Carrier Mills-Stonefort youngsters know the drill
The Carrier Mills-Stonefort school board discussed fire drills, building safety plans and meeting dates during Monday's meeting.
The schools and the village fire department participated in fire safety drills during National Fire Safety Week. The pre-k and kindergarten students got a tour of the village fire station and equipment, along with juice and cookies and a talk on fire safety from the firefighters. At both the grade and high schools the Carrier Mills Fire Department conducted full scale fire drills. The board expressed it's gratitude to Chief Jerry Choat and the Carrier Mills firefighters for all the work they put into providing this service.
Building safety plans for both grade and high schools have been updated. These plans cover various emergency situations such as fire, tornado, earthquake, bomb threat or building intruder. As the plans had recently been re-written to comply with the most recent guidelines, no substantial changes in the safety plans were made. Both schools are in the process of carrying out the drills to refresh returning students and familiarize new students with emergency procedures.
The December, January and February board meetings have been changed slightly. The Dec. 15 meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. to allow the board to hold it's annual Board Dinner at the grade school. The January and February Meetings will be moved up one week due to the third Monday falling on a holiday. January 12 and Feb. 9 will be the date of those meetings. All board meetings are held in the superintendents office at the high school starting at 6:30 p.m.
A public hearing has been set for 6:15 p.m. Nov. 17, to be held at the high school. This hearing centers on approval for the board to apply for a waiver to the Illinois State Board of Education. This is a commonly filed waiver which allows teachers and staff employed by the district to have their children attend in-district even if the family doesn't live within the district boundaries.
Superintendent Richard Morgan informed the board that the teachers and administration are continuing to work on implementing the state-mandated Common Core Curriculum at all grade levels. The Oct. 3, Teacher In-Service Workshop was used to look at implementing Common Core guidelines in the area of improving vocabulary at all grade levels.