School Board Hears About Pre-K, Ag Program
The Jasper County Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the new hires of Hung Cole and Dianne Parr, as paraprofessionals for Washington Park Elementary School.
They also approved the resignation of Debbie Grier, the current Jasper County High School Health Occupations teacher at their business meeting Tuesday.
The board heard in a work session last Thursday from Nannette Manning, Director of the Jasper County Preschool program. She asked that the board approve the Head Start Plan for the fiscal year 2011. This plan will be the basis of an inspection that will take place at the Pre-K building soon. Mrs. Manning told the board that there is an annual review, which covers all of the policies and procedures currently being implemented in the program.
Mrs. Manning said that the program has been in the county for 30 years. It was in 1993 that the county began a Pre-K program and in 1998, the county began its blended program. She noted that they use a program approach to get the children ready for Kindergarten. The entire program currently serves 151 children and is at its maximum capacity.
The board approved the go ahead with the FY 2011 Head Start Plan unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting.
In the work session Scott Carey, and students from the high school involved in the FFA program gave a presentation. They came before the board per a request/suggestion from the board members at a previous meeting.
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In an overview, Mr. Carey said that currently there were 178 students enrolled in the Ag Science/Mechanics program. He said that the program is beginning this year and they are leaning from students what type of direction to go in as far as upcoming years. He told of the active members of the FFA program, and thanked the maintenance staff for their upkeep of the greenhouse and the mechanics shop.
Kristin Raven, a JCHS student and FFA President spoke on behalf of the program thanking the board for their support and the reinstatement of the program. Vice President James Greenway told the board of the vision for the FFA/Ag Program. Zach Estes and Hunter Lawson also spoke to the board about some of the fund raising and general activities that are done under the FFA umbrella throughout the year. The group also announced that FFA will host an open house Thursday, Nov. 11 at the high school.
The board also approved a number of fund raising requests including a Jasper County Preschool pizza kit sale, a Middle School Yearbook eighth grade ad sale, and two for the JCHS Birdwatching Club: an owl prowl and a duck game booth during the Deer Festival.
Members also approved an overnight field trip for the JCHS CTI Fall Leadership conference and competition.
Eric Arena, assistant superintendent, gave a summary of the financial report noting that the system has used 25.1 percent of its budget, with 25 percent of the school year over. He noted that everything was on track so far financially.
Dr. Mike Newton, superintendent, spoke at the work session about a JCMS and JCHS proposed mathematics incentive. He brought the idea for the board that math continues to be one of the school’s biggest “dragons,” and he told of polling some teachers and students and one had the idea to place a teacher helper in math classes. The person hired would be one who is qualified and can be an aid to both the teacher and the student in this area. This is still under some discussion and was just brought before the board as an idea.
Dr. Newton said that the idea was to have an extra person who would be full time and paid for with JOBS money from the state. He said that it would enable more work in smaller groups in the classroom and improve the student to teacher ratio catering to the various skill levels of individual students.
