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Following a June 3 joint meeting of the USD 214 Board of Trustees, Ulysses City Council, Grant County Commissioners, Grant County Economic Development and Grant County Chamber of Commerce, the entities agreed to each approve a resolution supporting the coalition.
The USD 214 trustees considered the item at its June 9 regular board meeting but ultimately decided to wait and see what the City of Ulysses approved in order to craft similar language. The city approved a resolution at its June 11 meeting.
That resolution affirms the city’s strong and ongoing support for “economic development practices that are strategic, data-driven and that reflect the unique needs and opportunities of the Ulysses Community.”
The city’s June 11 resolution also laid out the city’s top four economic development priorities.
The school board wants to include similar language.
“I know the city had put one together, Luke (Grimes) had put one together and he was gonna share it with me but he didn’t share it with me,” said Superintendent Corey Burton. “So, when I reached out to him when I was putting this together, I went over to the city and he’s on vacation. And so, I haven’t even seen that plan yet.”
Burton had a plan provided by Economic Development that said the district would support the plan that was put together over the last two years by that group.
“It doesn’t get into any more specifics on that,” Burton added.
The district wants to put language in the resolution about how important it is to make improvements to the school.
Burton made the item new business in order for the board to have a discussion but not take action.
“We were ready to approve this until we had that (meeting) last week,” Burton said.
Trustee Chad McCormick said to wait until the district got a look at the city’s plan, to which trustee Nichole Winner agreed. Burton said he would reach back out to Grimes, who was in attendance at the June 11 council meeting.
“Once I get it, I’ll share it out to everybody so you can see it and start to formulate some thoughts on how you might want to adjust that to match our (goals),” Burton added.
The district approved a slew of action items, including:
•Approved Amelia Archuleta to the Grant County Recreation Commission.
•The trustees approved District Staff and Activity Handbooks.
•Approved three Kepley Middle School Novels, which have been taught at the school in the past.
•Approved a new literature course to be taught at Kepley Middle School.
•Updated the Student/Parent Handbook.
•Approved the disposal of more than 300 Chrome books.
•Approved Property and Liability Insurance, which went down in price with increased coverage.
•Approved the donation of a pottery wheel for art classes.
After a brief executive session, the trustees approved the resignations of Stephanie Casilla and Meaghan Noriega, and approved contracts for Selene Schwindt as Sullivan Elementary Para, Lydia Herrera as Hickok Elementary School Daycare Director, Julie Anderson as Sullivan Elementary School Longterm Substitute, Elsie Cruz San Juan as USD 214 Band Assistant, Kyle Unruh as UHS Social Studies/Government teacher, Destiny Rico as Sullivan Character Ed teacher long-term substitute, Cindy Mendez as para at Hickok, as well as several others. The board approved a supplemental contract for Zach Anderson for assistant Kepley football coach and said Brittany Seger came off the supplemental contracts list and will not be assistant varsity volleyball coach.
•The trustees approved an out-of-state travel request for head volleyball coach Jill Scott to take about seven girls to a camp in Kearney, Nebraska.
•The trustees heard a report from school district nurse Ruby Romero said the district loss one of its nurses because she had a baby and decided to stay home, so they’re down to one.
“We’ve had a hard time the last four years finding nurses who will stay,” Romero added.
Romero gave the number for total nurses visits for each school, noting 1,210 students at Hickok Elementary School went to the nurse for various reasons, with 90% of those returning to class. Sullivan Elementary had the most nurse visits with more than 1,300 visits and 90% returning to class.
Romero that there is a nurse on staff five days a week for the elementary schools and two days a week for Kepley and UHS.
“Hopefully we’ll find another nurse because next year that will be hard staff five days a week,” Romero said. “There’s a really high need at the elementary schools.”
Romero said the nursing staff performed 947 hearing screenings, 942 vision screenings, and handed out medication to932 students with the most at Ulysses High School.
“Kudos to, especially at the secondary schools, our secretaries because, like I said, we’re only there two days a week so they help administer those medications,” Romero said.
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