A draft of the district calendar for the 2023-24 school year will be presented at the Lisbon February school board meeting.
According to Autumn Pino, Lisbon school superintendent, there are discussions about this year’s current school calendar from teachers and the administrative team.
“One thing I know we are looking to keep in place is our scheduled early outs for professional development,” Pino said. “I know that is a calendar change that if we were to make impacts the entire community.”
School board members Abbe Stensland and Robyn Richey asked if there is any way for the first semester tests to conclude, or at the very least, happen before the winter holiday break.
“I can tell you my kids never opened a school book during holiday break to study for any subject,” Stensland said.
Lisbon secondary principal Jack Leighty reported that many schools in the district do conclude semester testing ahead of holiday break, and either have longer second semesters or have implemented a January Term or May Term class of electives for students to take after returning from holiday breaks.
Richey said she was interested in discussing possible J-Term or May term classes, but wanted that discussion to include staff and teachers who would be impacted by offering the new learning opportunities.
Lisbon school board president Jen Caspers said she would be open to those discussions, but didn’t want Lisbon to just do something that compares them to other districts.
“We could look at a few different options for that period of time, but whatever we do we shouldn’t be trying to compare to other districts, it should be something that helps set Lisbon apart,” Caspers said.
The board will continue discussion on the calendar and the draft proposal at February’s school board meeting.
Lisbon School Board approves overnight trip for Business Professionals of America
The Lisbon School Board approved an overnight trip for members of the Business Professionals of America in February.
The Lisbon chapter of BPA was formed in October 2022 by business teacher Amanda Zesinek.
Lisbon secondary principal Jack Leighty said the trip has a cost of roughly $130 per student, with 11 students currently slated to attend.
“The group is currently fundraising in a variety of ways to help mitigate costs to students,” Leighty said.
The conference will give students the opportunities to network with other students statewide, as well asset or meet personal and professional development goals. There’s a range of activities and speakers included.
Facilities plan update Emergent is working on items the board requested more information on at the work session just before the holiday break.
That includes the utility rework costs associated with the project on the northeast side of the building.
“While we know that we have a contingency budget that would most likely cover any overruns we encounter on those utility reworks, we owe it as stewards of the public’s money to investigate this before we move forward,” said Lisbon superintendent Autumn Pino.
Another session of input with teachers and other stakeholder groups is being set for February, where details can be discussed.
The project remains on the timeline to get bids this spring, with a possible bidletting in March or April.
Three-dimensional renderings of the newly constructed spaces will also be coming in the next month or two.
Additional meetings for school board plannedThe school board is also looking to have a board retreat/work session in late January/early February and a joint meeting between the Lisbon and Springville School boards.
Bleachers
being installedBleachers will be installed on Lisbon Auditorium’s balcony the week of Monday, Jan. 23. The board approved the purchase of auditorium bleachers in September 2022. The auditorium bleachers were one of the items originally proposed for the auditorium space constructed prior to COVID-19, but were value engineered off the project. When Lisbon was proposing a new career technical education wing project, adding bleachers to the auditorium space was part of the project that received a green light to move forward.
Delays in materials because of the COVID-19 pandemic left the bleacher order to be finalized in January.
School calendar draft will be presented in February
January 19, 2023
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.