By Jolene Farley
The Hills-Beaver Creek School Board approved a class schedule for the 2002-03 school year almost identical to the 2001-02 schedule at a School Board meeting Monday.
"The schedule the teachers liked most started after Labor Day and was done at the end of May," said Superintendent Dave Deragisch. Staff were shown three sample schedules.
The schedule contained 174 student class days and six in-service or conference days.
Deragisch built three days of early dismissal into the schedule, the first a month after classes begin, to allow teachers time to contact or meet with parents if a student is struggling in a class.
This time off "gives the teachers and the parents a chance to communicate."
Conferences were moved from Tuesdays to Thursdays at the teachers' request.
Other board business
oThe board discussed spreading the word to parents that some programs for school funding are based on the reduced lunch count in the district.
"A lot of people feel if they are taking a free or reduced lunch they are taking something away from the school," said Deragisch.
"I don't know how we can get it across to people that it's a good thing," said board member Ann Boeve.
Community Education will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, March 18. Deragisch hopes to revive the floundering program, and he plans to invite senior citizens to attend and voice their preferences on classes to offer.
"I think Community Education has suffered the last few years," said board chair Alan Harnack.
Early Childhood Screening was held Friday, March 1, with six of a possible 12 students screened. Three students were "no shows" or unable to be reached, one student moved from the district, one student was ill and one student is attending in Luverne.