BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Stoddard County Historical Society President Lyndel Revelle addressed the Bloomfield School Board Monday night to tell them the Historical Society had made the decision to sell the Historical Society Museum on Center Street by sealed bids. The museum is behind the high school greenhouse.
Revelle said the museum was somewhat in disrepair and was more than the Historical Society was able to upkeep. He said the society has made the decision to sell the property. He said they hoped to find a new location for the museum that did not require as much upkeep and was handicapped accessible. He said the Historical Society would advertise the property for sale by sealed bids for a couple of months.
Bloomfield Superintendent Toni Hill asked if the building was on the Historic Registry. Revelle said it was not.
Hill replied that there would be nothing to prevent the school district from demolishing the building if they were to purchase it. Revelle said the district could do that.
Hill asked what the deadline would be to place bids on the property. Revelle said it would be the second or third week of November.
Hill and board members thanked Revelle for notifying the district about the availability of the property.
The board quickly worked through a short agenda.
The board approved by a 4-0 vote district bus routes for the 2015-16 school year. Hill said the routes "were the exact same as last year."
The routes listed last year included five rural bus routes and one route in the city. The route in the city consists of Missouri, Reed, Hester, Allie, Prairie, Viola and Miller Streets and short sections of others. There are five pickup stations within the city, the same as last year. Students are picked up and dropped off at these stations rather than doing "individual pickups."
Present at the meeting were Board President John Newell, Ryan Mayo, Trevor Pulley, Scott Gibbs and Bill Robison. Dave Cooper and Vince Lockhart were not able to attend the meeting.
The board approved the bus driver manual with no discussion. Hill said there were very few changes to the past manual.
The board tabled action on the Professional Development Handbook at the request of Hill. Hill said a committee was to meet to review the policy and then provide input, so she wanted to wait until after they met to approve the handbook.
The board approved four district policy updates on the recommendation of Hill. Three of the updates involved new Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) standards for evaluations for the superintendent, principals and teachers. The fourth update was made to comply with the Family Medical Act. The law changes the definition of "spouse" to include all spouses.
During the principal's report, Elementary Principal Sabrina Skaggs reviewed Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores for the elementary school. She said the goal was "concentrating on teaching to the student's potential." She said the scores were very good in all the categories with the exception of math. She the district would be looking at improving the math scores by making some changes, including adding interventionists. She said the interventionists had really helped improve the scores in language arts.
Hill explained to the board that the test was new and it would not be fair to compare students scores to the past few years. She said the only fair way to evaluate the scores was to compare them to the state average.
Hill noted that the district had made "good gains in algebra I," but in algebra II, "not so much." She said government scores had really improved. She showed graphs comparing student scores to past years and the state averages.
"I seems like it is time management that is most important," stated Robison about the testing.
Hill also spoke briefly about ACT scores, and possible changes that may be coming. She said the company that administers the test is looking at allowing students to retake certain part of the test, rather than the entire test. She said this would be good for the student test scores.
"They are talking about it," said Hill.
Newell noted that 100 percent of the juniors in the district last year took the test.
"Kudos to everyone," said Newell.
Hill informed the board that the Fall Festival in Bloomfield would be held Oct. 16-17. She said she was in charge of the parade which will begin at the schools and proceed to the City Park. She said there would be a carnival, games and other events at the park during the festival.
Due to a scheduling conflict, the October meeting of the board will be held Tuesday, Oct. 13, instead of the normal second Monday of the month.
In closed session, the board hired the following subs: Penny Dawson, Laura Cross, Maggie Thorn and Robert Ellis (custodial sub.) Also the board approved the hiring of two student workers for after school custodial help.