By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Cassopolis Vigilant
CASSOPOLIS -- Parents of seventh graders may see Ross Beatty Jr./Sr. High School Principal Rusty Stitt riding up to their doorstep on a bike, as he is making home visits this summer to the incoming students.
Stitt hopes to bring a connection between home and school and make the transition easier, answering any questions the parents or students might have.
Along with the visits, all of the seventh graders will be receiving T-shirts and four bikes will be raffled off.
Parents of seventh graders will be personally invited to an orientation day on Monday, Aug. 25, the day before school officially starts.
Ostrowski also praised Richard DeVos, Director of Finance for the Cassopolis Public Schools District and others who worked hard to secure funding for repairs and improvements to the buildings.
DeVos explained to the board how many hours were spent into application paperwork for a grant to protect the district's assets, only to have the over 220 pages of documents lost by the state superintendent's office.
That request for approximately $765,000 was rejected, but later a total of $144,000 was received for capital improvements, some after other districts turned back unused funds.
With those funds, DeVos said, 13 smoke tight doors were installed, 33 computers were added for K-12 special education and also software, along with four hearing devices and some furniture.
Also a completed computer lab was set up at Sam Adams Elementary School and wireless communication was established at the three primary buildings. (See the Superintendent's Corner in today's paper.)
Then in March, DeVos added, the Cassopolis District received 20 percent of the entire state of Michigan funding for 2003. An application for $2,30,000 was approved for urgent school repairs.
Carmi Design Group of Edwardsburg developed bids and specifications for improvements.
Parking lots were paved district-wide and sidewalks replaced. All buildings were re-roofed, which had not been replaced since 1995.
Repairs are winding down in the district as the beginning of school approaches.
Also in June, the District's voters approved by a 58 percent affirmative rate, a 0.9 mill sinking fund for a period of 10 years. The 2003 levy will yield approximately $238,000, DeVos said.
A total of almost 2.9 million has been generated for Cassopolis Schools in the last 15 months.
Board members were also introduced to the new assistant principal at Ross Beatty Jr./Sr. High, Betty Ivers of Bridgman. She has been the principal at Riverside Elementary, a K-8 in Riverside, for two years.
In other business: