Minster BOE approves grant
The Minster Board of Education met on Dec. 21, below are noteworthy items from that meeting.
CARES Subgrant, new communications system coming
The board voted to approve the village of Minster’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Subgrant of $35,000 to “assist them in providing educational opportunities to residents of the village during the COVID19 pandemic.”
That $35,000 will be going towards the purchase of a new communication platform for the district.
Shortly after voting to approve the village’s subgrant, the board voted in favor of entering an agreement with Apptegy, an Arkansas based company that designs custom apps, websites and tools to build a school’s digital identity.
The agreement will mean a redesign of the districts website as well as a mobile app for families and community members
that can an alert system and will allow the district to send phone, text or email notifications to families.
Apptegy also uses Thrillshare, which provides allows the district to link their social media accounts to it and share a singular update to Thrillshare which will then send those alerts to the schools social media channels.
“(The information) was just was delayed, it wasn’t all being submitted at the same time,” said Boeke on what prompted the change. “We would share information on our website. Then we would send it out on social media and direct people to the website. But then on social media, that current message would get lost as additional messages came up so the most recent information wasn’t always right at hand for our parents.”
“Now, we’ll have Thrillshare,” added Boeke. “Like our social media, that provides updates but also on our website is a news area where we can put the information we shared last year like, ‘this is how the online classes are going to work,’ or, ‘this is what we need to do for picking up quarantine information,’ it’s just a way for us to better communicate with our parents in terms of what’s going on.”
With the agreement approved at the Dec. 21 meeting, they’ll have an organizational meeting that will take about a week, with the design of the new website and system to take another two to three weeks before all of the current content is migrated to the new site.
“In the end the plan is to have the app, website and Thrillshare up and running in February,” said Boeke. “Then we’ll wait till after the school year to transfer our alert system because we don’t want to have any hiccups with winter weather and notifying parents of delays or anything like that.”
Elementary School Board Report
Minster Elementary Principal Leanne Keller reported to the board that they were in the initial stages of planning a Makerspace at the elementary.
A Makerspace is a collaborative work area where students can use Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related skills to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge.
A STEM related after school program coming up in January will incorporate many of the same programs and techniques and will be the springboard for that Makerspace according to Minster Schools Superintendent Brenda Boeke.
A Makerspace has been in the schools strategic plan for the last three years, that’s when Boeke was introduced to a Makerspace at Waynesfield-Goshen, and the plans have been moving forward since then.
Once the program planned for January ends, Boeke said they’ll have a better idea of what worked well with the kids and can be implemented in the fall.
Elementary playground expansion
At the start of the meeting, the board accepted $5,250 in donations from the Loretta Herkenhoff Charitable Trust ($5,000) and the Minster Community Fund ($250) to go towards the elementary playground expansion.
When the district closed the old elementary building in 2012 and moved to their current site, they knew they had to renovate it for the needs of elementary students compared to the middle school students that previously had used the building.
Working with Garmann Miller, an architectural and engineering firm, at that time, they were given a four-phase expansion program. The first was done when they moved to the current building, the second phase was added two years ago and the district is now incorporating areas of the third and fourth phase into this next expansion.
Part of that, was getting the right playground equipment for elementary students compared to the fourth through eighth graders that used it prior.
The district met with Garmann Miller again about two weeks ago, where they gave the architectural firm their vision and what they wanted to work towards. Garmann Miller took those ideas with Boeke telling the Community Post that the plan is to talk with them in the new year about the cost so the district can start to look for quotes to determine the cost.
In addition to the donations, the student council has been raising money for the expansion through cookie dough sales ,with the money from those sales being earmarked for the playground expansion.
Boeke also added that they planned to honor longtime Kindergarten teacher Lisa Piening, who passed away from cancer earlier this year, in the playground expansion.
“She was a strong advocate for imaginative play and thought it was very important for kids to have that experience,” said Boeke on Piening. “So we are working with Garmann Miller to include an area of imaginative play in the playground area.”
Other notes
*The school spelling bee is planned for Jan. 19. Due to COVID, the bee will not be extended beyond the local level and will be held during the school day without spectators
* Keller reported that 3rd grade reading scores had come in. 79% of students were proficient and 88% have met the promotion score required by the state.