A longtime Hennessey teacher expressed concerns to the district’s board of education during its May meeting.

“I’ve seen a lot of teachers go through here,” said Kathi Reilly, who took early retirement this month as a Hennessey Public School fifth grade teacher.

“Those who graduate from here usually stay here, but the chain of command has broken down,” she told board members at their May 10 meeting.

Reilly said it used to be you could go to your “principal, then the super intendent, and the board” with a problem, but she’d been told “I couldn’t talk to you, unless it was to all of the board.”

That’s why, she said, she was addressing the board.

Reilly said she graduated from Hennessey and taught there for 32 years, “and I love it here… it has been my only teaching job.”

The “but” came when she said, “Teachers need a support system and aren’t getting it. Students are going to flunk and we need help. We bend over backwards to help them, but they flunk.”

She said parents “don’t approve” of them being held back and teachers don’t get support, or backing.

“It should be the principals and we don’t know if it ever gets to the superintendent,” she said.

Reilly said she knew board members have their own jobs, but suggested they stop by the schools.

“Go into a classroom and talk with the teachers; they will talk with you,” she said, although “they know the board doesn’t seem to be for them.”

She said board members should see the poly-cams and virtual teaching methods teachers have had to use.

“We had 63 students in the fifth grade and only 48 had done their work (during virtual classrooms). There were three weeks when they didn’t bother to do the work. Parents were emailed daily,” she said.

Students have to be disciplined, she said.

“We don’t punish them for the fun of it. We need help with this,” she said. “Discipline is going downhill. We can’t teach when we send a student to the office and the student comes right back and continues to disrupt the classroom. We need help.”

If students aren’t taught about unacceptable behavior at home, then teachers need to teach them, she said.

“Ask teachers how things are going at school. I’d think they’d be grateful you are interested in them,” Reilly added.

She also said the track was in horrible shape when Little Olympics were held there.

Reilly spoke during an agenda item for “other comments” from the public which requires a speaker to contact the superintendent or board president 48 hours prior to the meeting to be on the agenda.

After she spoke, President James Matthew Matousek thanked Reilly for her service to the school.

Finances ‘More Stable’

In his superintendent’s report, Dr. Mike Woods said, “We’re down about $880,000, but we have some CARES money that should cover it. And, we collected enough from ad valorem taxes ($63.46 million) so that’s a real load off.

“Finances are not what they had been in years past, but we are much more stable than we were.”

He was referring to years past when gross production tax income was much more than 2020-21.

The board also approved an application with the county excise board to ask for $10.12 million in temporary appropriations for the 2021-22 school year that starts July 1.

The breakdown is: $9 million general fund; $500,000, building; $600,000 child nutrition, and $20,000 cooperative.

Woods said there was a “huge crowd” at graduation in the Hennessey Event Center (The Dome), “and we couldn’t have gotten everyone in the gym, or auditorium.”

Board Questions

Patrick Griffin, board member, asked why there is dirt stored south of the track and agreed it was in bad shape and something needs to be done.

Woods said the dirt will be used to help bury a culvert next to the ag barn.

Griffin also asked who takes care of the landscape in front of the auditorium?

Woods answered the school staff and Griffin called the front of the building “a terrible embarrassment” and said he was glad they didn’t have graduation there.

Woods said they have to be cautious about what they put in front of the windows and they’d talked about Taggart’s putting in some plants.

Vice President Luke Lough asked about when the awning at The Dome would be up.

Woods said they don’t have a drawing yet.

Lough also asked for an update about repairs to the classroom floors due to the flooding earlier this year.

“It’s a ton of flooring,” said Woods, “and we don’t have the bids yet,” and added they are working with the insurance company, but they need the bids first.

Bid on Big Blue and Cafeteria Van ad

Two bids on the purchase of Big Blue (1995 Van Hool) were opened and the winning bid was $2,500 from Linzie Briley (a HMS teacher, and the District Teacher of the Year). The other bid was $1,100 from Scott Hajek.

The board voted to solicit for bids on the cafeteria van (1994 Ford van, 3/4 ton Club Wagon with lift gate).

Other Business

The board also approved 21 pages of surplus books.

A date for the annual surplus auction has not been set yet.

See story in Sunday edition on employee matters.