Haxtun 5th graders report to BOE on recent trips

Haxtun fifth graders presented information on recent trips to members of the Haxtun Board of Education during a regular, mid-May meeting. A handful of students provided information on field trips to Rural AmeriTowne and Ag Fest while others attended the meeting in support of their classmates.

In addition to hearing from Jessica Hofmeister’s fifth grade class, board members also hired staff members to fill vacancies for next fall, approved an increase in base pay for both bachelors and master’s degrees and gave nod to the purchase of new video surveillance equipment.

Fifth grade students attended AmeriTowne in Wray in April and Ag Fest in Holyoke in early May. Rural AmeriTowne is a unique hands-on lesson in free enterprise that introduces students to the basic principles of the economic system by allowing them to run their own life-like town businesses in a rural setting.

Students said work for Rural AmeriTowne began in the classroom weeks before the trip. While on the trip, fifth graders worked at shops, earned paychecks and managed banks accounts while also shopping for goods, paying for medical care and electing officials to manage their own town. Students also learned the importance of establishing rules and laws, obeying them and also serving as volunteer firefighters through the day.

In their report to the local board of education, students said they took away valuable lessons in supply and demand, money management and business management as well as information on products and services.

Ag Fest, the students said, featured information pertaining to rural agriculture including water resources, plant science, power tools, entomology and range ecology. Fifth graders also learned in-depth knowledge on cattle including cuts of beef, how to milk a dairy cow and how to make butter.

After hearing from fifth graders at the start of the meeting, and reviewing information in reports from administration, board member went on to approve a list of staff members for the 2022-23 school year including McCall Etl as the high school business teacher, Dana Davis as an elementary teacher, Tracy Kennedy as the high school English teacher, Rebecca Williams as a special education teacher and Pat Wiebers as the music/band teacher. The Board also hired Hayden Hixon as the secondary secretary/executive administrative assistant.

After approving a long list of staff members for next year, the local board of education approved a motion to raise the base rate for a starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree to $34,000 and a base pay for a teacher with a master’s degree to $36,137.

According to Superintendent Marsha Cody, the new base numbers are similar to other salary schedules in the region and also acknowledge the impact of high inflation.

Towards the end of the May meeting, the Board voted to approved the purchase of video surveillance equipment and services not to exceed $20,000. Cody said Haxtun Schools currently has two surveillance systems, and older system and a newer system. Currently, she said the older system works better than the newer system, but the quality of the video is very low.

“There have been several people over the past couple of years who have worked on getting a video surveillance system in place. However, the cost of those systems exceeded what we could afford. Our new tech director, Perry Ingram, is putting in the Ubiquiti system,” Cody added.

In other business the Board:

• Accepted a food service contract with Chartwells;

• Approved a resignation from para-professional Callie Dickerson;

• Approved Riley Thompson as a substitute teacher;

• Approved Austin Mitchell as a substitute janitor.