District Hopes To Improve Students’ Health

By Kristen Waggener, kwaggener@miconews.com

Improving the wellness of Osawatomie students was on the minds of Osawatomie USD 367 Board of Education members Thursday morning.

Looking ahead to June, when the board will take its annual look at the district’s goals, Superintendent Gary French laid a few possibilities on the table for the board members last week. All members were present for the meeting.

French said he’d like to see a “student, staff and district wellness push” in the board’s goals this year.

“When you look at 177 days, the day the teacher is absent hurts, the day the student is absent hurts, the day the student doesn’t feel good hurts, the day the teacher doesn’t feel good hurts,” French said.

And by improving the wellness of Osawatomie’s students, student performance should climb as well, French said.

“It’s a hard one to measure, but I continue to push for student performance at all levels,” board president Jeff Dorsett said.

French said staff took an informal count and found that about 18 percent of students district-wide are heavy.

He said if the board wants to look at wellness in the district, places to start would be the snack bar and pop machines, as well as utilizing a recent $70,000 grant the district received for physical education.

“I’m ready to make a commitment to get after that,” French said.

Other items the board discussed include:

Refinancing a 1998 bond issue to help save the district money. Board members unanimously approved a resolution to proceed with the refinance and establish a savings target of 2.5 percent.

David Arterberry with George K Baum & Co. said the district could potentially save about $255,000 by refinancing the bond, which is about 5 percent savings, but numbers would not be final until bonds were pre-offered to investors.

“There is no cost to the district (to pre-offer the bonds) other than staff time,” Arterberry said.

The district would incur a $60,000 issuance fee if the district does decide to refinance the bond issue, he said.

Arteberry said with the savings estimates, the mill levy could drop by about a half-mill.

“In terms of overall mill levy, it’s not drastic, but it is real savings to your taxpayers,” he said.

The board will decide whether to proceed with the final resolution to refinance at its June meetings.

Approving student handbooks at each of the district’s schools.

Building principals outlined changes being made to the 2008-09 school handbooks for the school board. The board voted 6-1 to approve the handbooks, with board member Richard Fisher casting the opposing vote. Fisher said his “no” vote came because he wanted to see clean copies of the changes in the handbooks before approving them, and French said he would provide those to board members at a later date.