Racing against the winter weather of Tuesday evening, the school board met for our February meeting.
The full agenda and items can be found here, but I'll focus on a few items. First, the biggest and most immediately impactful decision we made was amendments to the school calendar due to so many winter weather days. That calendar can be found here. There is no "great' solution here, and we recognize this. We hope this is the least intrusive solution. For those of you planners for the summer---summer school's schedule is still being finalized with the alterations approved at this month's meeting. For the citizens who pay particular attention to our district's financial statements and general ledgers, you would have noticed appearance changes during the last several months. As the district switches to the new financial software, we get more specific details and ultimately, we will be able to see the month-by-month budget as it's being spent on all of the district's accounts. This is great news for transparency purposes. That said, in the new software, new accounts were made, old accounts don't exist in the same places, and the district is merging the two together. That creates situations where it appears we have overspent and underspent the budget significantly in various places. This will get fixed as the new fiscal year, but will take some tweaking. Districts across the state are adjusting---we aren't alone in making the change. We approved the first round of technology budget items. Two years ago, the board re-instituted $80,000 in technology investments. The items we approved can be found here, and will be seen each building. This, coupled with technology (desktop) donations received in recent years, the "red"/obsolete machines that the district had have been taken care of. This is a big deal, and it's something we should be proud of. We're making significant investments in mobile devices which are needed more and more in the workforce of tomorrow. Lastly, keep watch on the district's webpage on construction updates. We did receive an updated timeframe for the next few months. In a nutshell, Klingner (our architectural firm) is working on detailed design documents and then SM WIlson (our construction manager at-risk) will spend March preparing final cost estimates and preparing the documents for bid, which we would approve at our meeting next month. We're making progress! As always, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Stay warm and safe! Craig
0 Comments
|
AuthorHallsville resident. Foster Parent. School board member. Politico. Jesus Follower. Cardinals Fan #MizzouMade Archives
June 2020
Categories |