Board discusses changes to sports ticket sales
The Red Oak School Board met in regular session Aug. 8.
Superintendent Ron Lorenz issued a reminder for parents and residents attending school sporting events that the process for purchasing tickets was going to be a different format for the upcoming school year.
“The Hawkeye 10 Board voted to implement universal on-line ticketing. That’s going to happen now with the fall sports season. We are going to ask people to go online and use the ticketing service,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz added they were still going to offer some options for ticket purchases at the individual events.
“We are going to have a point of sale option. We will have a kiosk set-up at events so people can use cash or credit cards, but we want people to be ready, because we don’t know if that option is also going to be there,” commented Lorenz.
Ticket prices will increase to $6 per ticket for adults for varsity contests, and $4 per ticket for junior high contests.
“It’s an increase of roughly $1.97, and it’s being implemented to cover the additional service charge for the online ticketing program,” explained Lorenz.
Lorenz also urged parents to get their students registered, if they had not already done so. Classes begin Aug. 24.
“We have about 10 to 12% of students that we were anticipating that have yet to register. Some of those students have moved away, but some of them just haven’t gotten around to it yet, so we’re making phone calls to parents to urge them to get their kids registered so we can finealize schedules, class assignments, and those types of things,” advised Lorenz.
Also, Lorenz said it was too early to project where the district would be for certified enrollement.
“That count is almost fluid until October. I don’t think, based on the numbers that we’ve seen, that we have cause for alarm at this point, but I hesitate to speculate at this point where we’ll be in our certified count,” Lorenz said.
Lorenz also stated that the federal nutrition waivers that allowed districts to provide free lunch to all students have expired, so districts are going back to pre-COVID standards.
“Families need to be aware that they are expected to pay for lunch unless they meet the free or reduced criteria, and if that’s the case, they need to get in and fill out that paperwork as quickly as possible,” stated Lorenz.
The board discussed the purchase of Wilson Reading System training with Apples of Gold Center for in-person training at Inman Elementary Aug. 15-17 for special education staff, at a cost of $6,200. Lorenz advised it was training they had scheduled for awhile, they’re just receiving the bill at this point.“Our special education staff has attended virtual training regarding the Wilson Reading Program. It has been implemented, and now that they’ve done so, they’d like a refresher to contextualize things a little bit, so we’re asking for the board to approve this so we can make sure we’re implementing the program with integrity, and making the most out of it for our special needs kids,” Lorenz explained.
“We have invited our Title One teachers to attend as well, so we get more bang for our buck,” Chaillie said.
Chaillie said the program has only been used by the district for a year, but is already proving worthwhile.
“We saw a great deal of growth using the program. The growth was just outstanding using this program,” Chaillie stated.
Lorenz added the program was a more cost effective training as opposed to other programs.
“It may not seem inexpensive based on the price, but it’s significantly less expensive than other models. It’s also a bit more flexible, and I believe the teachers like it because it’s easy to use. Clearly it’s working because we’ve seen incredible gains with our students,” Lorenz commented.
The board approved the purchase of Wilson Reading System training as presented.
The board then discussed the purchase of Fundations and Just Words with in-person training Aug. 17-19, at a cost of $10,500 with travel expenses to be determined. Lorenz said the program was closely-related to the Wilson Reading System.
“These are for younger students, and we’re in the same type of situation as with the other program. We had staff that attended the virtual training, and now with that under their belt, they’re asking for approval so they can get a deeper understanding and receive some additional supplemental training,” explained Lorenz.
The board approved undations and Just Words with in-person as presented.
In other business, the board:
•Approved the 2022-23 teachers handbook, Red Oak Jr./Sr. high school handbook, the Inman Elementary handbook, and the Red Oak Early Childhood Center handbook.