×
×
homepage logo

Basehor-Linwood school board approves $300,000 textbook purchase

By Matt Erickson - | Apr 9, 2012

Matt Erickson

The Basehor-Linwood school district's administrative offices, and the school board meeting room, are located at 2008 N. 155th St.

Basehor-Linwood students will receive new language arts textbooks for the first time in eight years after the USD 458 school board voted for a $300,000 book adoption Monday.

The adoption comes after a committee of teachers and administrators from the district met throughout the year to discuss a new language arts curriculum, superintendent David Howard said at Monday’s school board meeting. The district has not made any new textbook adoptions since it acquired new math books three years ago, Howard said, as state budget cuts have deepened each year.

“Language arts is one of our major textbook adoptions that we do,” Howard said.

The language arts book adoption, Howard said, is especially expensive because it covers two curriculum areas: reading and writing.

Assistant superintendent Mike Boyd said at last month’s school board meeting that the then-proposed adoption would amount to about a $299,000 expenditure.

The adoption would include an electronic component, Boyd said, providing children access to materials online from home.

Also during Monday’s meeting, the school board:

• Hired, by a 7-0 vote, Tiffany Lynch to fill a new principal position for the 2012-13 school year, at Basehor Elementary School.

Since third- through fifth-graders from the BES attendance area moved into Basehor Intermediate School when that building opened in 2010, Teri Boyd has been principal for both buildings. But since the 2007 passage of the bond issue that paid for the intermediate school’s construction, the buildings’ attendance has increased from about 400 to 480. Boyd will remain principal at BIS.

Lynch, currently a third-grade teacher at the intermediate school, has taught in the district for 23 years. She was formerly a kindergarten teacher. Look for more about Lynch on basehorinfo.com and in the Sentinel print edition next week.

• Approved, 7-0, an expenditure of about $51,200 for roof restoration at Basehor-Linwood High School, to R.E. Theno Construction.

• As a result of its decision last month to end the district’s contract with PCI Cleaning Services for custodial work at two of its buildings, approved, 7-0, the purchase of two riding scrubber machines from Pur-O-Zone, at a cost of about $22,400.

Also by a 7-0 vote, the board agree to hire seven new custodians to staff those two buildings, BIS and Basehor-Linwood Middle School, after the switch from the contractor.

• Along with the hirings of Lynch and the new custodians, also approved the appointments of a number of new teachers and coaches: Rachel Harlow, Jessica Hobbs and Madeline Smith, all elementary teachers whose specific assignments will be determined later; Shelly Schoepflin, who will teach at BES but whose specific assignment will also be determined later; Mary Cooper, social studies teacher, and Brooke Kueser, English/reading teacher, for BLMS; and Keith Frasier, half-time assistant baseball coach, and Hannah Bailey, dance coach, for BLHS.

The board also accepted, 7-0, the resignations of Jennifer Lindelof, Amy Scruggs and Jessica Adams, all BES kindergarten teachers; Betsy Hermreck, Glenwood Ridge Elementary kindergarten teacher; Juli Brown, BLHS dance coach; Matt Johnson, eighth grade boys basketball coach at BLMS; Emily Brown, BLMS volleyball coach; and Chris Shelby, BLMS girls basketball coach.

• Approved, 7-0, student fees for 2012-13. Among the fees that will change are elementary enrollment charges, which will increase from $50 to $60, and the class dues for high school seniors, which will move from $35 to $45.