School board accepts bid for agricultural barn.

Ag department received $25,000 grant in fall 2016 that needs to be used by August

Kutztown School Board approved on Feb. 21 expenditures for an agricultural barn at the high school.

The Agricultural Department had been awarded a $25,000 grant in fall 2016, which they will use for the construction of a barn with storage on top. The grant has a time limit that requires that it be spent by August.

Contractors offered bids, but there was little clarity on what would be included in the project. According to David Miller, treasurer, the borough will not approve any plans that are not arranged through a professional firm.

The accepted bid is for $7,500, which includes the engineering drawings, according to Miller, this is the better price option of those that were offered.

“I think it is important to note that the $25,000 may not be sufficient for what they’re asking to have done,” said Carl Ziegler, Board President.

In other news, Superintendent Dr. George Fiore had several items to share under “Kutztown Good News,” the first being a short presentation of a project by middle school students about their Future City, a project that earned the prize of “Most Innovative Use of Technology.”

“I’m very impressed with your presentation and the detail. I had the good fortune of seeing it at the STEM event,” said Fiore. “Thank you for representing Kutztown so well. I know your families are proud and I know your teachers are proud. We’re very excited. I just wanna say thank you and keep going. This is only the beginning.”

Next, the school counselors of the KASD presented their “College and Career Ready 339 Plan.” The project aims to prepare students, starting at the elementary level, for their future—whether it be through a two or four year higher education through college or a career straight out of high school.

According to the vision statement developed by the team, “As a school counseling department, we recognize the importance of each student. We ensure that each student is a valued member of our school community. We enhance student achievement by supporting academic, career and personal/social goals. We work to maximize each student’s potential as they embrace change and reach to the future.”

The project will introduce things such as individual and group counseling, large group lessons, crisis intervention, academic planning and advisement, high stakes testing, collaboration with parents, staff and the community, career education and post secondary awareness.

“The initiative for us as a department has really been such a cool experience,” said Hallie Schumacher, middle school counselor. “We went through training last year into this year and we given this past year to write our curriculum and come up with this K-12 comprehensive program that mostly is highlighting the career education piece but that’s not all we do as counselors of course. We also help kids with their academic development, and their personal and social development as well.”

“Thank you for your hard work in being a part of this committee,” said Fiore. “Typically we’re planning for K-12 but that’s not the case. In fact, we are planning beyond high school, which is a big shift for most schools across the commonwealth. We’re excited to do that, as you can see, our team is ready for it.”

Next under good news, Fiore shared the “Shadow a Student Challenge,” a program in which administrators essentially become students again but walking alongside selected students and participating in their day at school. Fiore was stationed in the high school.

“The purpose was for us to really understand what students have to do,” said Fiore. “They’re serving eight different masters when that bell rings when you’re in secondary, that’s a challenge. Also the demands that the kids are under, when I say demands—that’s not a negative, they were embracing it. The cognitive engagement of our students because of our teachers was exemplary.”

Next, four senior Kutztown students have worked alongside peers from nearly every high school in Berks County to develop a series of anti drug and alcohol and pro-positive life choices messages to be pushed out via social media and traditional printthe endeavor is bundled under the name “Shock the County.”

A $2,000 grant was awarded to Kutztown Elementary for their school garden; the school will also receive a new irrigation system. This grant helps diversify the kinds of fruits and vegetables available in the school’s garden.

In other news, Charles Maddocks was approved as head football coach for the 2017-18 school year, at a stipend of $4,739. This is effective February 22, 2017.

Wynn Greiss was approved as an assistant softball coach/middle school head softball coach for the 2016-17 school year, at a stipend of $2,262. Joshua Rabert was approved as a volunteer middle school baseball coach for the 2016-17 school year.

The next KASD school board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the high school library on March 20.