March 28, 2024

USD 457 Board of Education Meeting April 20, 2020

USD 457

The USD 457 Board of Education met Monday, April 20th, during a regularly scheduled meeting.

The Board of Education conducted its meeting virtually due to the social distancing expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.  This is being done to make sure the public, Board members, and school staff involved in the meeting are safe.  The meeting was presented live on YouTube and has been posted on the district’s YouTube channel, which can be found as a button at the bottom of the district’s website at www.gckschools.com

The Board heard a report on Family Engagement in the district from Monica Diaz, Coordinator of ELL and Literacy, and Mary Karlin, Community Literacy Liaison and Grant Facilitator.  The district is seeing a lot more family engagement due to the Continuous Learning plan from the closing of the schools because of the Coronavirus. 

The Board received an update on the ACT results and preparation from Crystal Steinmetz, Director of Curriculum and Assessment and Steve Nordby, Garden City High School Principal.  ACT is a college entrance standardized test that measures a student’s skills in five core areas: English, Math, Reading, Science and Writing.

The Board heard an update on the District Assessment Plan from Crystal Steinmetz, Director of Curriculum and Assessment.  Assessments serve as a way to measure, monitor, and report student progress on achievement of grade level standards.  It also communicates to stakeholders data relating to strengths as well as areas for improvement in order to guide instruction and learning outcomes.

Other business that the Board approved under the consent agenda included lighting projects at Jennie Barker Elementary School and Georgia Matthews Elementary School, K-12 Science textbooks resolution for classified staff evaluations, Edgenuity virtual school software renewal for 2020-2023, Memorandum of Understanding between Finney County, Kansas and USD 457 Garden City Public Schools to allow school nurses to volunteer their time to assist the Finney County Health Department during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the purchase of services to upgrade the fire alarm system at Georgia Matthews Elementary School, with an estimated cost of $77,315.

The next meeting of the Board of Education will be Monday, May 4, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room at the Educational Support Center, 1205 Fleming Street.  Due to social distancing requirements, the public will not be allowed in the Board Meeting Room.  The meeting will be streamed live for public viewing on the USD 457 YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/usd457.