Angie Drahota and Ravenna Public Schools were recently recognized by Buffalo County Community Partners  for work in implementing programs in youth peer mentoring, trauma-informed care training, and social-emotional education.  Mrs. Drahota will be in to talk about this recognition and her partnership with Buffalo County Community Partners.

When the 2015-16 calendar was created, December 1st was a non-student/non-teacher day.  At that time, we believed that we would be hosting the district one-act competition.  However, we will not be hosting district one-act.

We need to decide whether we want to take the day off on Tuesday, December 1st, as it is scheduled on the 2015-16 calendar or move the day off to another day on the school calendar.

We need to update the group photo for the board members on our webpage.  Mrs. Havranek will be in at the beginning of the meeting to take the photo.  We'll likely do this after the meeting is opened or shortly thereafter. 

Mr. Schroeder has attended some trainings about communicating with parents and patrons.  He'd like to have a conversation with board members, principals, and support staff about the newsletter and how we are providing information to parents and patrons now and how that could be changed to be of greater benefit to our patrons/parents.  Concepts to be covered include:

1)  "Pushing" information out rather than trying to "pull" people in

2)  Printable PDF's of lunch menu and activities calendar pushed out on a weekly basis (print and save)

3)  Printed (newspaper) monthly, consolidated lunch menus and activities calendar (clip and save)

4)  Newsletter content

   a)  Continue to provide a newspaper printed and web-published message from the superintendent of schools

a)  Bullets instead of paragraphs pushed out to parents via texts

b)  Links to information rather than paragraphs (to pull readers back to the website or direct to information)

5)  Rumor abatement (lice, illness, security threats, politically ) for the purpose of transparency and communication

The Board of Education will begin the negotiations process with the REA.  REA Negotiators will be in attendance to meet with the board.

Negotiations Meeting Agenda:

1)  Review of Current "Negotiated Agreement" (Attached)

2)  Timeline for Negotiations Process (Attached)

  -Determine Special Meeting Date Between BOE and REA for REA to Make Initial Offer After Being Provided with Array Comparison(s) by Mr. Schroeder

  -Insurance Rates will be announced in late October.  Waiting until these rates are out will allow both The Board and the REA to understand the fiscal impact the new insurance rates will have on total compensation for the 2016-17 staff costs.  It is highly advisable that the Special Meeting Date for Negotiations be held after these insurance rates and released and calculated into projected, increased costs.

3)  Array Schools to be Included in Array 

  -Conference Schools Array

  -CIR Schools Array as Generated by NorthStar Software (Attached)

4)  Review of Array Comparison Document (Attached)

5)  Possible Language Changes to the Negotiated Agreement (Attached)

  -Article II-Payroll Deduction of Dues:  The REA has asked that this be removed from the agreement as it is no longer necessary.

  -Article V-Placement of Salary Schedule-Section 5:  The administration is asking that The Board and the REA review the due date for transcripts being due to the office in relationship to the September payroll.  Having the transcripts due at such a late date can create problems in respect to payroll preparation for the month of September.  Having an earlier deadline would help avoid this.

• Friday, October 16 marks the end of the first quarter of school. 
• Parent-Teacher conference attendance this fall was steady at 93%.
• In observance of Fire Safety Week members of the RVFD visited with our prek-2nd grade students on Thursday, October 8.  The students especially enjoyed the fire engine.
• I want to take this time to thank Mr. Ahrens and his FFA students for another successful Farm Safety Day last Friday, October 9.  The students were given the opportunity to listen to several different speakers with topics ranging from weather to healthy snacks.
• I would also like to thank the cheerleaders and band for making our elementary Homecoming pep rally so much fun this year.  The students look forward to it each year and we always have a blast.

This past month has certainly been a busy one for all students with activities, sports and everything we know our students are involved with. 

After studying the participation numbers for Parent-Teacher Conferences we had 61% of our students represented.  Tuesday was a little slower than last year, but Thursday's attendance picked up.  Looking at the numbers from last year they were very similar percent-wise.  

Our band represented Ravenna well at the Harvest of Harmony parade on October 3rd.  What started out as a bit of a rainy morning when we left, turned into a window of opportunity for the BluJays to march in.   This is a wonderful tradition and I look forward to next year's parade as well.

I  had the opportunity to meet with the ESU 10 Multi-Tiered Support System Coordinator, Patrice Feller on Sept 23 and then again on Oct 7 with our teacher team at the high school.  MTSS is a system that works hand-in-hand with the Student Assistance Team (SAT) when we are identifying students who may struggle academically but do not qualify for Special Ed services.  Many points of information are looked at from grades, to MAP and NeSA scores to attendance, and other factors that could be affecting a student's academics.  We are in the first year of transitioning to this model, and I believe that it will be beneficial to our school.

It's hard to believe that the first quarter is over this week, but I must say that it has been productive and a very positive quarter.

1.  Window Update

2.  Bus Driver Recruitment & Training

3.  College Credit Courses for Ravenna Students-What information do you want and what questions do you have for me, Craig, and Angie to answer at next month's meeting?  This will be a discussion item on next month's agenda and I want to be sure to have as much information for you as possible.

4.  Superintendent's Evaluation Instrument (Attached)

5.  Superintendent's Goals Clarification & Discussion (Attached)