The Carmi-White County School Board met Monday night with a special meeting held 15 minutes before the regular meeting. Scott Mareing was there and has this report.
A brief presentation of the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget was made. Superintendent Jarrod Newell ran down the numbers for the various departments, noting that they were only a slight adjustment from the Preliminary Budget. There were no questions asked, so the special meeting only lasted five minutes.
In the regular meeting, Nathan Whetstone recited the Official Oath as a newly appointed member of the board. He will hold that position until the next school board election in April of 2023.
Board President Kent “Pete” Fulkerson read a statement regarding the selection process for filling a board member vacancy, as some had suggested that interviews be held in open session. He said that they’ve been going by the board policy for a long time and vacancies have been filled under regular guidelines. Fulkerson said he contacted several other school boards and none of them said they have open interviews. There were no comments from board members.
The Fiscal Year 2023 Budget was unanimously approved. The projected balance for 2022-2023 for all fund accounts is $19,031,812.
The board approved applying for the FY23 School Maintenance Project Grant. It’s a dollar-for-dollar state matching grant program that provides awards up to $50,000 exclusively for the maintenance or upkeep of buildings or structures for educational purposes. There is no limit to the cost of a project, but grant awards cannot exceed $50,000 per grant award and applicants must provide a match from local funds equal to the grant amount requested. Superintendent Newell and Director of Building and Maintenance, John Goemaat, will meet with the architect to review possible projects.
In the Superintendent’s Report, Jarrod Newell noted the district’s sixth-day enrollment for the 2021-22 school year was 1,316, which was down 20 students from last year.
Through the Community Eligibility Program, free meals are available to all students throughout this school year, and share tables are back in place according to local and state food safety codes.
The updated administrator and teacher compensation report will be on the district’s website by October 1st.
CWC Curriculum Director and Lincoln School Attendance Center Principal Dr. Amy Dixon said the math curriculum has been updated for K through 12 students and is going well.
Washington Attendance Center Principal Amy Atteberry gave an update on the district’s High Impact Tutoring Grant Program. She said they’re part of the Illinois Training Initiative for grades 3 through 8, funded by federal COVID relief funds. There are 16 teachers participating with 44 students enrolled, or about one tutor for every three students. This session runs through December, with another starting up in the spring.
Carmi-White County is one of only 55 Illinois school districts in the program.
And for about 30 minutes, building principals gave an update on how the first five weeks of school have gone as well as any Good News they have.
In other business, the board approved the Consent Agenda, which consists of a Serious Safety Transportation Hazard Resolution, stating that the district is aware of the existence of various serious safety hazard areas within the school district and certifies that they currently exist; a board policy concerning Administering Medicines to Students was preliminarily adopted as amended, with final action at the October board meeting; they approved Leave of Absence requests for Melissa Altmann beginning on about December 15th until February 8th 2023, and for Hannah Roe-Gottman beginning November 14th until March 20th 2023; and approved the resignation of Chris Pollard as 8th Grade Girls’ Basketball Coach effective immediately.
The board went into Closed Session at 8:02 PM.
