CENTERBURG – Centerburg community members have plans to develop a rural soccer association, in collaboration with other nearby districts.
Parents and coaches attended Centerburg’s school board meeting Monday to encourage the district’s continued support for Centerburg’s soccer board.
“Since we started back in 2016, we started with 70 kids, this season right now we’re up to 153 kids,” president of Centerburg soccer Tim Westley said of kindergarten through 12th grade participation.
The school district allows Centerburg soccer to use school facilities, although it’s a separate entity from the school district. Centerburg soccer vice president Rachel Weade said the goal is to eventually make soccer a school club.
Participation is clustered in the younger ages — with middle school, U12, U10, U8, U6 and pre-kindergarten teams. About 30 students currently play at the middle school level, so the board intends to have a high school team in the fall, which will compete in the high school soccer association. The middle school teams currently participate in the middle school soccer association.
“Our board has also been participating in spinning off a rural soccer association that organizes Mount Vernon, Cardington and Marion into a league,” Westley said.
Regarding other sports updates in the district, the board rescinded a coach contract it previously approved at its February meeting, the assistant baseball coach contract offered to Scott Simmons. On Monday, the board approved Simmons instead as a volunteer baseball coach for the 2021-2022 school year, and approved a one-year supplemental contract for Zack Collins as assistant baseball coach.
Regarding finances, treasurer Lori Houck estimates yearly revenue at the start of the year and builds budgets based on anticipated expenses. On Monday, Houck make some adjustments to the food service fund because of revenue from federal subsidies for free lunches.
“Much more revenue has come in than what I was anticipating, so I’ve went ahead and adjusted that to make it be more realistic to where we’ll be at the end of the year,” Houck said. “I’ve also increased the appropriations because I wanted to increase the budget line for equipment in the cafeteria, because we’ve been able to replace a couple things and make repairs out of that fund.”
The board approved an addition of $250,000 in estimated resources for the food service fund during the 2022 fiscal year as well as an additional $147,000 to permanent appropriations for food service.
The board accepted a few donations Monday, including $500 from the Knox Soil and Water Conservation District to the FFA as well as donations in memory of Velma Jean Compton — specifically $35 from Diane Thompson, $100 from Kenny and Phyllis Love, and four books from Rodney and Lori Houck to the elementary school.
Elementary state testing is approaching, April 11 through 27.
The elementary school is planning to test all grade levels on the same days to narrow the overall time students will be testing in the building, elementary principal Miguel Thompson said.
In preparation, the board approved a resolution authorizing required third grade assessments in paper format. Students with individualized education plans can take the assessments in an online format, as their accommodation permits.
Other items Monday included board approval of a resolution from META to authorize the purchase of the competitive retail electric service from the lowest responsible bid submitted, from July 2022 billing cycle and ending no later than the June 2027 cycle.
The district will also be using ESSER III funds to pay Carrie Kletrovetz for after school academic tutoring at $20 per hour, as needed.
