Fort places focus on plan

FORT RECOVERY — It’s about improvement.
Superintendent Justin Firks updated Fort Recovery School Board on Tuesday about the use of its continuous improvement plan as well as upcoming surveys for teachers and parents.
The first meeting of the calendar year also included updates on athletic facility improvements, approval of the 2016-17 school calendar and election of officers.
Firks noted an effort to make sure the continuous improvement plan, which lays out goals for the school system over a three-year span, is being used.
“It’s important not to just have that document sit on the shelf and collect cobwebs,” he said.
To help achieve that, several Google Docs have been set up to allow teachers to share what they have done to help reach the plan’s goals. Those will be discussed during a staff development day in February.
“You’re so worried about your classroom and your students, you don’t necessarily always know what everyone else is doing,” said Firks. “So it’s nice to hear all the things that teachers are doing that are helping our students.”
Staff surveys are being put together with plans for those to be sent out this month. Parent surveys will be sent out in April.
Both will include comment sections, and results this year will be broken down by building in order to give board members Jose Faller, Mitch Ervin, Ginny Fortkamp, Aaron Guggenbiller and Mike Grube a clearer image of opinions about what is going on in the district.
“For me, I always look forward to this because it’s hard to know what people think about what’s really going on in the schools,” said Faller. “We’re not here every day. We’re not here in the classrooms.
“I always look forward to reading not only the numerical results, but also the comments, because it’s always nice to get feedback.”
Firks also told the board that renovations to the football field at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park are ahead of schedule, with the surface having been graded and irrigation system installed by Flow Master Irrigation of Yorkshire, Ohio. It will be allowed to settle over the winter and then graded again in the spring before it is seeded.
These are the first such renovations since the football field was completed in 1992.
The athletics department is also working on developing new banners for each of Fort Recovery’s state championship, runner-up and final four teams. Those are expected to be in place by the Feb. 12 boys basketball game against St. Henry during which the 2015 state champion football team will be honored.
The board approved the 2016-17 school calendar, with the first student day slated for Aug. 24. Winter break will run from Dec. 22 through Jan. 2, and the last day of school will be May 25.
Faller was re-elected as president of the board on a 3-2 vote against Ervin. Fortkamp, Guggenbiller and Faller voted in favor of him retaining the leadership role. Ervin was then elected vice president without opposition.
In other business, board members:
•Set its regular meetings for 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month.
•Handled a variety of administrative items to start the year, including authorizing Koch to pay invoices; appointing Fortkamp as its student achievement liaison; approving Koch as representative for the Mercer/Auglaize Benefit Trust establishing a board of education service fund not to exceed $5,000; authorizing Firks to attend meetings he deems necessary for school district operation and to employ casual labor during the summer months; appointing Guggenbiller as its Ohio School Board Association legislative liaison and Ervin as the alternate; and approving Kim Grube as the public records officer for Grube, Ervin and Faller.
•Approved an advance draw on 2016 Mercer and Darke county tax collections for the general, bond retirement and classroom facilities maintenance funds.
•Accepted donations totaling just over $4,500, including a total of $2,600 from Thomas and Mary Pat Zitter with $800 each for the elementary, middle and high schools and $100 each for the show choir and band boosters, $1,500 from Fort Recovery Industries to the elementary, middle and high school activity fund and $1,280 from an anonymous donor for the permanent improvement fund.
•Appointed Eric Kaiser to a seven-year term on Fort Recovery Public Library Board.
•Approved Karen Meiring as volunteer drama club advisor and Brenda Kahlig as a van driver, and accepted the resignation of Brenda Kaup as middle school writing club advisor.
•Heard from Hein-Evers that the school will hold a Laffalot summer camp July 18 through 22 for kindergarten through fifth grade students.
•Were thanked by Firks for their time and effort on the board. They will also be thanked during the Jan. 29 boys basketball game against Minster.