Board honors students
Estill County has some of the best and brightest students anywhere and some of them were honored at Thursday’s meeting of the board of education at central office.
Mattew Smith was given a certificate of recognition for being the state senior secretary of state essay winner. He is a senior at Estill High, the son of Jerry and Diane Smith.
The Estill County High and Middle schools academic teams were recognized for winning district and regional Governor’s Cup competitions. The Future Problem Solving teams have qualified for international competition and will go to Bloomington IA June 7-10 to compete.
The junior ROTC Raiders were honored for their success in their first year of competition. They are led by Lt. Col. Lance Patterson. He spoke about each student as he gave them a school board recognition certificate.
Assistant Superintendent Randall Christopher gave his monthly update about the construction of the new West Irvine Elementary School. The old building has been torn down and students now have classes in the new building.
“We are ready to pour the floor for the last wing, and if the weather stays good start laying block after that,” Christopher said.
He also said the work on the school should be completed by Oct. 1.
The school system received two grants from the Kentucky Arts Council for the 2012 school year in the amount of $1,080 each. The arts council grants are contingent upon funding by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Superintendent Bert Hensley presented the board with the ACT scores for Estill High juniors. Click said the average composite score had gone up by four-tenths of a percent and that it was a significant increase.
“We went up in everything except reading. We are almost a point above the state average and I am really proud of that,” Click said.
Hensley said that 35 to 40 percent of these students are college ready.
In other business the board:
•Approved an agreement with the Estill County Health Department to supply school nurses;
•Approved out of state trip and funding for FCCLA to attend a leadership meeting in Orlando Fla. July 6-12 at a cost of $2,589;
•Approved a trip to international competition for the high school academics team in Indiana June 7-10 for five students for $2,475;
•Approved an out of state trip to Indiana for the Estill Middle School student council to attend a Derby Dinner Theater;
•Approved a construction change order for the kitchen at the new West Irvine School;
•Approved personnel actions.