W-MU says no to superintendent sharing with Morning Sun

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? The Winfield-Mt. Union School Board officially rejected an agreement to share a superintendent with Morning Sun Community School District Wednesday evening during its regularly scheduled meeting.

The two school boards met Wednesday, June 3, for a special joint meeting to discuss the schools sharing superintendent Jeff Maeder, who recently took the helm at W-MU after a year of W-MU having an interim superintendent.

W-MU business manager Carmen Benson said the board did see the benefit of sharing personnel, but didn?t feel it was a good time, as Maeder has just taken up his post at W-MU.

The board declined the sharing agreement in a 3-0 vote; board members Joy Sparrow and Dan Schurr were not present at the meeting.

In other business, the board approved Johnson Control to install a horn/strobe system in the school?s restrooms. Benson said the instillation was mandatory for fire safety. Johnson Control?s bid for the project was $14,211.90.

The board also approved purchasing a new reading series for the elementary school students. The series, Journeys, will run the district $62,414.85.

Benson said the district had two options for reading series, and while the second option was cheaper, the Journeys series better aligned with the school?s curriculum.

Resource teacher, Barb Phelps, said the elementary school has been using the previous reading series for 10 years. She also stated it was a consensus across the board for the elementary teachers to go with Journeys because they felt it ?kicked the curriculum up a notch.?

The school board approved the technology lease purchase agreement. In February, the board approved updating technology for sixth through 12-grade students via a four-year lease agreement with Apple. Students will now be receiving Macbook Air laptops.

Benson said the school would be financing the computers through American Capital Financial Services for the principle amount of $209,085.

Lastly, Benson updated the board on the Student Wellness Policy 507.9. At last month?s meeting there was some concern over how far a wellness code could go. The well-being code the board heard in May would have banned sugary and unhealthy treats from being sold as part of school sanctioned fund-raisers. Yes, butter braids would have been no more. The board approved portions of the code and asked for clarification on the fundraising part.

After parsing through the code again, the code no longer banned using unhealthy foods as part of fundraisers.

The next meeting of the W-MU School Board will be Wednesday, July 8, at 6 p.m., in the school library.