CCR-1 District Sells Revere Building

By Mike Scott
   The Clark County R-1 School District has sold the former Revere School building for a sealed bid price of $16,100.  Chad Winters outbid three other bidders for the property.  The district also took sealed bids on much of the remaining items in the building, including shop equipment, freezers, desks, tables, chairs and other items.  That sale brought in another $3100 to the CCR-1 District.  The CCR-1 board accepted the bids at their Thursday, October 11 meeting.
    The board also reviewed the transportation program.  The district currently carries 670 students over 1218 miles every day.  Superintendent Ritchie Kracht reported the strengths of the program include supervisor Karl Hamner, driver safety, and the district’s inspection record. 
   Concerns include the uncertainty of state funding, fuel costs, cost of replacement busses, attracting quality drivers and county road maintenance.
“We need to continue to purchase new busses,” board member Bill Schutte said.  The district plans to purchase one more new bus or two used low-mileage busses later this year.
   Black Hawk Principal Julie Brotherton discussed the district’s new teacher evaluation system.  The new system will eventually require building principal to monitor teaching in the classroom, and rate teachers in over 30 different areas.  Currently, the district is starting with six teaching areas.
   “I’ve told my teachers ‘We’re  not trying to get you, we’re trying to coach you to be a better teacher,” Brotherton said.
   High School Principal Jason Harper added, “I like the program because it gives me specific ways to help a teacher improve, but meeting with a 33 teachers 12 times is not practical.”
   Harper also presented a plan for improving teaching to meet Common Core Standards.  His plan outlined 10 areas of improvement in a power point presentation to the board. 
Those areas are:
1-Rigor
2-Grade Level Shift
3-Text Complexity
4-Schoolwide Literacy
5-Close Reading
6-Writing
7-Student Engagement
8-Instructional Time
9-Approaches to teaching
10-Professional Development.
   Overall, the concept encourages more detailed reading and writing at all grade levels, along with frequent questions to the students, better classroom management, and encouraging students to take higher level classes. 
   “We have to create a culture that gets kids to want to take upper level classes,” Harper said.
   In other business, the board:
-Accepted a bid from Bash Concrete for snow removal.
-Discussed whether any girls’ athletics issues have arisen following the decision to add baseball.
-Set the November board meeting for Wednesday, November 7 at 6pm.