Greater Jasper Consolidated School Board meeting notes

The Greater Jasper School Board met Monday night for their regular meeting and approved two new policies regarding the Use of Drugs and Alcohol and the Code of Conduct for Student Athletes.

These two new policies were written as a result of the Substance Abuse efforts by the school system to provide a way out for students who have become ensnared by substance abuse activities.

Jasper Assistant Superintendent Bob Hacker gave a brief summary of each policy and the board approved them in a single vote.

“Kids have to know where the lines are and I think that both policies spell those out,” Hacker said. “We’re dealing with students and we want to give them every possible excuse to say ‘no’ to substance abuse, be that alcohol or drugs or synthetic drugs.”

While the passing of the policies represents an important milestone for the school system, it’s certainly not the end of the process. The final Substance Abuse forum for parents and the public is tonight (Tuesday) at the Jasper Middle School at 6:30 pm. Hacker stated they will be talking about social media at the meeting.

“Our goal [at tonight’s meeting] is to make parents aware of how each of the different Social Media tools work,” Hacker stated in an email, “and how parents can stay on top of what their student is doing on line.”

The new policies can be viewed at the following links.

FEB_1_2013_CODE_OF_CONDUCT_FOR_JASPER_HIGH_SCHOOL POLICIES_RELATED_TO_USE_OF_DRUGS

FEB_1_2013_CODE_OF_CONDUCT_FOR_JASPER_HIGH_SCHOOL

Gymnasium update

Hacker also supplied the board with an update on the High School Gymnasium construction project. He said that the floor is scheduled to arrive today (Tuesday) and that the baskets and backboards are installed along with the new scoreboard which has been hung over the floor. Hacker also said that the seats are being installed now as well.

When asked if the gym would be finished in time for commencement exercises, Scott Stenftenagel, project manager said that Empire Contracting is “meeting the schedule as set forth.”

School superintendent Dr. Tracey Lorey announced at the end of the meeting that based on that information, they are looking into having graduation exercises in the new gym even though it isn’t finished yet, and the time schedule remains tight. In other words, the school has no other option planned for commencement exercises other than having it in the new gymnasium.

Also

In other news, the Board heard an update from the Jasper Middle School in their use of Star Reading and Math programs. “This is the first year for us to implement that type of a formative assessment in grades K through 12 and any time you implement something new there is somewhat of a learning curve,” Dr. Lorey said. “The idea behind that information is just to help our students and our teachers and our administrators to be able to use data regarding students performance on mastery of academic standards in reading and math to be able to pinpoint what our students needs are, what their strengths are and then be able to make decisions about how to best to support them instructionally.”