Special Education Director Erin Mades discussed the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Program on May 19 with the Crawford County R-1 Board of Education.

“The state has decided to change funding, so we’re making sure we have the right amount of kids in order to get reimbursed because everything for ECSE is reimbursed as long as you follow their guidelines. Now they want a detailed list of everything you buy,” Mades said.

Mades also reported on the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program, which is a free and offered to all Crawford County R-1 families. PAT helps organizations and professionals work with parents during their child’s critical early years.

The district’s parent educator provides many services, including home visits, group connections and screenings.

Due to parent feedback that has rated the PAT program as highly effective, they plan to expand its reach through increased community involvement and growing enrollment.

Bourbon High School Principal Casandra Haar reported on the school’s library. There were 243 books added to the collection, 173 that were deleted due to low circulation and an average of 80 student visits a day. 

Some of the program’s goals for next year are to continue to grow the collection, promote critical analysis of all media and teach students to use all available technology.

Elementary School Principal Joseph Bozic reported on the elementary and middle school library. Both facilities have hosted three successful book fairs that allowed for the addition of new books to the library and added dynamic shelving. A total of 21,250 books were checked out during the school year.

In the future, they hope to keep more current titles that appeal to readers, continue to incorporate student feedback into the library program and increase successful chapter book reading.

Superintendent Brian Witt ended the open session with his report.

“Bourbon Elementary also was recognized again with Tier Three Award of Excellence in PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports),” Witt said. “This recognition reflects the hard work, consistency (and) positive culture our elementary staff continues to build every day.”

Middle school Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing is complete. The middle school band and sixth grade put on a spring finale concert. The high school softball team placed second in districts.

Witt recognized the Bourbon Beta Club students. A total of 16 students qualified to compete at the national level across a variety of events, as well as having earned top placements at the state level.

“I’d also like to mention we received results from the first round of National Beta Academic competition last night,” Witt said. “Hunter Witt scored in the top 20 nationally in 10th-grade ELA (English Language Arts).”

He will now advance to the final round of the competition, which will be held in Nashville, Tenn.

Riley Dunphy will also be performing at Beta Nationals, as well as on stage in Nashville, Tenn.

In other business, with the 2025-26 Student Advisor to the Board Kaitlyn King graduating, Kyler Ogden-Davis was chosen as a representative for the 2027 senior class.