SIKESTON - School board members had several guests at
their monthly meeting Tuesday, including a student who
received special recognition for a poem he wrote on
terrorism.
The seventh-grader's teacher, Gina Kirkman, explained
the assignment was to create poetry by giving each
student a couple of random words, one of which for
Chris Carnell was terrorism.
The word was placed at the top of the assignment page
and each student was to write what the word meant to
him. The idea is to write metaphorically.
"Once that learner has put his or her image on, they
pass it to the next learner and it goes through the
classroom so when you get your paper back you have a
paper full of wonderful imagery," explained Kirkman.
"You circle the six you like best.
"In Mr. Carnell's case, he is a writer who likes to
revise and make it his own work. What he did is use
the phrases he liked best with his word in the middle
and then of course he added his own, so really it
became Chris's own poem and we were so pleased with
the way it turned out. I'll never forget the day Chris
read his poem to the class and everyone looked in awe
of what he'd done with it."
Chris was then asked to come before the board where he
received a round of applause and a certificate of
achievement for his impressive work.
Also during the meeting, Transportation Director Randy
Thompson recommended the board accept the fuel bid
award which included MFA's low bid of .05 cents per
gallon for gasoline over the rack price and a separate
bid of .03 cents a gallon over the rack price for
diesel, a bid made by Santie Oil. The fuel bids, which
are sought the first of every October, were accepted
by the board.
Also discussed and passed was an initiative petition
for a constitutional amendment for simple majority
during the school district bond elections. As
explained by Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller, the
issue, which would be placed before the voters on the
ballot in November 2002, would add a constitutional
amendment.
"This would then allow us take to the voters a G.O.
bond or a simple majority," said Borgsmiller.
"Currently, depending upon the election date, you
usually have to have a 2/3 majority or no less than a
5/7 majority in order for a G.O. bond vote to be
successful. The MSBA (Missouri State Board
Association) outlined this at the regional meeting
that was held at Middle School back in September and
since that time we have received additional
information and I know the SCTA (Sikeston Community
Teachers Association) has received information on this
as well.
"The state legislators have been approached on this in
the last couple of legislative sessions and their
action has been less than desirable. According to the
MSBA and the Missouri Community Teachers Association,
'we think we can do this without you guys.'"
In order to go on the statewide ballot, Borgsmiller
said, petitions must be signed by 8 percent of those
who voted in the prior gubernatorial election in six
of the nine districts.
"The goal for the MSBA and the MCTA is to have at
least the number of signatures as there are each
individual school districts in the state."