Board Approves 2016 Band/Vocal Trip

The+Atlantic+Community+School+board+members+listen+to+junior+Emily+Yager+and+senior+Ben+Parker+perform+a+clarinet+piece.+

The Atlantic Community School board members listen to junior Emily Yager and senior Ben Parker perform a clarinet piece.

Turner Russell

by Turner Russell

The Atlantic Community School District held a board meeting at the high school on Monday night. The meeting included a saxophone performance from junior Emily Yager and senior Ben Parker, approval of a band and vocal trip to New York City in 2016, and the approval of a 10% price increase in next year’s school lunch program.

To start the meeting off, band director Jarrod O’Donnell introduced Parker and Yager to the board members. O’Donnell explained that two weeks ago Parker and Yager had achieved multiple honors for their clarinet performance at Solo Ensemble. O’Donnell said that not only did Parker and Yager receive a “1 rating,” but also that they received a “perfect score of 40 out of 40.” Parker and Yager will advance to Ames on May 15 to perform their clarinet piece again.

During the superintendent’s report, superintendent Dr. Mike Amstein praised Atlantic High School seniors Hannah McLean and Brecklyn Carey for receiving academic awards, and senior Jennifer Hohenberger for receiving a character award in the Hawkeye 10 Conference.

Amstein said the four-year graduation rate is “down a little bit” for this year, but that “we continued to lower our dropout rate.” Amstein also commented, “Late last week we recieved our Iowa Assessment data, I think we did pretty well.”

They briefly discussed the start date for next year’s school schedule, and Amstein said the earliest start date would be August 24th.

The board approved the 2016 band and vocal trip to New York City. O’Donnell said the number of adults and students planning to attend is “around the 98 to 102 range.”

The archery club trip to Louisville, Kentucky was also approved by the board members. The archery trip will include 24 kids in the competition as well as 4-6 chaperones. Activities Director Matt Alexander said that the students were “doing it all themselves” as far as raising money for the trip.

The board approved Amstein’s plan to not make up any of the snow days from this winter. Amstein said, “We will easily fall within or exceed the number of hours, so I’m recommending that we don’t make up these snow days.”

Amstein presented a plan created by DeeAnn Schriener to raise lunch prices with a “10% increase across the board.” Amstein said, “I agree with her philosophy on that. I believe her increases are reasonable.” This plan was approved by the board.