GALION — The Galion City Schools Board of Education covered a variety of topics during its meeting Tuesday evening.
To begin Tuesday’s meeting, Ken Green, from the Galion post of the American Legion, presented the board with a $4,000 check to be put toward the students’ meal program and uniform fund.
“Up in the Cleveland area last week, it happened to happen at a school where they have a policy where if a kid doesn’t have lunch money, they can’t charge more than $10, so they actually took the lunch out of the kid’s hand, shook it off in the trash can, and gave the kid a sack lunch,” Superintendent Jim Grubbs said. “People like you here and your organization allow for us to feed those kids a meal if that happens, so thank you so much.”
Also during the meeting, the school’s technology director, Veronica Rinehart, updated the board on the school’s iPads, Canvas, and FinalForms.
All grade levels have iPads to use at school, and students are not allowed to take them home until they have reached high school. Upon graduation, seniors do have the opportunity to purchase their device, but if they choose not to, then they are sent to the primary school for those students to use.
Canvas is a course management system that allows teachers to create their classes online. Teachers may post grades, information and assignments online for students to access, and parents may sign up to monitor their child’s account to keep track of how their child is doing.
New to the district this year, at Grubbs’ suggestion, is FinalForms.
FinalForms is an online system that allows parents to register their students and complete most of the required forms electronically. There have been kiosks bought and placed in each of the buildings for people without computers or smartphones to access to update their child’s information. The information will roll over from the previous year, so for the following years, parents will only have to go to the FinalForms site and make sure everything is correct and then resubmit the information eliminating yearly paperwork and making the process easier.
The board was told it is helpful for athletic events, too, in the event that a student gets hurt, coaches or other administrators may access the child’s information such as preferred hospitals or emergency contact numbers and proceed accordingly.
The board voted to continue the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in the district. For D.A.R.E., the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office sends the deputy in charge of the program, Chris Martin, into the schools and to talk to the students about not doing drugs or drinking, all the while still making the program fun for the students by having certain activities that go along with the lesson being taught that day.