‘We don’t have enough buses’

By Dean Shipley

Staff Writer

Madison-Plains Local Schools buses hundreds of children daily to its campus.

So it should come as no surprise for the board of education to hire bus drivers in batches. The BOE hired four drivers on one-year contracts and with regret, accepted the resignation of one.

Superintendent Bernie Hall said simply, “we don’t have enough buses.”

With classes beginning Tuesday, the district saw an apparently unexpected spike in the number of children entering kindergarten and second grade. The enrollment jumped from 80 to 94 kindergartners and from 80 to 98 for second graders.

Not only will additional buses be needed but also additional classrooms, which Hall said will be added.

The BOE bade farewell to Gayle Reidenbach, the curriculum director, who will be working with London City Schools. She gave her final report to the board, which served as a segue to Karen Grigsby. Reidenbach said the district will continue to work in Race to the Top, which holds teachers to a lofty standards, “ways we’ve never thought before.”

The goal is to prepare students for jobs which require more critical thinking skills. The jobs are there, but workers aren’t equipped to work them.

To prepare teachers, it takes time. So time will be made for their development by way of early dismissal. Time will be made for the completion of additional modules

In her introduction, Grigsby outlined 20 years of experience and said her children attend Madison-Plains schools. She said, “math’s my baby,” insisting emphasis will be placed thereon.

BOE president David Hunter said bolstering junior high match is necessary to keep from “losing” those grades.

In other business, the BOE also heard from Michelle Vroom, a public relations consultant, who will be working with the district to find better ways to communicate with the public. Among the projects she will undertake will be a clean-up of the website, formation of an impact group, creation of a four-page newsletter. The latter will be published twice a year.

In the public participation portion of the meeting, Alice Baker said if a parent buys every item on the list of school supplies provided by the district, the bill would run up to $100. She asked the district to pick up some of those costs.

She also said the district needs more than one custodian.

“He’s run ragged,” she said.