September's board meeting was last week. The agenda wasn't fairly lengthy, but I wanted to point out a few things.
First, we saw first the first pass of our fall 2019 enrollment numbers as a district. Year-over-year, we're looking at approximately 30 more children. This expected increase comes after graduating a smaller-than-average class and an expected kindergarten class size of approximately 115 children. You can find this full report of enrollment here, but it appears as though our best guess is that our district average daily attendance will end at about 1345 (97% of our ADA). We continue to grow as a community, and this is exciting! The board heard from SM Wilson and Klingner updates on the primary school project. You can find that full report here. There are photos, an update, and how/what was requested to be paid. I was at the school today and it was exciting to see the work being done. We're on schedule. We have had to use the contingency fund this month for mitigation of unexpected expenses. These relatively small amounts (totaling $3,500) are something we're watching closely, but have built in a contingency for these kinds of things. We approved the surplussing of the old vans and some of the budget savings we are not using on a bus lease payment to purchase a bit more updated maintenance vehicles (used). The vans we currently own are 1990 and 1992 vehicles. This is badly needed. Additionally, I just will make note that we had a first-reading of several policies that are in need of being adopted due to legislation that was passed. We'll second-read them in October. We are tweaking the district use facilities policy as well. You can find those on the meeting page here. Before I address a potential 'elephant' -- I will be spending this weekend at the MSBA (Missouri School Board Association) Annual Meeting as our district's representative. I enjoy this stuff and will be rooting on our football team in Hallsville purple all weekend from afar. I'll also probably try to blog a post from the meeting. The meeting begins first thing Friday and continues through Saturday. Okay, the four-day (4-day) school week. The staff received a survey a few weeks ago and parents received a survey within the past week. The board will have to adjust the 2020-2021 school calendar due to legislation passed in May and signed into law. Essentially, district will no longer be able to start school before 14 days before Labor Day. However, even prior to this law-change---back in January---you can see here that I wrote that this discussion would be happening and the community would have opportunity for input. I encourage you to (if you're a parent) fill out the survey and stay tuned for more discussion on this topic. I've never shied away from sharing my opinion, and I will say that I'm still not convinced it's the best decision for children and students. That doesn't mean there aren't decent arguments will around staff retention and morale and such. This will be an interesting conversation and I encourage the entire community to stay informed and share thoughts with board members and the admin team through the surveys that are sent out. Until next time, thank you for reading! Please let me know if you have any questions. Craig
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AuthorHallsville resident. Foster Parent. School board member. Politico. Jesus Follower. Cardinals Fan #MizzouMade Archives
June 2020
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