ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Much Discussion, No Decision On Pettisville School Calendar




The Pettisville School Board held a long discussion, but took no action, on a proposed school calendar for the 2017-18 school year during its Monday, Feb. 6 meeting.

The calendar has the next school year beginning Aug. 17 and ending May 31. It will continue most of the features of calendars from the past few years, including a weeklong spring break.

Steve Switzer, superintendent, said results of a survey taken concerning the spring break were mixed.

He said the parent survey was even in responses for and against continuing the spring break schedule. Students were overwhelmingly in favor of the idea.

“I would like to see the students who vote against having time off from school,” Switzer said with a smile.

The staff voted against the concept but in favor of an Easter break by a small margin, Switzer said.

The current draft calendar includes a spring break from March 19-23, which falls between the winter and spring athletic seasons, Switzer said.

The calendar also includes a short Easter break with no classes on Friday and Monday, allowing a four-day weekend.

“For those who travel to celebrate Easter, this allows them time to do that,” Switzer said.

One change from recent calendars is the inclusion of a second parent-teacher conference time in February.

The calendar includes two days the first week of November for the traditional parent-teacher conferences, and Feb. 21 as a second day for conferences.

“We used to have a second day (of conferences) later in the year, and then we discontinued it,” Switzer said.

“We thought it was time to try that concept again, because we received numerous comments that we needed more communication between teachers and parents.”

John King, a board member, asked about the reason- ing behind the conferences.

“I just thought we had more ways to communicate now, with the online grading system and emails and things along those lines, and that was why we decided to eliminate the extra day of conferences,” King said.

“That’s true,” Switzer said, “but parents and teachers want to interact and talk about a student face-to-face at times. It is sometimes difficult to really communicate everything in an email.”

The proposed calendar will be presented to the staff for input.

Young Retires

In other business, the board accepted the resignation for the purpose of retirement of Jack Young, assistant custodian. Young will resign effective June 30.

He has worked at Pettisville since January 2005.

Michael Lane, high school principal, presented the board with a list of 20 choir members and 13 band members who participated in the Fulton County Music Festival, Sunday, Jan. 22.

The festival, which rotates locations, was held at Swanton High School. Two Pettisville students– Gabe Beck (choir) and Ava Hoops (band)– were recognized as four-year participants in the honors group.

Lane also explained a change in the math curriculum.

Due to the state requirement changing from requiring three math credits to four, Pettisville will now offer three different tracks for high school students.

One track starts with Algebra 1 in eighth grade and concludes with calculus.

A second track starts with Algebra 1 for freshmen and concludes with advanced math, a pre-calculus and trigonometry course.

The third track starts with Algebra 1 and concludes with a business math course that will deal with financial math.

Kindergarten

Jason Waldvogel, elementary principal, reported that approximately 30 students have already pre-registered for kindergarten testing and screening. Waldvo- gel also talked about a program sponsored by a local insurance agency and the Wauseon Fire Department.

The program includes a fire ladder and fire extinguisher giveaway. Three elementary students won fire ladders, and two won fire extinguishers.

The firefighters also gave smoke alarms to all of the first-grade families.

The board moved into executive session for the purpose of reviewing for negotiations or bargaining sessions with employees.

The private meeting lasted just two or three minutes; no action followed.

The next meeting is Monday, March 13, 7 p.m., in the school conference room.–D.J. Neuenschwander



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