The Southwest Open School board on Monday discussed a variety of topics, most notably their monthly focus for February, updates on the district’s mill levy and the school’s awarded grants.
This month, the SWOS focus area is student support services and exceptional student services update. These students, which account for 23% of the student population at SWOS.
Attendance rates, without factoring in ESS students, is 80.1%, and ESS student attendance is 77.7%. Course completion rates follow a similar trend, with 84.6% of the general population completing courses compared with 77.3% of ESS.
The board also briefly discussed vape issues. Director Joe Kelly noted that students are given a warning on their first offense, and are given an assessment after their second offense to check for “impulse control” issues. If an addiction exists, they work to help students target it.
Kelly added that vaping incidents have been dropping with this method.
The board spoke of the district’s mill levy and were informed that the district will disbursing $3,500 in six equal payments from March through August and $7,000 for the 2025-26 school year for teachers.
Since SWOS doesn’t have paraprofessionals, they will only have to keep track the portion of the mill levy that refers to teachers.
Another update about the 2025-26 school year was given. As of August, the district will “no longer provide bus transportation for charter schools.”
SWOS is in the process of starting its first student newspaper, “The Bottom Line,” through its student government. The school is looking for interested “student journalists” to join, noting that the paper will start out as digital only. If funding is procured, they would discuss transitioning to printing physical copies for campus.
The first issue is expected to be completed by the end of February.
Toward the end of the meeting, the board was given a grant update. The school was awarded a reengagement grant, totaling $292,000. This grant will be paid out over three years for a case manager position. They also received a School Health Professional Grant for $75,000 per year, among numerous other grants to fund programs like the esports and bike riding clubs, a campus greenhouse and the school’s food and snack program.
In action items, the campus improvement proposal for one of the campus’s building was approved, and the mill levy vote was tabled for March.
Before tabling the mill levy vote, the board spoke of the mill levy’s “teacher and paraprofessional only” stipulation, voicing their concerns for other staff, specifically staff who serve as teachers when needed.
