Northeast Vernon County to buy two buses

by Johannes Brann

Physically present for the May 22 meeting of the Northeast Vernon County (NEVC) R-I School Board were board members David Bruce, Heath Brown, Connie Gerster, Scott Pritchett, Tisha Bailey and Deland Prough while participating virtually was Heather Brown. Also on hand were junior/senior high school English teacher Clara Lindsay, Elementary Principal Eric Rhodes, High School Principal Dr. John Lawrence and District Superintendent Christy Jones.

The board authorized negotiation and purchase of two school buses, heard that a new state law means students will not have any access to their phones during school hours, learned that another new state law will bar the assessed valuation of vehicles from rising year over year (unless valued over $50,000), reviewed preliminary test scores and approved the entire proposed reading list for the coming year’s junior and senior high school English classes.

One of the responsibilities of the high school principal at NEVC is oversight of the district’s bus fleet. After describing the condition of each of the district’s buses for the board, Principal Dr. John Lawrence said, “We’ve got a good trip bus, one we use for the senior trip, student field trips as well as teams and cheerleaders for sporting events, but what we really need are two more reliable buses to handle our daily bus routes.”

After reviewing available buses from several area companies, and Jones noting she had “saved-up” for this, the board, on a 7-0 vote, authorized Jones to enter into contracts to make the outright purchase of two used school buses with the total amount not exceeding $150,000.

In her report, Jones noted that a just adopted state law means that beginning with the new school year, students will have their phones physically locked up from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The superintendent indicated this most likely will be in the form of a locked cabinet to be located in the room of each student’s final class period (“Knight Hour”). A corresponding school handbook policy will be prepared.

In his report, Elementary Principal Rhodes reviewed the STAR Reading and Math assessment scores.

“I wanted to help teachers know where their students were in reading and math, so they could focus on the most important areas of need before end of the year testing. And the results were quite eye-opening”, said Rhodes.

After reviewing the results for each grade he said it was clear most students were behind about a year in reading and even more in math. Prior to the new school year, Rhodes will present to the board the various ways the elementary school will focus on these two fundamental areas.

In his report, Dr. Lawrence reviewed preliminary End of Course (EOC) scores among high school students in English, Algebra, Biology and Government.

“As you know, we brought in a consulting agency to work with our teachers to better align curricula to state standards and assist teachers in lesson planning so concepts are taught in different ways because some learn by hearing, some by seeing and some have to be hands-on. And our test scores are already showing real, measurable improvement”, said Lawrence.   

Jones noted that while the state certainly does want to see higher test scores across Missouri, the evaluation tool for overall performance of school districts most rewards districts with improving scores.

Added Jones, “Our high school is starting to do just that and I am convinced we’ll see that a year from now in our elementary school.”