A special closed meeting was held prior to the regular Board meeting for a student disciplinary hearing.
The annual audit for Fiscal Year 2017 was presented by Ryan Hawkins of Kemper CPA. He noted that the District is in very good financial shape.
A lengthy discussion was held on whether high school students who participate in co-curricular activities where they perform or compete, such as in plays or in band, should be subject to random drug testing, as students that participate in a District sponsored athletic team are. The Board decided to look into coming up with a plan that would include those students as well.
The Board members also briefly discussed whether to come up with a policy to evaluate those who coach an extracurricular athletic team. Since it probably could not be implemented until the beginning of the next school year, they decided to table the matter for now.
The District for FY 18, received a total of $1.1 million dollars in state and federal grants. They will continue to work to obtain additional grant funds when able.
State aid payments for August and September have come in, totaling $843,851. The state still owes $300,000.
In the Superintendent’s report, Brad Lee said the District has received two years’ worth of revenue from the county school’s facility tax totaling over $1.3 million. The Board will be asked at next month’s Board meeting to pass a resolution abating the existing bonds by $240,000. This is one-third of the total revenue from the past 12 months and is what they told the taxpayers they would do if the sales tax passed.
Red Ribbon Week activities will be from October 23rd to the 27th. This year’s theme is “My Future Matters – I’m Drug Free”.
Principal Appreciation Day will be held on Friday, October 20th to honor the work and commitment of principals, assistant principals and deans in schools throughout Illinois.
And there are sewer issues at Jefferson school as they have backed up twice already since the school year began. The City will soon run a camera through the sewer line to see where the problem is. It’s unknown as of now how much repairs would cost.
In other business, the Board accepted a Family and Medical Leave Act request from Alex Aud beginning approximately on December 18th and to run for 20 days at sub-pay deduction. She plans to return to work on the first day of the 2018-19 school year.
They approved a Board member expense request that would reimburse members attending the School Board Conference in Chicago up to $150 each. Hotel expenses will be paid the district and board members will not be reimbursed for their mileage.
And $400 in donations was accepted for the Brownsville School.
The Board went into closed session at 8:10 p.m.
In the disciplinary session, the Board agreed that the student in question was to be expelled, but should attend the Learning Alternative Branch school in Norris City. If the student chooses not to attend, or is removed from LAB, an expulsion will go into effect for the 2017-18 school year.
In the closed session, the Board approved Pat Gross and Trish Pringle as building volunteers for the remainder of the school year. Kaleb Childers was employed as a custodian at Washington School.
Jonathan Goemaat was employed as the 5th Grade boys basketball coach, Justin Simmons as the 5th Grade girls basketball coach, and Chris Pollard as the 7th Grade girls basketball coach.
The Board also agreed to increase salaries for non-certified employees not in the bargaining unit, and approved 2% raises for Amy Atteberry, Dr. Amy Dixon, Bart King, and Jarrod Newell.
