Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County Board of Education met in special session on Tuesday night at the Butler County Education Complex with Board member Charles Price absent.  Action was required to meet a May 1 state deadline for a policy on the use of physical restraint and seclusion.  The Board approved the 2nd reading of a policy with Kentucky School Board Association recommendations to meet state regulation 704 KAR 7:160 governing physical restraint and seclusion by school personnel.  Superintendent Scott Howard told the Board that this policy is temporary and a revised policy will be brought to the Board before school starts in the fall.
 
Superintendent Howard and Curriculum Coordinator Vonda Jennings reported to the Board on a proposed purchase of reading textbooks.  Howard stated that the School System has not purchased textbooks “for a long, long time.”  Howard and Jennings recommended the Reading Street series of reading textbooks for grades K through 6, which they said was one of the most rigorous available.  Howard added “If we don’t get students off to a good start [in reading], seems everything else suffers.”  Jennings said that North Butler Elementary had Reading Street before, which would allow NBES to get a 20 percent discount.  The expense of the series is expected to be $78,000 to $80,000 over a 4 year payment plan; Howard said he would like to see the Board helping the schools out with the expense at some point and noted that there is no federal help on funding this initiative.  Howard said it was important for both MES and NBES to have the same reading texts.  Jennings added that students can access the texts online from home; when Board member Amy Hood-Hooten asked if teachers could as well, Jennings said yes.  Howard said he was not asking the Board to take any action at this time but wanted to inform the Board that the Reading Street series was being considered.

Story by Don Thomason, Beech Tree News