Sikeston R-6 board hears updates on district's health and technology services

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston R-6 Board of Education received updates on the district's health and technology services during Tuesday's regular monthly meeting.

Registered nurse Nikki Vaught, R-6 health services coordinator, briefed the Board on the past year's health services within the district.

Vaught noted school nurses had a total of 33,541 visits from students last school year compared to 36,789 in 2012-2013. Already this school year, 10,073 students were seen in the nursing offices, she said.

"One thing we've seen several of is hand-foot-mouth-disease in the upper grades," Vaught said about the illness that is most common in toddler-aged children. "But we've got it under control."

So far about 260 flu shots were given to employees this year, which is an increase from last year, Vaught said.

"We have a couple new staff members who are very good at grant writing and we're hoping to get some grants to purchase equipment we need," Vaught said.

One goal not met last year was the start of a health services website and newsletter, which should be implemented this year, Vaught said.

Terry Schaefer, technology director, provided the technology report for the 2013-2014 school year.

Among accomplishments by his staff include: the replacement of staff PCs' migration to Windows 7, expanded wireless coverage to the Junior High and updated wireless components and assisted with the implementation of Junior High iPads.

"Recent changes in E-rate will significantly alter funding opportunities and district strategies in seeking and obtaining funding," Schaefer said. "New rules' changes reduce gradually all telecommunications funding and eliminate all telecommunications funding for the district by the year 2016-2017 and totally eliminated funding for all web hosting services effective July 2015."

However, the changes provide increased opportunities for overall funding and effectively guarantee a certain level of funding based on student enrollments, Schaefer said. The rule changes prioritize broadband access and wireless coverage.

"Current equipment will be closely analyzed for upgrade and/or replacement with the target of extending internal district bandwidth, which is currently 10GB to the primary entry into each building," Schaefer said. "The target will be to extend 10GB capability and functionality to all intermediate facilities within each building."

Brent Keefer, assistant superintendent for secondary/support services, briefed the board on attendance at parent-teacher conferences held Oct. 23 for all grades.

Early Childhood Education at the Kindergarten Center had the highest parent attendance rate in the district with 96 percent followed by the Fifth and Sixth Grade Center which had 95 percent of parental attendance. Overall, the district average was 87 percent in attendance which equals 3,148 successful conferences of a possible 3,624 conferences.

SHS senior Elizabeth Blanton was chosen by the board to be the district's nominee for the Missouri School Board Association's John T. Belcher Memorial Scholarship. Nominees are judged on academic performance, extracurricular activities and quality of an essay.

"I was charged with reading several resumes and the (senior) counselor Ms. (Kim) Thornbrough presented them to me, and they were all anonymous of names so I didn't know I would be selecting one of our school board member's daughters -- but very deserving," Board President Deke Lape said.

Blanton, who was present at the meeting, is the daughter of board member Amy Blanton and Dr. Kevin Blanton of Sikeston.

"I was very impressed with your resume," Lape told the high school senior. "Something I think is very important and so does the board is being a very well-rounded student and being involved in extracurricular activities. Congratulations."

As of Nov. 3, district enrollment was at 3,418, which is down five students from one month ago and 31 students from a year ago, the superintendent said. Williams noted the grades K-6 saw an increase of 16 students since last month, and enrollment in grades 7-12 went down 21 students.

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