Board reviews STEM camp program, approves 2015-16 salary schedules
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Sixth-grade science and math teacher Craig Frye, center, spoke to the Bardstown board of education Tuesday along with STEM summer camp students Andrew Wheatley, left, and Sofia Downs.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 11:55 p.m. — Meeting in regular session Tuesday, the Bardstown Board of Education received an update on the Summer STEM Camp that challenges sixth-graders to expand their thinking in areas of science, technology, engineering and math.
Craig Frye, a Bardstown Middle School math and science teacher, is instructor for the summer camp, now in its third year. The STEM summer camps have been funded by the Bardstown Foundation for Excellence.
With a total of 24 students, each one-week camp has focused on various STEM areas, including simple machines, electric circuits and extraordinary physics.
“Together, the classes are all project-based, inquiry-based, hand-on kinds of learning activities,” Frye said.
This year, the camp has focused on problem solving in teams. “You learn to get along and work with people,” he said. “They allow us to have materials that extend beyond the regular classroom curriculum.”
The camps are limited to 24 students.
Accompanying Frye were sixth-graders Andrew Wheatley and Sofia Downs, who took time to share their experiences with the STEM program and the summer camp.
Downs said she enjoys STEM camp activities because they are hands-on learning activities. The camp students also took a field trip to ECTC where groups took part in a variety of activities, including 3D printing of name tags.
Parents of the camp students are invited to attend the end-of-camp showcase event at 11 a.m. Friday, Frye told the board.
Board member Andy Stone noted the importance of the non-technical parts of the camp, particularly “soft” skills like learning to work in collaboration as a team.
DISTRICT RAISES. The board approved unanimously its salary schedule which included the state-mandated 2 percent across-the-board raises, as well as cost-of-living adjustments.
Superintendent Brent Holsclaw said he was very pleased to be able to offer the raise, which the district was able to cover in the 2015-16 budget.
Bardstown businessman Jack Hurst, owner of The Shirt Shop.
Board member James Roby said the district’s attractive pay scale allows it the luxury of picking and chosing the best teachers who apply for employment. Holsclaw said the teacher job market is very competitive, and a recent elementary school job posting attracted 71 applicants.
BUSINESSMAN COMPLAINS. Bardstown businessman Jack Hurst spoke to the board about t-shirts, shoes and trophies provided to a high school basketball tournament three years ago and other events by his company, The Shirt Shop.
Hurst told the board he was asked to delay submitting his bill of $4,200 for a period of time, and that a later agreement to pay Hurst a reduced amount fell through. Hurst told the board he spoke several times with Bardstown High School Principal Chris Pickett about the matter.
Pickett told the Nelson County Gazette that he hadn’t spoken recently to Hurst, but said he would follow-up on the matter with the school’s bookkeeper.
In other business, the board:
— approved continuing its relationship with Wilson & Muir Bank and Trust Co. as its bank of choice for its funds;
— approved fidelity bonds for the district finance director / treasurer and the tax collector;
— approved professional service contracts for occupational therapy and other services for the 2015-16 school year;
— approved a indirect cost rate of 11.47 percent that will allow the district to recover its overhead costs of administering grants. The district doesn’t collect the rate now, and can only do so once a rate is set.
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