480 Board Approves Program and Staffing Plan for East Annex

The old West Middle School will become the east annex of Liberal High School this fall.  The USD 480 board approved the program and staffing plan for the east annex and old McKinley Elementary Monday night.  The east annex will be an expansion of the high school for more space and will also house the ESL and business departments this fall.  McKinley will host a portion of the high school’s alternative school and Focus.  McKinley will not quite be ready this fall.

The district’s building improvement team presented to the board last night.  They asked for LHS and Meadowlark to be able to apply for the Kansas Can School Re-design.  The board approved the ability to apply to be a re-design district.  If approved, LHS and Meadowlark will work on ways to give teachers more freedom in the classroom.  Seven districts in the state will be approved to study how teachers teach in the classroom.

The board approved substantial completion for Meadowlark.  The board walked through with the contractor JE Dunn.  Substantial completion means the district has access to the school although there is still some construction going on.  A similar walk through will occur at MacArthur Monday.

The district sold 14 portables for over 35 thousand dollars.  They sold six portables at Washington, four at Garfield, two at McDermott, and two at South.