By George Howe, Reporter
AMBOY – The Amboy School Board met in session on a chilly Thursday, January 18.
The first order of business was a public hearing to adopt the resolution authorizing an interfund transfer of $120,000 from the Capital Projects Fund to the Debt Service Fund.
Amboy Schools Superintendent Joshua Nichols gave a brief explanation for the transfer.
“The funds were abated at last month’s meeting and at that time, we asked the county not to raise fees because the district will be using the sales tax money to pay the loans on the bonds,” Nichols said.
After the customary approval of last month’s meeting’s minutes, financial reports and current expenditures and payroll, Central School Principal Jessica Meusel presented her report. School activities included an all-school assembly January 8 to recognize the “smarties” of the week and get an update on the reading progress.
Learning Renewal Interim Assessment testing took place on January 16-19 for third and fourth grade students. These assessments allow teachers to pinpoint knowledge gaps and help to adjust instruction and support to match the student’s needs.
Central School has new speakers and a big screen tv in the gym.
“The students and staff love it,” said Meusel.
Additional school improvements included on January 3 when the teachers had an institute day where they worked on report cards and planned initiatives moving forward.
Amboy Junior High Principal Andrew Full shared January 3 was Teacher’s Institute Day where they were given time to post grades. The afternoon session was held to discuss topics such as discipline and student conversations.
Mrs. Bulfer met with teachers January 3 to start the process of having an official mentor programming in the district. On December 20, the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) celebration and assembly was held, where awards were handed out for students of the month. Boys basketball, cheerleaders, and speech team awards were all recognized.
Amboy High School Principal Janet Crownhart stated Mr. Kolton has started to meet with freshman, sophomores, and juniors to go over course options for next year. Parents will be invited January 25 to also go over course options.
Mr. Kolton will also meet with eighth grade students and their parents to discuss high school course options.
Art teacher Deb Cleary applied for and was awarded money from Maggie and Amos Grant for new cameras for her classes. Cleary has also been approved and started to teach art appreciation dual enrollment through Sauk Valley Community College.
The National Honor Society will be tutoring students on MWF during homeroom to help those who need extra support. Looking ahead, seniors are being encouraged to share their plans for after graduation.
A “Senior Spotlight” board will soon be available to highlight their plans.
In his superintendent’s report, Nichols stressed the importance of the “Pathway Program” under the direction of Principal Crownhart. The idea behind these initiatives first rolled out by the State of Illinois a couple of years ago, is to get students to start thinking about what they might want to do. Currently, there are education, agriculture, manufacturing, an health occupation pathways with funding coming from the state through grants and the Regional Offices of Education (ROE).
“Just as an example, we are a school, there is a teacher’s shortage and it makes perfect sense to get students on the path of becoming educators,” said Nichols. “The goal is to get our kids to have some kind of idea of what they want to do once they leave here.”
Through a collaboration with Sauk Valley Community College, kids interested in teaching can go to a college class and observe.
In other news, Nichols said that the new roof for the Central School library is completed and not too soon with all of the snow Amboy has received.
Speaking of snow, Nichols thanked Director of Maintenance Brian Lampe, Head Custodian John Wagner and their staff for doing a “great” job of removing the snow and keeping all of the walkways cleared at all of the Amboy schools.
“We continued to get hit with snow and I know that it was tough to keep up, but the staff did such a good job in order to keep everyone safe,” added Nichols.
