Galesburg Reporter

Mercer County School District 404 Board of Education met March 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

The Board of Education of Mercer County School District #404, Mercer, Henderson, & Rock Island Counties, Illinois, convened at a regular meeting at the Mercer County Intermediate School Music Room, at 6:30PM.

Prior to Roll Call, President Mike Bowns opened with a brief prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance.

ATTENDANCE

Board members present upon roll call: Balmer, Bowns, Monson, Smock, Wagner, and Yates. A quorum was present.

Absent: Bieri was absent.

Administrators present: Superintendent Scott Petrie, Principals Day, Sedam, Koresko, and Fleuette. Also in Attendance: Andrew Hofer, Taylor Saey, Elaine Anderson, Mark Heater, Monti Smith, Paul Hampton, Tamala Parchert, Jeremy Finch, Audrey Bryant, Heather Roeder, Jason Roeder, Shelly Snyder, Jason Synder, Dallas Morford, Megan Bull, Brandon Livingston, Anna Frieden, Kylee Frieden, Tristan Headley, Peyton Morrison, Samantha Morrison, Bridget Wilkerson, Terra Finley, Carrie Bigham, Josh Wilkerson, Josh Norton, Jacob Harrison, Travis Matlick, Jason Crawford, Ashlie Dellitt Fuller, Jim Campbell, Lisa Clawson, Erica Hajye and Secretary Angie Baker.

Reporters: Jim Taylor

RECORD OF MOTIONS & VOTES

CONSENT AGENDA 1. There was a motion by Balmer, seconded by Monson, to approve the following items on the consent agenda.

1.1 Meeting Minutes – February 16, 2022

1.2 Bill List

1.3 Treasurer’s Report

1.4 Financial Report

1.5 BCBS Health Insurance Account Statement

1.6 Retirement of New Boston Elementary Cook Joan Luxmore end of 2025-2026 school year

1.7 Resignation of Junior High Science Teacher Laura Buller end of 2021-2022 school year

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

MCHS GYM TUCK- POINTING & LINTEL REPAIRS

2. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to accept the bid for the high school gym tuckpointing and lintel repairs from Bruce Builders for $449,000.

Roll Call: 5 Ayes, 1 Nay. Motion carried.

PURCHASE PROPERTY

3. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to table the purchase of property for use as a district office.

Roll Call: 5 Ayes, 1 Nay. Motion carried.

CLOSED SESSION

4. There was a motion by Yates, seconded by Balmer, to go into Closed Session after a short recess for Personnel, Negotiations., and Litigation at 8:08PM.

4.1 Personnel

The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1)

4.2 Negotiations

Collective negotiating matters between the District and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(2).

4.3 Litigation

Litigation, when an action against, affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding must be recorded and entered into the closed meeting minutes. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(11).

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

OPEN SESSION

5. There was a motion by Monson, seconded by Balmer, to come out of Closed Session at 8:52 PM.

Majority of Ayes by Voice Vote. Motion carried.

HIRE PRE K TEACHER

6. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Bowns, to hire Kylie Stineman as Pre K Teacher.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

HIRE APOLLO COOK

7. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to hire Cassandra Bevan as Apollo Elementary School Cook.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

HIRE CUSTODIAN

8. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Bowns, to hire Larry Rudsell as Full Time Temporary Custodian.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

HIRE BASS FISHING COACH

9. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to hire Brandon Livingston as High School Bass Fishing Coach.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

NON TENURED STAFF

10. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to approve the Non Tenured staff contract renewal as presented.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

PRINCIPAL CONTRACT

11. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Bowns, to renew the contract of Marcus Bush as New Boston Elementary Principal as presented.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

PRINCIPAL CONTRACT

12. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Monson, to renew the contract of Tim Sedam as Junior High School Principal as presented.

Roll Call: 6 Ayes, 0 Nays. Motion carried.

ADJOURN

13. There was a motion by Smock, seconded by Balmer, to adjourn the meeting at 8:59 PM.

Majority of Ayes by Voice Vote. Motion carried.

OTHER REPORTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

ADDITIONS/ DELETIONS

1. None

AG BUSINESS CLASS

2. Mr. Livingston’s Ag Business Class presented the board with information and products they have been producing in class. He has the class of 20 students divided into 4 groups. Each group came up with a product to produce and market. Tristan Headley spoke about the patriotic customized signs his team creates. Payton Morrison gave information about the candle business they have created and the things they had to change to come up with the current product. Anna and Kylie Frieden presented information on their business “Crafty Cups”. The forth group designs and sells tshirts. They produced a 43 shirt order that was completed over Christmas break. Each team stated that they really learned teamwork and made friendships during this class.

PUBLIC COMMENT

3. We had several community members that addressed the board with concerns regarding 5th grade participation in junior high sports. A petition went around asking for signatures. IESA does allow 5th graders to participate. This year eight 5th graders participated in the wrestling program. It was mentioned that the numbers in the wrestling program are down and including the 5th graders would help increase participation. If transportation is an issue from New Boston or Apollo, parents are willing to help. Members of the Joy community would like to be better informed, specifically those who do not use social media/internet. Statements were also made against the purchase of property for the District Office.

BOARD COMMENTS

4. Tab Balmer congratulated Cody Baker and Eli Burns for there 3rd place finishes at the IESA State Wrestling Meet.

Julie Wagner thanked the Ag Business Class for their presentation, stating she’d like to continue to see students at board meetings.

CORRESPONDENCE

5. A thank you card was received from the family of William E. Smock.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

6. Finance Committee – None

Building and Grounds – None

Policy Committee – Mr. Petrie stated that the Policy Committee reviewed Section 5. No changes were made.

FOIA REQUESTS

7. None

LOOSER FLAKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

8. Mr. Petrie mentioned the Vocational Programming Grant we previously received from the Looser Flake Foundation. This grant gave us the opportunity to create 14 state of the art welding stations at the high school. He encouraged the board members to visit the vocational building.

Mrs. Day discussed the use for the $40,000 Looser Flake Grant we just received. The grants purpose is to help meet student’s financial needs for dual credit classes at the high school.

DISTRICT GOALS UPDATE

9. Mr. Petrie reviewed the district goals in place for this school year and provided updates. Amplify ELA curriculum is in its second year K-8. ELA and mathematics curriculum has been implemented at the high school.

Digital instruction continues to be used through the use of 1 to 1 Chromebooks with many teachers recording lessons for student’s absences.

Next year we will have two full time social workers on board as well as a case manager from the health department. A full time SRO was added at the high school this year. Our current JH SRO will be located in Aledo next year at the junior high building.

COMMUNITY FORUM

10. Mr. Petrie reminded the board of the upcoming Community Forum scheduled for April 12th. Using the information from this event, the board and the admins will work together to write new district goals and objectives for the 2022-2023 school year. Each board member is to provide names of community members they would like to invite.

JH BASEBALL

11. Carrie Bigham and Jacob Harrison asked the board to consider adding a Junior High Baseball Team to our extracurricular activities. Carrie provided the board with information the committee had gathered in regards to pros and costs. Jacob Harrison and Conner Sharp have offered to coach this team. Some concern and discussion was had regarding the overlap of the baseball and football seasons.

JH SPORTS & ACTIVITES

12. Mr. Sedam and Mr. Braucht gave some insight on the 5th grade athletic participation difficulties. They support giving students every opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities. Transportation causes some issues. Mr. Sedam invited input, suggestions, and ideas from the community stating the plan is still evolving. Junior Baseball was discussed also. Our JH conference involves seven schools that do not participate in baseball. This was make scheduling difficult. There is a four-week overlap between baseball and football. Julie Wagner is concerned about late practices for junior high students. This could be possible when no sport has a competition and everyone has a practice night. The junior high gym will be used for high school practices. Mike Bowns brought up high school wrestling. All wrestling meets for next year are currently being scheduled to take place at the high school. Storing the wrestling mats is being looked into.

HS TUCKPOINTING & LINTEL WORK

13. Four bids were received for the high school tuckpointing and lintel work. The low bid was from Bill Bruce Builders. They are the current contractors working on the addition of the Intermediate School. It was recommended from Phillips and Associates to accept the bid of $449,000 from Bruce Builders. The work is scheduled to start June 1, 2022 and be completed before August 10th.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS

14. In addition to the written reports, the following was mentioned:

Mr. Fleuette congratulated Kaitlyn McCrory and Adler Long. They are will be representing Apollo at the IPA Leadership Breakfast on April 8th.

Mrs. Day announced Robby Holtschlag and Olivia Hucke as the IPA Leadership Award winners at the high school. They will be honored at a ceremony on April 8th. Mike Bowns wanted to add that he heard the student’s performances were excellent at the 9 to 5 High School musical, but he was disappointed in the contents of the play.

https://www.mercerschools.org/_files/ugd/6b636f_69bb016faf8347c394ffe23905a2b86f.pdf