Kutztown Superintendent George F. Fiore recognized student achievements during the March 22 school board meeting, including Odyssey of the Mind teams, Berks County Spelling Bee third place winner, and National History Day winners.
“Our school is not just defined by a test score, that’s not what makes Kutztown great, it’s what our kids are able to do when we set them out for real-world application. Here you can see that,” said Fiore told the school board during his Superintendent’s Report. “We may be small, but we are mighty.”
Six Kutztown School District Odyssey of the Mind teams competed in a regional tournament held at Millersville University. Out of the six, two teams will go to the State Finals on April 1. The two teams are the Odd A Bot team from the elementary school and Ready, Set, Balsa, Build from the high school.
The elementary team had to design, build and operate an original robot with human characteristics while preforming tasks. The high school team was to design, build and test a structure made of only balsa wood and glue that will balance and support as much weight as possible. The team’s structure was credited of holding 367.5 pounds.
“When you think about STEM initiatives and what students learn through programs such as this, just the engineering principles that they are able to learn is very remarkable,” Kutztown Elementary School Principle Deborah Barnes.
Board Member Dr. Eric Johnson recognized the teachers also.
“A lot of teachers and faculty members put in time on weekends and nights. I think that is very commendable,” said Johnson.
Middle schooler Marina Schnell placed third at the Berks County Spelling Bee against some of the top students from 17 schools.
“Marina is just an amazing kid,” said Kutztown Area Middle School Principal Jim Brown. “She’s fun to hangout with. Spending time with her and her friends as they’re doing Science Olympiad in the afternoon is hysterical. They tolerate me. I’m nowhere near as smart as she is. Placing third in this contest is absolutely amazing.”
Fiore also recognized Kutztown students who placed high at the National History Day competition.
“This is just a testament to not only our kids’ hard work but their families for participating, the judges and we had a community wide event to critique them so that they were prepared for the competition,” said Fiore.
In other news, The Kutztown Area School Board discussed whether or not to keep the school open on Election Day, Nov. 7 or schedule a day off for students and staff, adding an additional day to the end of school year on June 7. Keeping school open on Nov. 7 would make the last day of school June 6 for students, said Fiore.
The high school serves as a polling place.
Board member Karl Nolte expressed concern for the safety of students if the school were to remain open on Election Day.
Fiore said the school would restrict outsider access to the rest of the building beyond the polling place.
“I’m always concerned about having anyone who is not authorized in the building but many schools do that […] It creates more to manage and work with, but we can make anything work,” said Fiore.
Fiore also made a point that in this case, the event would be for a non-presidential election, which typically shows a lower turnout. He said that regardless, he is confident that allowing the school to remain open would not jeopardize the safety of students.
“I think it’s of value for students to see the voting process taking place even though they are not standing there watching it, but they know it’s happening,” said Board President Carl Ziegler.
Board members agreed to keep the school district open on Election Day, Nov. 7, making the last day of school June 6. The board approved the final academic calendar for the 2017-18 school year.
In other news, the board approved the adoption of three news textbooks. “Portfolio: Deutsch,” “History Alive: The Medieval World and Beyond” an “The Practice of Statistics.”
Under personnel, Dale Reppert, Kutztown, was hired as a volunteer assistant tennis coach for the 2016-2017 school year.
The next KASD board meeting will be held on April 18.
