At the July meeting of the Carmi White County School Board meeting on Monday, July 18, the preliminary Fiscal Year 2017 budget was approved. Final action will be at the September 19 Board meeting as the budget will be on display to meet the 30 day requirements. There will be revisions prior to final adoption.
The Board approved taking bids on the property currently owned by the District at 700 State Street in Crossville, formerly the Crossville Attendance Center. A minimum bid price will be determined in the closed session.
Also approved was implementing a student athlete concussion oversight team as required by the state and adopting a Board policy on concussions. The team will consist of athletic trainer A.J. Ola and Dr. Karsten B. Slater, both of Wabash General Hospital; Jane Sykes, school district nurse, and Kurt Simon, school district Athletic Director.
A discussion of a request from a non-certified employee for an extension of an unpaid leave of absence will be held in closed session. Also approved was a final revision of the Board policy manual.
The state still owes the District $230,000 and should receive the money soon.
In the Superintendent’s report, Brad Lee reminded everyone that the first full day of school is Monday, August 15. General building maintenance throughout the District is progressing well. Due to a broken water main, the Washington school gym floor has started to buckle in several areas. The insurance company will bay for a new floor. The old floor has been taken up and the concrete will be dried out before a new floor is installed. The project should be completed by the middle of October.
A State budget has finally been passed and general state aid should be funded at 100% for the first time since the 2010-2011 school year. Unit Five will receive $4.4 million in general state aid, a $208,000 plus increase over last year. They’ll also get $5.7million from local revenues, a $348,000 increase. Also, the equalized assessed value in White County increased by $8.9 million from the previous year, and because they did a Truth in Taxation hearing, the tax rate decreased from 4.l3 to 4.2%. The PARCC high school achievement test has been replaced by the SAT test, with more information on that to be released later.
The next strategic planning meeting will be Wednesday, July 27th at 6pm in the Junior/Senior High School cafeteria.
In other business, approved were bids on gas and petroleum products, trash hauling, and roof repair. The existing sections of the Washington school gym floor were declared surplus property and will be sold to the public. Also approved was a $3,500 donation to the Reading Wonders program at Lincoln school.
The Board went into closed session at 7:22pm. In the closed session, the Board reassigned Anna York as a 5th grade teacher at Washington, Tina Mosier as a 4th grade teacher at Washington, Melissa Dart as a 2nd grade teacher at Jefferson, and employed Jayme Cowling as a 1st grade teacher at Lincoln.
The Board also reassigned Sarah Richards as a Title I Elementary Aide at Jefferson, Jana DeLong as a Special Education Aide at Jefferson, Taylor Evans as a Special Education Aide at Lincoln, and Bayle Cronin as an Individual Aide at Washington.
Dee Stone was employed as a half hour a day breakfast supervisor at Jefferson and Kendall Dale as a full time bus driver. Brianne Douthitt was employed as a secretary to split time at Washington and Pupil Services. Blaire Whetstone was employed at Washington as a Special Education classroom aide and Mary Williams was reassigned as a Special Education classroom aide at Brownsville.
Justin Simmons was employed as the high school head baseball coach and Luke Simmons was approved as a volunteer high school football coach. Brenda Lack was approved to volunteer coach high school girls golf, and Brooks York was approved as a volunteer junior high baseball volunteer coach. Chris Shelton was as approved as a volunteer coach for junior high softball, and Brianne Douthitt was employed as the assistant high school volleyball coach.
The Board denied an extension of an unpaid leave for Jeff King. The Board agreed to enter a resolution authorizing and directing the sale of the Crossville Attendance Center property and ratified the 2016-2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Carmi-White County Education Association.
