The Trenton R-9 Board of Education October 11th set substitute teacher pay at $110 per day. Superintendent Daniel Gott reported this would be a continuation of what was approved in February when pay was set at $110 per day “for the remainder of the year.”
The change will also affect long-term substitute pay. Substitutes will be paid $110 per day for days one through 10, $112 per day for days 12 through 25, and $205 per day for days 26 and beyond. Gott noted the $205 per day would essentially be the same as the base salary.
He added that the long-term pay would be for consecutive days of work. If someone missed a day, the pay would start over at day one.
The board approved a budget amendment. It involved adding $5,000 for the Missouri Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association to pay for dues, conferences, and travel expenses for Trenton R-9 ag teachers. Two hundred dollars was taken out of the Ag Travel Account.
Gott reported the expenses for MVATA have been coming out of Ag Travel, but the district wanted them to come out of the MVATA line item. He noted the MVATA line item already existed, but it had nothing in it recently.
The board approved the submission of GEC Community Foundation grant applications. One was from Fourth Grade Teacher Cassandra Marshall for $987 for two Level 4 Building Vocabulary kits by Tim Rasinski. The other was from First Grade Teacher Megan Lynch for $450 for a Fontas and Panell kit. Both grants would be non-matching.
Director of Special Services Tara Hoffman presented the Special Education Program Evaluation. She reported the school district provides early childhood special education services for preschool children who are three and four years old. Children in preschool through 12th grade are served at Trenton Preschool, Rissler Elementary School, Trenton middle and high schools, the Success Center, the Missouri School for the Blind, Great Circle, and the Verelle Peniston State School.
The district provides occupational therapy through contracted services at Wright Memorial Hospital. It provides physical therapy through Wolfe Therapy as a contracted service. Trenton R-9 also provides speech and language therapy through DotCom Therapy as a contracted service.
Hoffman also presented the Assessment Program Evaluation. She said students in third through eighth grade will participate in Missouri Assessment Program testing online. Spring 2022 individual score reports were mailed home and are available in SIS for each student. District information will be available after December 1st.
The 2023 Rissler MAP testing window is April 24th through May 5th. The TMS MAP testing window is May 1st through 12th.
Spring 2022 End of Course scores were uploaded to the SIS assessment tab in the parent portal. The fall 2022 EOC window is October 24th through January 27th, and the spring 2023 EOC window is March 6th through May 25th.
Director of Academics Doctor Jill Watkins reported instructional walk-throughs started in September. Informal data was collected, and feedback will be given to teachers.
The district received a $10,000 Grow Your Own Teachers grant last year, and money was awarded to four people. Watkins explained three of those four individuals were teaching in Trenton R-9 currently because there was not a position open for the fourth person last year.
She said there has been interest in the program this year, and there is $2,000 remaining. The application window will be open October 17th through November 22nd.
Watkins reported she and Gott talked about funding the Grow Your Own Teachers program in the future and looking for ways outside of district funds to support the program. She said the district might use a different framework if it continues the program.
Gott reported on summer school through Catapult. He said Trenton R-9’s program lasted 168 hours and had an enrollment of 212 students. The average daily attendance was 193.3 or 91%. Gott commented that was better than last year when there was about 70% ADA. However, he said last year’s summer school stopped early due to so many people being on quarantine.
The total estimated revenue from this year’s summer school was $237,043. The Catapult fee is $101,483. District staffing and supplies cost $112,296.16. The district had a net gain of $23,263.84.
Results from parent and district staff surveys were shared. Surveys were completed by 91 parents of students who received services. The highest score of 3.95 out of 4 went to “The student incentives made the Summer Journey Program enjoyable for my children.”
Nineteen district staff members completed surveys. The highest score of 3.53 went to “Teaching in the Summer Journey Program was a positive experience.” Gott noted only one teacher survey result was below 3.15, which is Catapult’s goal. That result was 3.11 for “The morning, core curriculum was enjoyed by students.”
Gott reported each classroom will have a Safety Go bag in the event it had to evacuate. The bags will include rosters, emergency contact information, emergency safety plans, rubber gloves, bandages, two bottles of water, crackers, and a flashlight. The bags will be hung at the door of the classrooms, so they are easy to access when evacuating. CFM Insurance donated sling bags, and Bright Futures Trenton donated materials.
Each classroom that has an outside window will have a classroom number put on the window to help emergency personnel with locating rooms. Secondary locks have been completed by Grand River Technical School and will be installed in classrooms.
Gott reported Trenton R-9 will participate in the Great American Shake Out by holding an earthquake drill October 20th. Rissler will hold an earthquake drill October 19th because of trips that were previously scheduled.
Gott is creating a Buildings and Grounds Planning Committee to discuss what the district has now and what it could have in the future. He wanted two board members to be part of the committee. He plans to hold the first meeting October 24th at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
Following an executive session for personnel, the Trenton R-9 Board of Education Tuesday night accepted two resignations and approved three employments.
Submitting her resignation effective October 28th was Betty Schultz, a cook in the food service program. She will become a full time employee of KTTN/KGOZ. Para-professional Ashley Wilson resigned as of September 30th.
Hired as full time food service cooks were Ginger Murphy and Karri Barnes. Rylee Berti was hired as a Title One paraprofessional at Rissler Elementary School. Emily Owen was named varsity cheerleading coach for basketball. Four substitutes also were approved.
