C’view students to make up missed time

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent writer

CONVOY — Crestview Local School District students will be in school longer in parts of March and April due to an excessive number of calamity days.

The Board of Education formally approved an amended school calendar during Monday night’s monthly meeting.

“The week of March 11 — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we’re extending the school day by 45 minutes,” Superintendent Kathy Mollenkopf said. “The next week, we’re extending March 18 through 21, but we’re not extending that Friday.”

The week of March 25-29 will be extended 45 minutes per day; then the week of April 1 will be extended Monday through Thursday.

“It’s 18 days of extended time at 45 minutes on each of those days to recapture two days worth of instruction time with kids,” Mollenkopf said.

During a short presentation to the board, high school Principal Dave Bowen said the school’s course description book is being revamped for the 2019-2020 school year.

“School counselors Kris Kill and Dave Springer, along with our teaching staff, have done an outstanding job of reviewing course descriptions, as well as trying to make the booklet more of an all-encompassing document as a reference tool,” Bowen explained. “We feel that the revised course description book offers clarity, organization, and detailed organization for our students as they plan their curriculum throughout high school.”

Board members approved the addition of wrestling as a school-affiliated, school sanctioned sport, starting with the 2019-2020 school year, and the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Crestview Employees Association regarding contracts for wrestling coaches.

“The Crestview Wrestling Club has been in existence the last three years as a non-school sponsored activity,” Athletic Administrator Trent Kreischer said. “This year they have 47 students in kindergarten through seventh grade and the club has been very successful.”

“In five tournaments this season, students have already seen the podium (top four finishes) 79 times. I commend several of our community members in stepping up to plan and organize this program.”

“The plan is for wrestling to be a school-sponsored sport at the middle school level (grades seven and eight) in 2019-2020 and at the high school level in 2020-2021. The club will still exist for kindergartners through sixth grade and will serve as a youth feeder program. I am excited that this will serve as another avenue to get our students involved in something very positive.”

In other business, board members approved the purchase of one bus from Cardinal Bus Sales and Service for $88,400, and the board accepted the resignations of several retiring staff members: guidance counselor and bus driver Dave Springer (29 years), elementary teacher Greg Rickard (31 years), intervention specialist Diane Wilson (33 years), high school teacher Jim Wharton (36 years), elementary paraprofessional and bus driver Robin Foehl (29 years) and bus driver Al Rhoades (29 years). Springer, Rickard, Wilson and Wharton are retiring effective May 31, while Foehl and Wilson will stay on through the end of the current school year.

The board accepted, with thanks, two donations of $200 from the Convoy United Methodist Church for the eighth grade Washington, D.C., trip and the senior government class trip.

The next regular meeting of the Crestview Local Schools Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, March 25. Both meetings will be held in the district conference room.