The final Carmi-White County School Board meeting of the year took place Monday night for a little over half an hour.
Justin Dartt of Dartt & Company LLC addressed the board on the Fiscal Year 2023 school district audit. He said the audit went well and the district is in compliance with all laws, and all appropriations are within budget.
After approving the audit, the board passed the Tax Levy for tax year 2023. It’s against the property values of 2021 and will be extended into the summer of 2024. Money will be spent during the 2024-25 school year beginning July 1st 2024. The levy will be based on a projected EAV, or Equalized Assessed Value, of $181,040,949. Since the levy request is lower than 5% of the previous year’s tax extension, a Truth in Taxation hearing is not required.
The district received a Teacher Vacancy Grant from the Illinois State Board of Education, which can be used to attract, hire, support, and retain teachers. They will support new teachers by implementing a mentoring program. Teachers who agree to serve as mentors must have achieved tenure in the district and must be approved by the Superintendent. The board passed a Memorandum of Understanding to make those teachers eligible for payment per semester for time related to the mentor program during the 2023-24 school year.
The board then passed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Carmi-White County Education Association and the Carmi-White County Support Staff Association for the remainder of the collective bargaining agreements with them. The board of education agreed to increase the health insurance premium by $80 per month paid by the board up to $880 per month effective January 1st 2024.
In the Superintendent’s Report, Jerrod Newell said he appreciated the efforts of the music department and all those who put together the concerts and programs held over the past few weeks. He also noted that school will be closed from Wednesday, December 26th through Monday, January 1st. Staff will return for an in-service day on Tuesday, January 2nd and students will return on Wednesday, January 3rd.
And the Consent Agenda was approved. It includes preliminary adoption of 28 board policies as amended with final action set for the January board meeting and final approval of one board policy. It also approved a total of $2,150 in donations to the district, Brownsville School, Lincoln School, Jefferson School and Carmi-White County High School.
The board went into Closed Session at 7:34 PM to discuss personnel and review closed session minutes and audio tapes.
