendance tied into the waiving of finals’ testing. She said this policy encourages students to attend school sick, thus spreading illness to the other students. No action was taken and the policy remains intact.

Nolte discussed the baseball field project at the city park. It’s not going to be completed by his June 17 deadline, but he said, “it’s only going to get better as we finish parts of the project.” It will be more usable for the 2020 season.