May Superintendent Newsletter
Winchester CUSD #1 Monthly Newsletter
April 28, 2016
I attended an ESSA Workshop yesterday. ESSA stands for Every Student Succeeds Act. ESSA was signed into law last December and replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Under ESSA, states have been given more authority to handle K-12 public education. NCLB will become null/void on August 1st, 2016 with a transition to ESSA for the 2017-18 school year.
Our PERA Joint Committee met this week. We have four additions to the Student Growth Plan. We are now ready to present the plan to the school board for review.
Peak Insurance is providing lunch for all staff on May 5th as part of Teacher Appreciation Week May 2nd-6th.
Bill Lawson and his wife, Monica, surprised us on April 13th with another donation from the Howard & Vera Million Trust. The bequest is $20,000.00 and is designated to our FFA Chapter.
The Illinois Dept. of Revenue has discovered an overpayment mistake to over 6,000 government municipalities in the state. We received “an extra” $16,463.61 that will need to be paid back according to information sent to me. Although there is no repayment plan yet, I understand this will occur over a long period of time.
Beth Purvis, State Secretary of Education, spoke at our IASA Meeting on April 20th. She said there is talk that there will not be a separate school funding budget passed for FY17 without a state budget in place. Although we could possibly make it to Christmas without state revenue, more than 200 school districts wouldn’t be able to start school in August.
Lorrie Koch, Scott County Supervisor of Assessments, has went through each year’s tax assessment from 1980 to the present on the property where school tax money went to Triopia instead of Winchester. Lorrie has determined the actual figure of lost tax money to be $19,494.98. We will continue to work with county personnel on a resolution to this matter.
Liberty Mutual is our current carrier for property and liability insurance. We are seeking a quote from Prairie State Insurance Cooperative for FY17 coverage.
Becky Lashmett has completed a grant to upgrade our security camera DVRs. Illinois Public Risk Fund (our Work Comp) has offered a $2,819.00 grant to cover this expense.
We have received the report on our State Compliance Visit from March 3rd. As expected, we have several items that need updating or attention to satisfy the compliance requirements. We have 30 days to complete these requirements or report the progress on these items.
Corrective actions to our lunch/breakfast program at WHS have been approved by the ISBE School Nutrition Program.
The Winchester Education Foundation elected officers at their April 6th meeting. They are: Chris Dorsey - President, John Paul Coonrod - Vice President, Julie Peterson - Secretary (re-elected), and Kent Coultas - Treasurer (re-elected).
Cathy Post, our school nurse, has registered for a required IEP Medical Review Course. This training is for school nurses to meet new compliance regulations for the 2016-17 school year.
Our 1% County Sales Tax for the first quarter of 2016: January - $9,887.27, February - $8,698.77, and March - $9,414.45.
The following motions were approved at the April 12th School Board Meeting:
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Art Club Trip to Chicago April 15th-17th
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Membership into the Illinois Association of School Boards
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Closed session minutes from July through December of 2015
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School calendar for 2016-17
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Lease of a new 77-passenger transit style school bus
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RIF notices: Dena Walker - Pre K Coordinator and Pre K Bus Driver - Julie Short
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Retirement notices: Reta Jackson - 2nd Grade Teacher and Anita Niffen - District Librarian
- Re-employed coaches: Rusty Monroe - WGS boys basketball, Jason Likes - WGS girls basketball, Jeff Abell - WCC boys basketball, and Brian Bettis - WCC Girls Basketball
