NEVC Board meets with principal candidates

by Johannes Brann
While a hiring decision was not made, the closed session of the March 23 regular meeting of the Northeast Vernon County R-1 District Board of Education included interviews of two candidates for the position of Grades 7-12 Principal. One candidate was from an area school while the other was from out of state.
“The board and I interviewed each candidate for about an hour and have invited them to come back next week for a tour of the facilities and an opportunity to get to know each other better before a final decision is made,” explained District Superintendent Chris Holcomb.”
Prior to the interviews, the board accepted the resignation of Co-Principal Josh Smith and voted to release him without penalty from his two-year contract with the district. Co-Principal and Counselor, Meghan McInroy was given a similar release from her two year contract in February. Both Smith and McInroy came from the Nevada R-5 District and for each, this was their first year serving as a principal.
On hand for the Thursday evening meeting were board members, David Bruce, Heather Brown, Heath Brown, Connie Gerster, Deland Prough, Scott Pritchett and Mike Newman. Also present were Smith, McInroy and Holcomb; Elementary Principal Kendall Ogburn was helping with a basketball game at his school.
While the seven items listed under New Business on the published agenda could be considered rather run-of-the-mill (i.e. bids for mowing and food service), one item stood out for the significant savings it brings to the district.
“I’m not exactly sure how long we’ve had them and exactly how many we’ve got – I think about 96 – but we still owed a lot of money on them,” said Holcomb in an after meeting interview. He was referring to old solar panels which were removed about 18 months ago from the roofs of the elementary and high school buildings when each building gained a new pitched metal roof.
And how much was owed?
“Even though we’ve probably had them for at least 10 years, the district still owed $59,851.35 on them,” said Holcomb as he shook his head. “Plus, the company we originally bought them from has itself been bought and sold at least twice and then I get this bill”, he added.
Holcomb countered by offering to ship them all back and call it good. The responding emails pointed out the panels in question were an older generation and were of no use to the current solar panel company.
After a lot of back and forth, in February, Holcomb was able to lower the settlement price to $4,000. The board thought this was an amazing job of negotiating and it was suggested that final disposition of the solar panels be added to the March meeting’s agenda. Most landfills will not accept them as is and so it was hoped that by declaring them surplus property and listed on the district’s website, someone might be interested in obtaining them.
“Since we had to wait a month before we finally resolved this, I contacted that solar company one more time and asked if they might go lower on their settlement amount. And they contacted me making a final and firm amount of $2,000 and I sent back a fast acceptance,” added Holcomb.
The board approved Holcomb’s offer and the surplus property declaration for the solar panels on a 7-0 vote.
Summer school will be offered again at the elementary school in Schell City on weekdays from May 30 to June 9 during the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a total of nine days.
With Ogburn not present, Holcomb explained, “This is not a usual Summer School session but is meant to be targeted tutoring with an expected enrollment of about 22 students. We’ll be using ESSER funds for this,” explained the superintendent.
As part of Covid-19 relief to schools, Congress appropriated three rounds of funding known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) grants. A portion of these funds can only be spent on provision of remedial services to students who are behind grade level.
The district will provide one school bus which will start at the high school about 7:40 a.m. and then travel up C-Highway to the elementary school and do the reverse at the end of the day.
The board approved these plans on a 7-0 vote.
“We are currently at the bottom of our conference when it comes to the board paid portion of health insurance premiums and I think we need to raise our contribution so we don’t lose any potential teacher candidates over this,” said Holcomb as he introduced the topic.
NEVC currently pays $300 and the next lowest is $350 with most at $400 and above.
“I’m proposing we move up to $350,” said the superintendent. “I would like to do more but based on the number of teachers currently using this benefit, the extra $50 per month will cost us $15,000 extra per year, and right now, I think that’s all we can do.”
On a vote of 7-0, the board gave its approval.
Another staff benefit item taken up by the board is the number of personal and paid sick days which are available to teachers. For many years in the R-1 district, teachers have been able to take up to two personal and 10 paid sick days.
Holcomb noted how a number of districts have abolished categorizing them and instead offer 12 days with teachers free to use as needed. After thinking about this, the superintendent believes this encourages teachers to use more of them and can result in a teacher taking a multi-day vacation and then later experiencing a multi-day illness resulting in several unpaid days off from teaching.
On a vote 7-0, the board approved four paid personal and eight paid sick days.
Three bids were opened for provision of lawn care at both campuses. By a 7-0 vote, the board accepted the bid of $350 from NDN Lawn Care for each time the grounds of both schools are mowed and trimmed.
To help the board evaluate and select a foodservice company, the superintendent sought bids on 10 commonly used food items (pizza, biscuits, carrots, chicken patties, etc.) with the per unit cost. In addition, Holcomb asked bidders to state whether they would provide the nutritional value of each item, would assist the district during any foodservice audit (the state will be doing this at the NEVC R-1 District this next school year).
Bidders included the district’s current foodservice supplier, Marrone’s Inc. of Pittsburg, Kansas and SGC Foodservice (Springfield Grocer Co.) of Springfield, Missouri. SGC was less expensive, delivered more often without a separate delivery charge, provides nutritional values and would be on site during foodservice audits. The board, on a 7-0 vote, approved the bid of SGC Foodservice.
By a vote of 7-0, the board raised the pay of substitute cooks from $10.60 per hour to $12.00.
Ogburn reported an elementary enrollment of 96 while Smith reported there were 110 enrolled in grades 7-12.
With the April 4 election of school board members, the board set Tuesday, April 11 at 7 a.m. for its required special meeting for the reorganization of the board.