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McDonald board gives first reading on change to rule
McDONALD
The McDonald Board of Education on Monday gave first reading to changing the kindergarten entrance age for 5-year-olds.
The new policy, which requires one more reading before it is officially approved, will change the 5-year-old birthday requirement from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 for admission to kindergarten.
The board also has agreed that children can be admitted who may otherwise be ineligible because of their age, but demonstrate the “ability and need to undertake a program of education.”
The board also accepted a $10,000 grant from the Grainger Foundation, which is based in Chicago and operates locally on Victoria Road, Austintown. The company supplies plumbing materials to the district.
Its parent company’s charities encourage technology upgrades.
The donation will be used to offset the estimated $70,000 to $75,000 the district has spent to construct and equip two new computer labs in the high school.
Fifty new computers were installed in the new labs.
The state will require in 2015 that all students take the Ohio Achievement Tests by computer.
The board also approved making Mary Skufca secretary for the Title I after-school reading and math Intervention Programs for grades three through six at Roosevelt Elementary School for the current school year at a rate of $15 per hour.
Skufca, who also is the regular secretary at Roosevelt, held the Interventions program’s secretarial position in 2011 to 2012. The position was not filled last school year.