During it’s Feb. 14 meeting, the El Dorado Springs R-II board the Board reviewed the options available for school calendar for the 19-20 school year along with the results of the recent four-day week survey sent to the community and staff. Under new guidelines from the state, schools are no longer tied to the 1044 hour/174 day requirement. Now schools must be in session for 1044 hours with no day requirement. Additionally, the requirement for attending at least 3 hours in order to call it a “day” has been eliminated. This means that if a school needs to call off at 10 a.m. because of inclement weather, it may do so without penalty. Results of the four-day week survey were mostly favorable; the community survey returned showed 67.4% as strongly favorable and 13.7% favorable, and the staff survey was 49.4% and 24.1 % respectively. Disadvantages of the 4-day week most often cited were: issues with day care, loss of student meals and concerns about instruction time. On recommendation from Mr. Koca, the Board agreed to explore a calendar in the 160 day range (five days per week) for next year and revisit the four-day week calendar next fall. The calendar committee will develop a calendar and bring it to the Board next month.

The Board approved KPM to do the annual financial audit for the district. KPM has done the audit for the last six years.

The board heard a report from Dr. Christian regarding the district’s Annual Performance Report. The District received 104.7 points out of 120 (87.3%) for the 2017-18 school year. Categorically the district scored 94.3% in Academic Achievement, 100% in Subgroup Achievement, 65% in College and Career Readiness, 75% in Attendance, and 100% in Graduation Rate.

The Board moved the March Board Meeting Date to March 7, due to the regular meeting date falling during Spring Break.

The Board reviewed the employee health insurance rates for next year. The single rate will rise by 7% to $475.26 per month. On recommendation from the Superintendent, the Board agreed to pick up the total cost of the employee health insurance for the 19-20 school year.

The Board declared items surplus: two wheel chair lifts for stairs and one stack of lumber from a dismantled board fence between Middle School and High School.

The Board considered the purchase of long-term disability insurance for the staff at the cost of $20,100 per year. Based on feedback from the staff, the Board did not act on this measure.

The Board reviewed the Extra-Duty pay schedule which had not been changed since 2004. The Board directed the AD and the Superintendent to bring a proposal to the Board next month.

In the construction report, Mr. Koca reported that the final inspection will occur later this month and there are a few minor issues that still need taken care of. Mr. Koca stated that he felt that the Construction Management at Risk option worked out well for the district.

Teachers received Community Foundation grants totaling $6,941. They went to Angie Johnson, Suzan Durnell, Melania Richardson, Kim Cox, Austin Gooden, Denae Norman, Stephanie Steward and Christy McKinney.

This got skipped in the Board meeting, but there is some news from the Athletic Conference. The members of the Ozark Mountain Conference received notice from the president of the Mid-Lakes Conference that they had voted on February 13, 2019 to “decline a merger with the OMC” as they had voted to do a year ago. This leaves the Ozarks Mountain Conference with El Dorado Springs, Warsaw, Buffalo, Butler, Sherwood, and Cole Camp (football only) as members. No official reason for the change was given.

In executive session, the Board accepted a resignation for retirement from Sandy Lackey (6th Grade math) hired Amber Ogle to finish out the 18-19 school year as Middle School counselor, and re-hired all of the current administrators: Steve Molz – Director of Building and Grounds, Brent Hillsman – Technology Director, Mike Durnell – Activities Director, Shana Newman – Special Services, Brad Steward – MS Principal, Dave Rotert – HS Principal, Dr. Tracy Lanser – Elementary Principal, Dr. Tracy Barger – Associate Elementary Principal and Dr. Theresa Christian – Assistant Superintendent.