Trophies mark student successes

After a long Monday capped by a board of education meeting, USD 257 board members appreciated the opportunity to stretch their legs with a trip through the high school to see old trophies.
In September, board members were asked by the USD 257 Endowment Association to donate trophies not on display so they could be auctioned off at alumni events.
Unable to arrive at consensus, the board postponed their decision.
Iola High School Principal Stacey Fager has taken some of the trophies out of the dusty basement, cleaned them off and placed them in various locations throughout the school.
“Finding the trophies with the most historical significance was the hard part,” Fager said. “There are a lot of them.”
Fager took the board members on a quick walk through the commons area, the second floor and into the basement where remaining trophies are stored.
As Iola board members looked at the trophies they were able to identify some names. Fager pointed out board member Mark Burris’ name on one of the trophies.
Most of the awards were earned by the school’s track teams, some dating back to the 1920s.
The board will vote on Oct. 22 as to whether they will allow the trophies to be donated to the endowment association.

ANW COOPERATIVE director Bob Coleman gave board members an overview of the agency, which provides services to students with special needs.
Coleman then launched into the upcoming Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the likelihood it will result in additional costs because of the requirement to provide health insurance to its paraprofessionals.
The ACA takes effect in 2014.
The co-op has not offered health insurance to its paras, a fact that Coleman says is unfortunate, but the alternative of providing insurance to all employees is “costly.”
With the new healthcare act, businesses of 50 or more employees must either insure all employees or take a penalty.
“It will cost us $2,000 per para-employee, making the total penalty roughly $400,000,” Coleman said.
To insure all paras, it would cost the co-op roughly $600,000 per year bringing the total to more than $1 million.
Though the future seems to be doom and gloom, Coleman said the ACA is still in “continuing conversations.”
More than likely, the co-op will be able to take care of costs in 2014 through “carryover funds.” Beyond that, Coleman said the penalty will directly affect school budgets.
Special education enrollment is up this year. Coleman said a possible reason for the increase is that more people are moving back home, to Iola, because housing is substantially cheaper here than elsewhere.
Auditors will be cracking down on the co-op to “make sure money is being spent on special education,” Coleman said. “They will be checking that special education staff are working only with special education students.”
Facilities must be comparable for both types of education.
“Whatever space is available to special education is also available for general education,” Coleman said.

ALL SCHOOL principals gave a report about the progress their schools have made with standardized testing scores.
Each school has been working diligently to target individual students to help them improve in areas each student has the most difficulty with.
“We are spending a lot of time monitoring progress,” McKinley elementary principal Larry Hart said.

THE BOARD approved “It All Counts” as an online fundraising mechanism for USD 257 parent-teacher organizations and the USD 257 Endowment Association. 
Board member Burris stepped out of the meeting during the discussion due to possible conflict of interest. Burris owns a business that could benefit from the “It All Counts” program. 
Grants and gifts given by Walmart to USD 257 were also accepted during the meeting.
The gifts were a $1,000 donation for Teacher Appreciation Month, donations of fresh fruits and snacks for each high school athletic team and deli trays for the staff for next Tuesday.
The board appr