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Cloverdale Schools to promote new community platform
CLOVERDALE — Despite challenges with enrollment and striving to maintain a level education for students, leaders at Cloverdale Schools are now looking to promote not just the school corporation, but the community.
With the availability of a unique online platform, it will be about more than public relations. The impetus behind this effort would be to teach students about media literacy and to ultimately engage as community journalists.
An overarching idea of developing a local news source for the community and the school corporation was fleshed out by consultant Taulbee Jackson during the Cloverdale School Board’s regular meeting Monday evening.
With an online platform called Citizen One, Jackson outlined that students, staff and administrators, as well as town officials, police and firefighters, would be able to get information out. With this model for Cloverdale, the platform would be magazine-style with content including podcasts, blogs and livestreaming.
However, Jackson principally highlighted students having the opportunity to learn about journalistic practices and how messages and content are created or manipulated. In essence, he said, this would give them the tools and training to be responsible reporters as the “source of truth for the community.”
To a question from board member Duane Huge about using social media instead, Jackson said there is no direct editorial oversight over this content. To this point, language arts teacher Maria Skiles would be the principal administrator for Citizen One’s student contributions.
From conversations he has had with Cloverdale High School Principal Sonny Stoltz, Superintendent Greg Linton provided that a media career pathway could eventually be created. At this point, though, the program would be extracurricular.
Jackson said a key part of the program is that it has to be decoupled from profit on the school-community side. This is so that the school corporation would not have to rely on grant funding. However, the platform would allow businesses to advertise.
As to a roll-out, Jackson said there was still some design work to be done on the platform, but that it was “functionally close” to launching. He provided that students could start producing content after fall break, with the full platform being promoted by Thanksgiving.
In other business:
• Linton discussed a tentative contract with the Cloverdale Education Association and the board. All teachers, including new ones, would receive a base increase of $4,000. Teachers who may be one or two steps behind in receiving a prior increase will add $1,100 and $2,200 to their base, respectively.
The board had a special meeting scheduled Thursday to approve the contract.
• The board approved pay increases for non-certified employees, bus drivers and school administrators. Non-certified employees will receive an eight-percent increase, while administrators will receive a $4,000 base increase. Meanwhile, bus drivers will get a rate increase of $15 a day, field trip or ECA trips will increase from $11.60 to $15 and weekend or holiday work will be $16.22 per hour.
• The board approved a Formative Assessment Grant from the state for $13,332.20. Linton said this grant goes toward covering the cost of iReady and other state assessments.
• The board approved a Title I grant for $225,050.73. Title I funding is meant to provide assistance to local educational institutions to help students from low-income families meet state academic standards.
The board also recognized Cloverdale Schools’ Students of the Month:
• Cloverdale Elementary School: Meya Jacobs
• Cloverdale Middle School: Mikayla Schabel
• Cloverdale High School: Brady Koosman
The board also approved the following personnel report:
• Resignations: Alesha Pattison - CES/CMS cafeteria; and Marsen Johnston - CES/CMS cafeteria;
• Employment: Doug Wokoun - CHS social studies teacher;
Hire: Kim Bailey - seventh-grade girls basketball coach
Mike Rightmyer was the only board member absent at the meeting. Meanwhile, Corporation Deputy Treasurer Lynn Lotz joined Linton, Stoltz and the rest of the board.
The next regular meeting of the Cloverdale School Board is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Arthur L. Johnson Administration Office near Cloverdale High School.