Curiculum on Nevada School Board agenda

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada R-5 School District has been using the Build Your Own Curriculum program for five years, Diane Marti, who oversees the development of curriculum for the R-5 district, told the R-5 school board during its monthly meeting Wednesday.

The Nevada R-5 School Board of Education normally meets on the second Wednesday of the month, however, it is an annual tradition to delay the July meeting for one week because there are usually several board members who have children who have exhibits at the fair.

Marti told the board that Build Your Own Curriculum is a "district-wide curriculum warehouse. It has every course taught in the district," she said.

Of the 2,700 courses taught in the district, Marti said, some have partly developed curriculua and others are "fully fleshed out."

These curriculum are not only useful for the current teachers, but are also available for new teachers to use as a template to start with, she told the board.

Marti said that most teachers set up a calendar to be sure they cover everything in the curriculum; however, Build Your Own Curriculum does that for them.

It also gives Nevada teachers a look at curriculum in other district that use BYOC to see what other teachers have done for similar courses.

Marti said that Nevada teachers spent about 1,500 hours in June working on their curriculum.

"It is not mandated but they want to get their plans finished for the new learning standards," she said.

"The district tries to provide time for teachers to write their curriculum," Marti told the board.

In other business the board:

* Heard a review of projects currently underway in the district's facility, as well as those planned.

* Voted 5-0, with Chris Dryer and Mike McCaffree excused, to approve 10 Missouri School Board Association policy revisions.

* Voted 5-0, to approve an agreement with NRMC, to provide an athletic trainer for the school district.

* Voted 5-0, to approve a revision to the 2016-17 salary schedule for career education teachers at Nevada Regional Technical Center. The change is designed to recognize the value of technical training and work experience that is required to teach these classes. This change allows these teachers, who did not have a bachelor's degree in an education field prior to starting their teaching career to advance their pay to the level of a teacher with a master's degree, with continuing education.

* Voted 5-0, to accept the bid of $25.89 per case for copy paper from Cavener's Office Supply because the bid also includes warehousing of the paper for the district, even though Cavener's was not the lowest bid. The R-5 district does not have adequate dry space to store the 800 cases of paper it is purchasing.

* Voted 5-0, to approve the district's current curriculum.

* Voted 5-0, to approve the new mission/vision statement for the district. "We are a community of learners who believe in the limitless possibilities of education through... Rigor -- Learning Today; Relevance -- Leading Tomorrow; Relationship -- Together ... where minutes matter and every day counts! The district new motto is: Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow ... Together!

During the board's executive session the board voted 5-0, to approve the following employment actions: The transfer of Travis Denney to speech implementer; Hiring of Alexandra Hogan -- para; Maureen Sharrock -- para; Amanda Bachand -- para; Samantha Leininger -- para, effective Sept. 6; Tammy Crews -- bus driver, pending licensing; Tracy Bybee -- bus driver; Cory Kerbs -- ninth grade boys basketball coach; Track coaching staff: Chris Smoot -- assistant head coach; Ryan Watts -- assistant coach; Josh Smith -- assistant coach; AJ Pitts -- assistant coach; Marsha Hooper -- head middle school coach; Shaun Gray assistant coach; Forrest Drury -- assistant coach; Erik Yoakam -- assistant coach; Anne Smoot -- assistant coach.

Resignations: Theresa Thorade -- Heartland para; Karl Sherman -- High school para; DeAnn Hardin -- Benton para; Nicholas Wright -- bus driver; Christine Clark -- Cedar Ridge para/bus driver.

Transfer: Amy Ast -- from Truman Speech implementer to Middle School/Benton Speech implementer; and Emily Dunlap -- from Truman para to Cedar Ridge para.

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