At Wednesday's Fulton Public Schools Board of Education meeting, three teachers were recognized as outstanding beginning teachers.
Three teachers within the district were awarded the 2023 Outstanding Beginning Teacher Award from the Missouri Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Elizabeth Kasubke, fifth grade teacher at Bush Elementary; Summer Woodside, third grade teacher at Bartley Elementary; and Megan Kelsch, social studies teacher at Fulton Middle School, were the recognized teachers.
The board of education was also recognized at the meeting as part of School Board Appreciation Month.
Two students spoke at the meeting and thanked the board for their hard work to support the district. They also gave each board member a certificate from the Missouri State Teachers Association.
Social work staff spoke to the board to provide an update about the social work program.
According to their report for the 2022-23 school year as of Feb. 21, eight students at the elementary schools have been hospitalized for behaviors or suicidal evaluation. Nine students at the middle school have been hospitalized for suicidal evaluation, drug rehab or eating disorder. 11 students at the high school have been hospitalized for drug rehab, suicidal evaluation or depression.
The report also details other statistics, such as the amount of behavioral risk assessments and various contacts.
The social work staff spoke about the mental health screeners and surveys given to students in grades 5-12. In the survey, students rated how bothered they felt about 17 problems over the past two weeks. Bush Elementary and Fulton Middle School were the control groups for the district's work with the National Center for Rural School Mental Health.
95 percent of Bartley Elementary, 97 percent of Mcintire elementary and 50 percent of Fulton High School participated. Data will not be available for Bush and FMS until the spring.
Parents were contacted with results of the screeners.
Amanda Miles, coordinator of school and community programs, spoke to the board about redesigning the district's website.
SchoolBlocks has been the district's website provider for the past two school years. Miles said she researched other website platforms because many have expressed difficulty finding items on the current website.
Miles showed a mock-up of what the redesigned website could look like with FinalSite.
She said that if the district switched to this provider, the district would be able to use an app again.
The total current cost for the website for the school year is $9,400. With FinalSite, the cost would be $11,690 per year for five years. There would also be an inital setup cost of $12,300.
The board unanimously voted to approve the website redesign.
The board of education discussed Missouri School Boards' Association 2022B policy updates. The updates are related to a variety of subjects, including curriculum development, nontraditional instruction options, and suicide awareness and prevention.
The board unanimously voted to adopt the policies, and rescind policy DBB. This policy is about the fiscal year.
They discussed a letter of intent with Veregy. This letter would allow the company to develop a scope of work about HVAC equipment that needs replaced. Veregy would also look into other energy-related projects at the district's request.
"This does not financially obligate the district unless the district chooses to proceed with the project and signs a contract in the future," the board of education agenda states.
The board unanimously voted to sign a letter of intent with Veregy.
The last action item discussed by the board was about health insurance renewal and rates for the district. The board unanimously voted to continue participating in the Missouri Educators Unified Health Plan and accept the renewal rates for all available plans.
The next board of education meeting will be on April 12 at 7 p.m.