by Robert Moore

The first meeting of the Burgin Board of Education in 2016 included dinner and a show.

The music was provided by Sarah Auvil and Joanah Loomer, students in Nicole Short's music class. The food was provided by students from Mandy Byrne's culinary arts class. Byrne is a teacher at the Kentucky School for the Deaf (KSD), which is in a partnership with Burgin, Danville High School, Bluegrass Community and Technical College and Hughes Jones Harrodsburg Area Technology Center, to help students become college and career ready. Since the beginning of the year, students have been able to attend classes at the partner institutions during the first three periods of the school day. By joining forces, the partner schools are able to offer students

more fields of study than the schools alone could provide.

"It's just really fun to watch them work," said Byrne. In class she pairs one student from Danville with one student from Burgin with one student from KSD. She said the students were good at sizing up each other's strengths and weaknesses and figuring out the best way to work together to complete their projects. The students will be able to earn a ProStart National Certifi cate of Achievement, hich, in addition to offering scholarship opportunities and preparing students for careers in the culinary, restaurant and hospitality industry, also counts as introductory courses at many colleges. KSD is one of seven schools in the commonwealth to offer ProStart. In March, Byrne's students will compete in a ProStart competition.

January is also school board appreciation month, and Jay Miller, a Burgin student who studies advaneced manufacturing classes at KSD, presented the board members with presents — laser-engraved lazy Susans.

Other issues that came before the board included:

• The board approved a tentative budget to be submitted to the state government.

Superintendent Martha Collier said the staff was unable to make firm decisions regarding the budget until after the legislative session was over.

Board Chairman Bob Clark said the biggest variable in this year's budget is anticipating what the school will receive from the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) program, which provides funding to local school districts. SEEK funding declined over 10 percent from 2008 to 2016, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan policy research organization based in Washington, DC. Kentucky was ranked the sixth worst state in the nation for spending cuts to education.

Gov. Matt Bevin promised to make extensive cuts to the state budget before the legislative session began. Bevin has already cut the transportation budget by $112.5 million.

Clark said trying to create a budget with all the uncertainty was like "trying to hit a moving target."

Burgin's budget includes two estimates, one in line with the amounts the district has received in recent years and one much more conservative, factoring in a reduction

in SEEK funding.

"The conservative estimate looks very gloomy,"Collier said.

• During the academic pdate, Collier said she, Burgin Principal Chris LeMonds and instructional supervisor Judy Jaggers had recently attended a workshop hosted by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators on developing a strategic plan for the district.

Collier said she had some "homework" for the board members, asking them to fill out worksheets which will help the school to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. She also asked for volunteers for Burgin's strategic planning team.\

• The board approved policies 08.113, a revision of the graduation requirements stating that seniors must be work and/or college ready before graduation, and 08.114, a revision of the preschool policy.

The=board also approved a meeting schedule for 2016.