The Carmi White County School Board met for its monthly meeting last night at the CWC Junior/Senior High School Cafeteria. Scott Mareing was there and has this report.
At the beginning of the meeting, the school board members appointed Kent “Pete” Fulkerson again as President for the next year, Andy Acord as Vice-President, and Barb Mitchell as Secretary. They were the only ones nominated for their positions.
This past March, the board of education adopted a resolution authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds not to exceed $11 million for school facility purposes. The bonds were to be paid back with revenue from the 1% sales tax. The required number of signatures were obtained from registered voters of the district to cause the question to be submitted to the voters and placed on the general election ballot for November 8th. The board of education now has until September 1st to certify the question on the November 8th ballot.
BLDD Architects from Decatur, Illinois visited the district and provided a Physical Needs Assessment and estimated costs for renovating the current three elementary school buildings and the junior/senior high school. Brownsville was also assessed, but those estimates are not available at this time. The estimated total costs for the Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington Schools is $16,384,886 and the junior/senior school estimated cost is $7,262,792. A summary of the report and a breakdown of the costs will be posted on the district’s website today (Tuesday).
An amended Fiscal Year 2022 Budget will need to be adopted due to some revenue and expenditure changes since it was adopted in September of 2021. It will be on display from now until final action set for the June 20th board meeting in order to meet the minimum thirty day display requirements. There may be revisions to it prior to final adoption next month. The district should have a positive receipt vs. expenditures for the year of $1,850,841.
The board accepted the lone bid from Midwest Bus Sales for the purchase of five 71-passenger school buses at a price of $116,458 per bus and a trade-in value of $34,000 per bus for three 71-passenger school buses, for a total of $480,290 plus applicable license and title fees. The district will lease-to-purchase from a banking entity yet to be determined. The buses should be delivered by October.
The board approved once again entering into a School Resource Officer Agreement with the City of Carmi, by and through the Carmi Police Department for the 2022-23 school year. They have received nothing but positive feedback on the agreement and the influence the SRO has brought to the school district. The district’s share of the costs will increase $12.86 per day, or $2,314.80 for the term of the contract.
Also, it was approved to increase the pay for substitute teachers from $90 a day to $110 a day. It is hoped this will attract more substitutes to the district.
Total revenue for the month of April was $1,318,903, including $79,076 from the 1% sales tax.
In the Superintendent’s Report, Brad Lee congratulated Dr. Amy Dixon, Principal at Lincoln and Jefferson Attendance Centers and Unit Director of Instruction, for being rewarded the 2022 Kiwanis Educator of the Year, and Randy Warrick, Unit 5 Director of Maintenance, for being rewarded the Kiwanis Support Staff Award for this year. He also announced the end-of-the-year activities, and congratulated the Carmi-White County High School senior class of 78 students for receiving $1,315,250 in awards and scholarships.
In other business, the board accepted the resignations of Tessa Hargrove as a first grade teacher at Lincoln School, Bart King as Carmi-White County Junior High School Principal/High School Assistant Principal and Director of Transportation, and Kate Simmons as Junior High School head Volleyball coach and head girl’s track coach, all effective at the end of the 2021-22 school year, and Jenny Dunn as part-time Building Custodian at Lincoln and Jefferson schools effective May 16th.
They approved the lowest bids for cafeteria food, milk, trash hauling, pest control, fire extinguisher and fire suppression.
Also approved was $1,280 in donations to the Brownsville School.
The board went into closed session at 7:47 PM to discuss personnel and collective negotiations.
