School superintendent Abbotts invites community input on school safety
Greene County school superintendent Brett Abbotts opened the Jan. 10 school board meeting talking about the Jan. 4 shooting at Perry High School.
He said that because of the close proximity of the Perry district, the fatal shooting “ripples and rips through a school district like ours.”
He said he sent correspondence to Perry school superintendent Clark Wicks but hadn’t gotten a response. “I can’t imagine what he’s possibly going through right now,” Abbotts said. “That is literally every educator’s worst nightmare come true.”
Abbotts had sent out information about school safety to parents and staff. “The safety of our students is incredibly important to us. We’re going to continue to stay as diligent as humanly possible,” he said.
He said he appreciates the support of the community for the school and will welcome any suggestions of how the district can do things better.
The board saw the first draft of the calendar for the 2024-25 school year. The proposed calendar has teachers starting the school year Aug. 15 and students starting Friday, Aug. 23.
Students will be dismissed at 1:30 pm every Monday for teacher professional development.
Aside from Labor Day, students have only one day off from school before Thanksgiving – a professional development day is scheduled for teachers Friday, Oct. 25. Other professional development days are slated for Friday, Jan. 10; Monday, March 24; and Friday, April 18.
The winter break will be Dec. 23 through Jan. 1. Students and teachers will return Thursday, Jan. 2. Spring break will be March 17-21. The draft calendar shows May 22 as the last day of student attendance. At the suggestion of board member Cindy Daubendiek, that day may be changed to May 21 so that teachers would have two work-days to finish the school year before Memorial Day.
The calendar has 173 student attendance days.
The board will hold a public hearing on the calendar at its next regular meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 5:15 pm at the district conference room in the middle school.
The board accepted the resignation of third grade teacher Kevin Paulsen for the purpose of retiring. He has taught in the district for 25 years. His resignation is effective at the end of the school year.
Other business included approval of asking the state School Budget Review Committee to approve special education administrative costs to be billable for Grandwood Consortium in the amount of $14,563.43; and for Woodward Academy Day School Consortium in the amount of $754.93. The district has students attending both schools.
The meeting was brief, lasting only 27 minutes. Board president Bonnie Silbaugh was absent; Daubendiek served as president pro tem. Daubendiek and Tim Riphagen were the only board members at the table, as Connie Boyd attended remotely and Michelle Fields was absent.
