The Moniteau County R-1 School District Board of Education met Wednesday, Aug. 19, discussing the bomb threat reported the same day as well as how California schools will be proceeding for the year.
The board came up with an alternate plan for school events and activities for the rest of last week, in the wake of the threat, to ensure safety for both staff and students and decided to change the first day of school to today.
The board then set the district's tax rates for a total of $3.9981. The district could have chosen a higher amount, but chose this number to ensure tax rates wouldn't go up. The board also approved the annual secretary of the board report, which is a document that summarizes the financial condition of the district. There was a 5 percent decline in the fund balance due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the district is still in good shape with the balancing currently sitting at 36.81 percent.
Superintendent Dwight Sanders also gave an update on the district's ongoing bond issue construction projects. As of right now, everything that follows has been completed: security camera upgrades at both the elementary and high school, network infrastructure upgrade, track resurfacing, replacement of the elementary gym floor, repairs to the high school roof, the horticulture air conditioning unit, the high school office air conditioning unit, the elementary air conditioning units, the elementary and middle school rooftop HVAC units and the high school boilers. The LED lighting at the Performing Arts Center is about 50 percent done and the high school parking lot is about 65 percent done.
The board then approved the district to allow dual participation in sports, meaning that students can participate in two sports within the same season. With sports being brought up, the board decided it needed to talk about visitors to both sporting events and within the school in general.
During the school day, visitors will have limited access to the building. They decided to postpone all parent/community engagement events until the second semester. Other decided upon guidelines include: military and college recruiters will not be allowed in for group meetings, all meals put on by the booster clubs or students groups will be offered as drive-thru only, a specified number of tickets will be available for CPAC events, MSHSAA events will follow MSHSAA guidelines, no building or district-wide student assemblies, outside athletic groups may use the facilities after school hours or on weekends with at least 30 percent of their team members being California students, and no adult groups will be allowed to use the athletic facilities.
The board then moved on to approving new building personnel. Anthony Price will be the middle school assistant football coach, Kimberly Lee and Paige Miller will serve as special education araprofessionals at the elementary school, Lance Boyd will be a half-time high school Spanish teacher, and Landon Lipskoch will help 10 hours a week with district-wide technology needs.
The Moniteau County R-1 School District Board of Education's next meeting will be held Wednesday, Sept. 16.