With just 42 students signed up at United South Central’s kindergarten round up, signs of dwindling enrollment are made evident not only by the small incoming class, but of a termination and non-renewal of a contract with probationary kindergarten teacher Carol Supalla.

“This was because of the change from three to two sections in kindergarten,” said School Board chair, Dale Stevermer.

During their regularly scheduled School Board meeting last Tuesday evening, members of the USC?School Board had to make the tough decision of approving a resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of Supalla’s teaching contract. Supalla was hired in the late summer of 2017 as a kindergarten teacher. The 2017-18 kindergarten class was 50 plus students strong.

The majority roll call vote to terminate the contract effective at the end of the current school year was passed unanimously.

“The incoming kindergarten class was a factor that would have affected our 2018-19 staffing recommendation, so at this point, I’m going to be recommending two sections of kindergarten. We will monitor our incoming kindergarten class throughout the summer,” explained USC Superintendent Keith Fleming.

Board members also discussed and eventually approved the 2018-19 classroom teacher staffing proposal. The proposal included both elementary and high school staffing numbers.

The superintendent made mention of the large outgoing first grade class, which will also be a change in the original staffing proposal to accommodate a larger number of incoming second graders.

The USC?Elementary School stands at two kindergarten sections, three first grade sections, three second grade sections, two third grade sections, three fourth grade sections, two fifth grade sections, and three sixth grade sections, tallying a total of 18 classrooms or sections.

“Current FTE (full time equivalent) at the high school, with the exception of art will be reduced, and Spanish will be reduced,” says Fleming.

In the high school, the full-time equivalent staff currently stands with language arts, math, science, and social studies at 3.0 FTE, while Ag, business, family and consumer science, and industrial technologies are at 1.0 FTE. Art is currently at .5, while Spanish sits at .67 FTE.

All of USC’s K-12 departments, including special education, music, physical education, and elementary technology, will not see any FTE?changes.

The staffing proposal was approved by the School Board.

Fleming also discussed, during his administrative report, the Southern Plains Education Cooperative will be extending their planning conversation on the new facility building.

“We’ve had to delay that process a little bit because we’ve continued to have some discussions with the joint powers agreement,” said Fleming. “We do have a board meeting scheduled with a consultant to help us with that process at 4 o’clock, and, as a reminder, all board members in the area are welcome to attend.”

The School Board also:

Approved the purchase of two seven-passenger minivans,

Accepted approval of 3.6 FTE temporary summer custodial positions,

Backed the 2018-19 capital expenditures proposal, which included a change to some physical education audio equipment, which saved the school $10,000.

After realizing the latest School District General Records Retention Schedule still stated “Wells-Easton” school, updated the adoption to reflect the merger of the USC District’s surrounding communities.

Authorized the replacement of a damaged box on a school utility truck to include a new electronic dump box for ease of use. This proposal came in after an accident during snow removal caused damage to the current box on the school’s truck.

Was informed of USC’s educational fundraiser known as “The Price Is Right” which took place at the USC?school’s performance center last Saturday evening.