Wednesday was Great Bend High School Principal Brock Funke’s first time to host a USD 428 Board of Education meeting and he joked that he wanted to make it exciting. The meeting was almost delayed when a lockdown drill for local law enforcement turned into the real thing.

The lockdown went longer than expected as law enforcement officers investigated a reported threat and eventually determined it was “not credible,” allowing the school day to continue and the board meeting to begin.

GBHS hosts a luncheon meeting for the school board once a year and culinary students provide the meal. This year’s menu was chicken fajitas, rice, fruit salad and a dessert.

Funke talked about how the school uses the Capturing Kids’ Hearts training, then introduced GBHS Student Ambassadors, JAG-K students and the WAC Leadership Team, each talking about successful programs in the school.

However, he said he also wanted to talk about some of the challenges the school faces. They are focused on improving English Language Arts (ELA) and math scores, along with the overall goal of reducing chronic absenteeism at the school.

“ELA and math aren’t going to matter unless you have attendance,” he said. This year he is working with the Building Leadership Team and school counselors to find better ways to let parents and students understand, “Your attendance does matter.” They’ve also gotten feedback from the STUCO and site council. An awareness campaign is in the works.

Chronic absenteeism differs from truancy, which is defined as unexcused absences from school. Chronic absenteeism includes all absences, whether excused or unexcused. Missing 10% or more of the school days in a year is considered “chronic.”

“Our goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 5%,” Funke said. “We’re going to do something about it. We’re going to get better.”

The numbers

During the 2003-2024 school year. 47.7% of GBHS and 27.3% of GBMS students were chronic absentees.

Across the nation, 14.7 million students were chronically absent in the 2020-2021 school year. For Kansas schools, the overall absenteeism rate was 24.51% in 2022 and 19.8% in 2024. With all of Great Bend’s elementary schools falling below the state average, USD 428’s overall absenteeism rate was 25.1% in 2022 and 28.3% in 2024.

The strategies for improvement, in addition to the awareness campaign, include adding a new attendance explanation to the Student Handbook that calls for greater student accountability. Students may need to earn the right to enjoy certain privileges such as enrolling in an internship or attending Hollyball through their responsible attendance. The school will also recognize and reward good attendance.

The school also needs to do a better job of record keeping and correctly coding absences, Funke said. A student who is at a school-sponsored event is not absent just because that student is not present at the attendance center.

A student who is at a doctor’s appointment, for example, is absent – but if the student is only gone for one class period, that isn’t a full day. It takes missing eight periods to count as one day.

Because of coding errors and disagreements with how the state counts absences, the district’s absenteeism rate may not be as high as it appears, he said.

Personnel Report

During the business portion of Wednesday’s meeting the school board approved four teachers’ resignations, effective at the end of the school year:

• Laurel Haley, GBHS art teacher

• Bobby Chavez, kindergarten teacher at Park Elementary School 

• Erica Pinkston, orchestra teacher at Great Bend Middle School

• Wendy Brack, first-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School

Two appointments for new teachers were also approved:

• Kaitlin Clawson, second-grade teacher at Park 

• Richelle Reichenberger, teacher at Great Bend High School

Culinary students

The culinary students who prepared the food for Wednesday’s board meeting were Tatum Anderson, Kaci Ashbaugh, Ethan Hoilien, Rylie Kaiser, Even David Luna, Alyssa McCauley, Kyulee Miessler, Juan Reteria Murillo, Victor Reyes, Angely Urquia and Alexandra Valles. 

Batman legacy honored

Family and Consumer Science (FCS) students at Great Bend High School prepared lunch Wednesday for members of the USD 428 Board of Education. FCA teachers Cara Negaard and Katy Hekele showed the board a plaque that will honor former teacher Kerri Batman, who taught at GBHS for more than 30 years. Following her death, a memorial was designated to the FCS department.

“We have two plaques so we can put one in each of our two FCS rooms,” Negaard said. The plaque reads:

“In Memory of Retired GBHS Family & Consumer Sciences Teacher Kerri Batman whose generous memorial gift to the FCS department will allow materials and equipment to be purchased for the benefit of our students for many years to come.”

“So far we are getting equipment to have classroom sewing kit sets and materials. We are also planning to purchase one or two sewing machines once we have finished doing some research, as we would like to find a brand that we feel can handle hard use in our classroom.”