After 20 years at the table, Joe Lane is putting the NCOE board of education at his rear rudder. The school board thanked Lane for his willingness to serve, longevity, and assistance in guiding the school district through difficult decisions Wednesday night with pizza, words of affirmation, and a “No Stress Nation” banner which will presumably be on prominent display from a boat this summer. Superintendent Vollman added
I want to thank Dr. Joe Lane for his 20 years of service on the board. Quite remarkable to be on anything for 20 years, let alone a school board. (Matt McArthy: An unpaid school board member) Right, unpaid school board…your time, your talent, your treasure you’ve provided to the board and the school district has been unmatched. I just want to thank you. Honestly, the biggest compliment I can give you is you’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions along the way and you’ve always put the interest of the school district first, above any personal interest…you’ve always made the decision of what’s best for the district.
Also Wednesday night, school board members learned NCOE great Reed Jackson is among the inaugural class of a new Illinois Sports Hall of Fame class. He’ll be one of about 300 honored on June 13th and 14th in Springfield. The new hall is being founded by Tim Turpin. He’s also founding an Ohio Sports Hall and is the founder of the Greater Evansville Sports Hall of Fame and the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Board members decided to opt out of the ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) College and Career Pathway Endorsement Plan. Guidance Counselor Annette Braden says it just doesn’t make sense.
They have these different classes; sequences of classes all laid out. We, first of all, don’t have the capacity to offer any of them other than agriculture. So if we weren’t going to opt out, the only pathway that we would be able to offer would be agriculture. And if we did that, we would have to reexamine the way we already have our ag program structured and we would have to partner with a community college, run our staff through trainings and probably adjust and change the course offerings we have in ag.
The board unanimously voted to opt out.
The board received 6 mowing bids for the summer which led to a lengthy discussion. The winning bidder, a new one from Grayville came in significantly less than others. K&K Small Jobs is owned by a school bus driver that drives students to the annex daily. His bid of $550 total, which is $150 per mow less than the next lowest bid. The winning bid last year was $820.
The board recessed into executive session at 7:54pm and will next meet on April 23rd, a week later than normal to accommodate timing requirements for seating a new board member following the election.
