Reports were given to the Carroll School Board Monday night, outlining steps being taken toward school improvement after Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School was placed on Accredited Probation last summer.

National accreditation is a process conducted by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, an accreditation division of AdvancEd.

The accreditation status was determined after a quality assurance review team visited the school last February.

As part of the process, a school must meet seven accreditation standards. Carroll failed to meet five of those standards, according to an NCA report. The probation status is related to Standards 4 and 7, “Documenting and Using Results,” and “Commitment to Continuous Improvement.”

As a result of the report and designated status, Carroll has been implementing recommendations for improvement. Ongoing teams, primarily made up of teachers, are working in the areas of data analysis, professional development, communication, goals/interventions, and assessment systems.

The school must submit an Accreditation Progress Report by May 1, 2010.

Guidance director Kristen Seward and teacher Stacey Brazel, who head two of the teams, gave reports at the meeting, along with school principal Charles Huckstep. They said great strides have been made since the NCA/AdvancEd visit. Details of their presentations will be reported in next week’s Comet.

Other team leaders will give presentations at the next school board meeting.

In other business, the board will employ Barton-Coe- Vilamaa as architect for the high school chiller project.

“They will design, bid, and administer the project,” said superintendent John Sayers. He said expected completion will be in the summer of 2010.

The board voted to use its Rainy Day Fund to help pay expenses for Phase 2 of the HVAC piping project. An adopted resolution states that the corporation will expend up to $350,000, the total amount in the Rainy Day Fund, because there is insufficient money in the Debt Service Fund.

The Rainy Day Fund was established in December 2007 and receives transfers of unused and unencumbered monies from other school funds, as the board chooses. The board plans to restore money to the Rainy Day Fund.

The board authorized advertising for additional appropriations for the Rainy Day Fund and for the General Fund. Sayers said the appropriation for the General Fund is for three payrolls in December (instead of the normal two) and for federal stimulus money that the corporation is expecting. An additional appropriation is the authority to spend money that the corporation already has, or is anticipating getting, but was not included in the original budget.

A discussion was held on the funding of the elementary Honor Choir and Handbell Choir. Sayers explained that previously, funding came from a High Ability grant, but it can no longer be used for that purpose.

The board created the positions of Honor Choir sponsor and Handbell Choir sponsor for this school year, to be paid out of extracurricular funds. The board did not set the salaries, because that is part of teacher negotiations.

A 2010-2011 calendar was adopted, and it can be viewed on the corporation website.

Sara Thompson resigned as remediation aide at CES, effective Dec. 18.

Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School assistant principal Fred Schnarr presented spring ISTEP+ results for seventh and eighth graders. He said Carroll performed at or above the state average in both math and language arts.

The board approved and signed non-certified supervisor contracts, approved facility use requests and conference and field trip requests.

The next board meeting was changed to Monday, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Administration Building. January meetings have also been changed from the scheduled dates. They will be on Tuesday nights, Jan. 12 and Jan. 26.