Students recognized in front of the Brussels School Board
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By Cynthia Haggitt
The Brussels School Board held its meeting on Oct 19 and they had some special recognition that were presented before the board.
The first person the board recognized at the meeting was Mary Baalman. Baalman is Brussels’ High School Student of the Month.
Her nomination states, “Mary is a genuine person. Her ability to be nice to everyone is a trait I envy. She sees the good in all things and doesn’t give in to her friends and peers. She is comfortable being her own person and doesn’t feel the need to fit in with anyone. Because of her excellent character, she is a role model for all of her peers.
The next person for this month’s Raider Recognition goes to Emma Vogel. Her nomination said, “Emma truly displays the Raider Traits that we should all work to show: cooperation, courage, fairness, perseverance, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Emma has worked hard to help her class raise money and get donations for their upcoming fundraiser.”
The board then honored students from the Brussels Elementary School. There were two students who were recognized as Brussels’ Student of the Month and they are Isabella Tepen and Kinsley Plummer. Tepen is in first grade and Plummer is a third grader. They were both recognized for going above and beyond in the completion of their school work. Isabella’s favorite subject is Art. Kinsley’s favorite class is Math.
“Congratulations girls!” Martin said.
Students celebrated Homecoming week during the week of Sept. 27 – Oct. 2. We had fun with having a week of dress up days for each day of the week and they were as follows:
■ Monday: Spirit Wear day.
■ Tuesday: USA day.
■ Wednesday: Pink out day.
■ Thursday: Preppy day.
■ Friday: Aliens vs. Cowboys.
Martin mentioned that the kids had a fun time dressing for the day and participating in the games at lunch time. The homecoming parade happened on Oct. 7.
“There was a really good turnout for this second annual event. The streets were lined with parade goers who enjoyed the candy that our students threw from the floats. The sophomores won the best float contest.” Martin said.
The dance happened on Oct. 2 and the retiring royalty Brianna Garcia and Colton Snyders crowned the 2 queens for the evening, Emma Hagen and Hope Odelehr. Following the coronation, the dance was held in front of the high school.
In other reports discussed by the board that night were about how there is a lack of a school webpage. Martin said the board is looking into a company called Apptegy.
“Apparently, other school districts in our area use this company. Our goal is to find a quicker way to get news about the district out,” Martin said. “ Most districts do have webpage, Although they’re not required, but if you have a website, the state has a whole list of requirements that you must fulfill.
Martin said if Apptegy creates their website; the school would give Apptegy their information and the company would be the ones responsible for updating it. He said this would be a great thing for the district because parents and students would have more accessibility.
“It also would make all of our information available. It would be on mobile devices, which is predominantly what people use now. So we’re looking at doing that and of course, we’re in the process of weighing cost versus the benefits. We do think that we need to constantly look for ways to get news out about the district because, you know, with social media, negative news is what catches people’s attention and that is not what this is for. It is not our goal to post about negativity, instead we are just wanting to inform people about the good things that are happening in the district,” Martin explained.
There was some good news about applying for grants for school use and it was presented before the board. The district is working with the ESSER III grant.
“We’re looking at a three, which is, for us, a nice amount of money. Even though we’re a smaller district, we won’t get the money that other larger districts do. It’s based on what the title of one student accounts for, and we have very few title one students. It’s $130,000 and some change,” Martin said.
He said part of the application process to inform the board and the public on how this money will be spent.
“They want to see information from our teachers, from the public, the parents and whoever works in the district. I will conduct my survey and provide information feed back about how this information is important so we can get people’s opinions about this subject matter,” Martin said.
The last item that was talked about was the fitness centre building.
According to Martin, “It is a standalone building on campus and some board members have had some discussions about what to do with it. They feel like its maybe underused and so there was some discussion about possibly selling it or going the route of a long term lease. There was no decision made just yet.”
In unfinished business, the board had a discussion briefly regarding the sport’s co-op with 40.
“This is pretty much finalized. There’s just some fine detail work going on. There was nothing voted on there. We just had a discussion. Also, we scheduled our tax hearing. It’s an annual event. Where the board, after having looked at the financial data, then decides where to set the tax levy and that tax levy hearing will be, before the regular meeting in December, which is Tuesday, Dec. 21. It would start at 6:30 p.m. which is before the seven o’clock meeting,” Martin said.
Martin also said they discussed what was the requirements for their bus drivers which entails, the board reviewing their bus routes,
“By providing them with documentation of how buses are using their time or how the routes are themselves. Our bookkeeper provided a really nice map with a pinpoint showing each place the buses stop at, which was very thorough information and the board approved it. They just like to see what’s happening with transportation. We went into executive session at 8:43 p.m. and when we came out we accepted the resignation of Lauren Eilerman. She was a teacher assistant for us and did a fantastic job. We hate to lose her but she has taken another job. The board then approved the hiring of. Michele. Cundlff as she is taking Lauren’s position. We turned from executive session at 9:16 p.m. and came back to open session and adjourned the meeting at 9:19 p.m.”
