At Wednesday's meeting, the Fulton School District 58 Board of Education recognized some stellar staff and heard updates about the district.
Chelsea Peiter and Patricia Moak were recognized at the meeting as stellar staff. Peiter is a special education teacher at McIntire Elementary, and Moak is an aide at Fulton Early Childhood Center.
They were recognized for their outstanding performance and commitment to the FPS district.
Two Fulton High School art students presented to the board about the upcoming FHS Fine Arts Night. The students showed the board some handmade bowls that were made in art classes.
The bowls are part of the upcoming Empty Bowl fundraiser. The bowls will be available to purchase for $10. Proceeds raised from the fundraiser will go toward SERVE.
FHS Fine Arts Night and Empty Bowl fundraiser will be on March 2 from 5-7 p.m.
FPS Superintendent Ty Crain said in his update that the current estimates for kindergarten for next school year are back to pre-pandemic levels. He said there will likely be another kindergarten classroom to accommodate the incoming students.
This would be a total of nine classes for next school year.
Crain said there continues to be a transportation driver shortage for the district.
"We've had to regularly combine some routes and it just causes last minute confusion and delays and things," Crain said.
Director of Health Services Lauren Jacobs gave a program update to the board about health services.
Jacobs' report indicates a total of 78 percent of students across the district visited a school's health room in the first semester of the 2022-23 school year. 11,017 health room vists took place in the first semester.
Daily medicine was the number one visit reason for McIntire, Bush Elementary, Fulton Middle School and FHS. The number one visit reason for Bartley Elementary and FECC was misc. first aide assessment.
Jacobs told the board that every building's health room is fully staffed, as of last week. FHS didn't have a nurse for about a month-and-a-half, Jacobs said.
FPS Assistant Superintendent Chris Hubbuch said the district is currently planning for the 2023 Summer School Program. Grades K-5 will be at Bush, and grades 6-12 will be at FPS.
Summer school will be from June 5-30, with Juneteenth being a day off.
Hubbuch also said approximately 107 students in the class of 2024 have signed up to take the board paid ACT test in April. This is an increase compared to 2022, when 83 students signed up to take the test.
The board discussed sending a letter of request to be added to the Tri-County Conference, which has an opening beginning in the 2024-25 school year. FPS is currently in the North Central Missouri Conference (NCMC). Six schools are in NCMC, including Fulton, Hannibal, Mexico, Moberly, Marshall and Kirksville.
The Tri-County Conference currently has 7 schools, including Blair Oaks, Boonville, California, Eldon, Hallsville, Osage and Southern Boone.
Survey results from parents and staff were overwhelmingly positive for the change to the Tri-County Conference. If FPS joins this conference, the average mileage for school trips will decrease by approximately 30 miles.
The board unanimously approved sending a letter of request to join the Tri-County Conference, and will accept if offered to join.
A special meeting of the Board of Education will be Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. The next regular meeting will be March 8 at 7 p.m.