Barnett Retires & Bee Winners Recognized

Madisyn Peters, Dr. Marty Miller, and Aaron Hawley

On Thursday, February 16 the Antwerp school board met in regular session. Bob Herber opened the meeting. Dr. Miller recognized Spelling Bee winners Aaron Hawley with the winning word “eucalyptus” and Madisyn Peters spelled “digestive” correctly.

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted. President Bob – recognized a new national school liaison. The funding for the school did not drop or increase for the next two years. The state superintendent was recognized as being frustrated because of a 2 billion rainy day budget, but it hasn’t been spent for the school even though they cannot control the cost of doing business which is going up. The school is being very efficient with funds. The rainy day fund is going to have a $200 million of the 2 billion and is about 1% which is probably the interest according to Dr. Martin Miller.

Dennis Recker gave the Vantage report and Vantage will be having an Open House coming up soon and that includes showing new equipment and it’s February 27 from 5:00-7:30 p.m. Stacy Kauffman is retiring from Vantage as the superintendent on August 1st.

The Financial summary statement was presented by Christine Stuart.

Income: 1,199,108.55

Expenses: 662,241.78

Interest: $2900.42

The income includes several taxes and casino revenues all coming in at the same time.

Principal Mike Bute said on February 23 and 28 at 4:00-7:30 p.m. will be teacher conferences. The March 10 is the end of the 3rd grading period. State testing is coming up very quickly in March.

Principal Tim Manz presented some of the testing results for 3rd graders. The Paulding County Sheriff’s Dept put on a 911 presentation for the 2nd graders for when and how to call for emergencies. The PC Tigers will be competing against the teachers on February 24.

Kindergarten registration is March 29th and 31st.

Marty stated the custodian position is being filled right now and there should be an approval by next week. The pressbox for the football field is being worked on right now with the architects. They are also working on dugouts and backstops for the baseball and softball fields. The Solar array is continued to being worked on with bids from solar companies. Harold Gottke just became certified as a level 1 Building Operator. Cathy Barnett, Technology Integration Specialist teacher is going to retire again this year. She thanked the board in a letter with all her years that started in 1985 through many positions from athletics, teaching, technology coordinator and much more. “I love my job and the people I work with everyday.” wrote Cathy Barnett.

Harold Gottke said the 3D printer is working well and the CAD programming is how it’s driven. Digital signage is now being implemented outside the cafeteria. He said the broadcasting studio and TV that the students have been working with Kayla Bagley keeping it up to date. The classroom amplification system is looking at being replaced because the previous system has been failing and teachers are frustrated.

Dr. Miller talked about his recent school administrator conference. He said some of the new technology is very significant coming soon.  The changes will becoming into science, technology and probably influencing every aspect of education.

Dennis Recker thanked Christine and the people that worked on changing the insurances over the past two years.