Highlights from 3/20/14 school board meeting

131 land chosen as site for new Seipelt Elementary
Common Core discussed at community meeting
Athletic Update
Extracurricular Update

• Because of the hard winter, the district has has to spend more than budgeted for salt and utilities.  To balance the expense side of this year’s budget, science textbook expense has been moved to next year.  On the positive side of the budget, we are receiving an additional $300,000 for special needs preschool – the state is now funding a portion of this required program, which has previously been a 100% unfunded mandate. The $300k does not cover the entire cost but it helps.  We are also receiving $108,000 in Medicaid reimbursement.  An analysis of our new self-funded Workers’ Comp program shows we can expect at least $65,000 a year in savings, if the program continues as it has been.

 

Advertisement

131 land chosen as site for new Seipelt Elementary

The current Seipelt Elementary will move to the 131 land next to Greycliff

In a process that has lasted almost a year, the school board voted on March 20 to move the new Charles L. Seipelt Elementary School to the new 131 land next to the Reserves of Greycliff.

This land was purchased about 9 years ago in a contentious process, with the then-administration and board paying over twice market value and incurring an additional several hundred thousand in legal fees. The rationale behind the purchase was the current Seipelt land was not large enough, per state regulations, to build a new school.  While that is true, the state does allow a waiver for smaller pieces of land.  It is not known if that was true at the time of the land purchase, what due diligence that administration conducted, and what the board was told at the time of the land purchase.

Common Core discussed at community meeting

On March 19, the Milford School District held a public meeting to present and discuss information about the Common Core/State Standards.  The meeting was attended by 50? people (my guess on number, and I’m often not very good with estimates) who had quite a wide variety of viewpoints.

District administrators and teachers presented an overview of the standards, which are the learning goals for students at each grade level.  The standards tell districts what students are expected to know by the end of each year, but not how to teach students to get them to those levels.

Extracurricular Update March 2014

On Friday, March 7, all three Milford concert ensembles performed at OMEA District 14 Concert Band Assessment.  The Red Concert band received an Excellent Rating while the White concert band received a superior rating. The symphonic Band performed in Class AA, representing the highest degree of difficulty, and received superior ratings from all four judges!  The symphonic Band was the only band of the 19 in the festival to receive the highest rating from all judges.  The Varsity Winter Guard recently competed in the Winter Guard International Mid-East regional at Xavier University.  The Guard advanced to the National Open Class finals, finishing 7th.  Milford’s Concert Choir did a great job performing in Class A at the OMEA District 14 Ratings Event on March 7th at Taylor HS.  The new a cappella choir at the high school has been rehearsing all winter and will be debuting very soon.

Athletic Update March 2014

Although Spring sports are preparing for some exciting competition, we look back to recognize some outstanding Winter sports achievements.

In Boys’ basketball, a total of five players, including first team selections Trevor Bullock and Will Hannah, have earned All-ECC honors.  The Eagles were one of only two league members to earn five all-conference honorees. Along with the first team honorees, junior Ryan Gallimore and sophomore Brad Hall earned second team honors, while sophomore Ben Greenwell was honorable mention.