MOUNT VERNON — Updates at the middle school, ranging from robotics feats to advances in social-emotional learning, were the focus of Monday’s Mount Vernon board of education meeting.
Each of the district’s building leadership presents a report to the board throughout the course of the school year.
Middle school principal Darin Prince said Monday the middle school will be applying for the silver tier of Ohio’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Recognition System and that it has doubled its response intervention time for students.
Prince also said the district is supporting a third of its students with additional math and ELA time this school year to attack learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, Mount Vernon’s middle school robotics team played a match to show the board and community members how the VEX robotics program works.
The district started robotics at the middle school three years ago.
Two of Mount Vernon’s four middle school teams qualified this year to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship in May due to their performance in a statewide competition earlier this month.
Mount Vernon’s school resource officer Jeremiah Armstrong spoke about progress with the district’s therapy dog, Nova, which will be the focus of a forthcoming solutions journalism story from Knox Pages.
Finances
The district received several book donations.
All elementary buildings will receive the book “Sisters & Champions: The True Story of Venus & Serena Williams” from Kokosing Valley Tennis Club. Wiggin Street Elementary will receive several books that celebrate diversity and inclusion, the titles of which were not shared Monday.
Specifically as part of the memorial book fund, the book “Flowers” will go to Twin Oak Elementary in memory of Patricia Elder, mother of Trina Simms, fifth grade teacher at Twin Oak. The board began the memorial book fund during the 1996-97 school year to purchase books for school libraries in memory of an employee, immediate family, member of an employee or student who died.
District treasurer Gary Hankins focused on fluctuating funds due to ongoing biennial budget adjustments. The budget began in January, when the district received a true up to adjust for differences.
“Since (the Ohio Department of Education) has kind of been making corrections with the foundation payments, we find ourselves moving money,” Hankins said, meaning changes in funds are not because the district lost money but because some funds have been switched to restricted.
Policy
The board approved updated policies, such as those about holidays, blended learning and food services, among others. Other districts in Knox County have similarly adopted updated policies this month.
The policies are adopted from Neola, a service for developing and updating board bylaws and policies, administrative guidelines and procedures, handbooks, etc. to ensure consistency and compliance with new legal mandates.
Facilities and Personnel
The district awarded Fanning Howey with the project to replace the doors at the high school for a total cost of $650,800. Fanning Howey will also be providing the district with architectural services for the roof replacement project at the high school.
The board approved both upcoming and retroactive facility use requests, including Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s use of the Energy Fieldhouse for the National Christian Schools Athletic Association annual season-ending tournament in early March as well as the use of the Twin Oaks Elementary Cafeteria and Gymnasium for upcoming Girls on the Run events this spring.
Regarding staffing changes, the board approved the resignations of speech language pathologist Erica Pullins, effective March 11, as well as assistant baseball coach Jonathon Robertson, effective Feb. 22. The district hired Colin Pack to replace him as assistant baseball coach.
The district added three substitute teachers and approved a job share agreement for the next school year for two middle school English Language Arts teachers.
