USD #398

High school track project completed

By SUSAN MARSHALL

Staff writer

Peabody-Burns board of education members met at Burns Community Building Oct. 13 for its regularly scheduled meeting.

USD 398 Superintendent Rex Watson reported to board members that repairs and resurfacing at Peabody-Burns High School track were nearly completed. (At press time Watson confirmed the work was finished on Saturday.)

The district spent $52,500 on the project. The work done will keep Peabody-Burns competitive in track and field.

“The condition had deteriorated to the point where we felt we probably were not going to be able to host any meets this coming spring,” Watson said.

The track had cracks that would eventually have created an unsafe surface for student athletes.

“The cracks were repaired and the whole track was resurfaced,” Watson added.

The surface is red rather than black as it was before. United Sports Systems of Wichita did the work on the facility.

“The company wanted to try a new red surface over the old black one and see if it would cover it properly,” said Watson. “Since we are close (to Wichita), they can show it to other schools and sell the process. The red surface is more UV resistant and should wear better.

“It is significantly more expensive than the black surface, but they made us a special deal installing the red for the same price as black. Plus they added a year onto the warranty,” Watson said.

In other business, the board:

• approved emergency substitute certificates for the 2008-09 school year for Christina Hansen, Cindy Harms, Rachel Kostner, Lynette Mull, Dianne Nickel, and Harlin Unruh.
• approved for the 2008-09 school year, substitute teachers Michael Ball, Pamela Lamborn, Jonathan Smeeton, and LaDana Unruh.
• approved offering the position of vocational shop aide to Matt Schroeder for the 2008-09 school year. Schroeder will work with students specifically enrolled in the new hot rod building class.
• heard that Peabody-Burns FFA would be sending seven members to a national convention Oct. 21-25 in Indianapolis, Ind.
• adopted Kansas Association of School Board policy updates; reviewed, but took no action on bond refunding; and received confirmations of member attendance Dec. 5-7 at the KASB convention in Wichita.
• heard a report from Watson about state assessment performances and reviewed the annual progress draft data by class, building, and district for the 2007-08 school year. State and district comparisons were discussed.
• were reminded of a special meeting at 7 a.m. Oct. 18 in the central office to evaluate Superintendent Watson. Board president Gary Jones collected evaluations from board members.
• entered into four executive sessions for a total of 50 minutes to discuss non-elected personnel. The superintendent and building administrators remained in the meetings. No action was taken on return to open meeting following any of the sessions.
• entered into an executive session for five minutes for the purpose of discussing a student. No action was taken on return to open meeting.
• heard from board member Tony Zappone that Marion County Special Education Cooperative members are pleased with the facilities the district has provided for CLASS students.

Evaluation meeting

On October 18, with all members present, the board met in eight executive sessions from 7 a.m. to 10:48 a.m. to evaluate the superintendent. No action was taken during the open meeting.