The American Heart Association and Capital Region Medical Center teamed up to donate a hands-on CPR training kit to the California R-1 School District at the May 22 board meeting.
The kit holds 10 mannequins allowing 10 students to learn how to perform the life-saving practice at once. JoAnn Cantriel, education manager from CRMC, said the purpose of the kit's to not only educate students on how to perform CPR, but also to train teachers and other staff members of the district.
The board also approved a cooperative agreement between the Department of Social Services, Missouri HealthNet Division and the district to open the opportunity for additional funding for a few therapy services that exist within the district.
Superintendent Dwight Sanders said this partnership is with the MSBA and will not affect "the therapy side" of the district.
"Things will stay the same; we will just be getting additional revenue," Sanders said. "We are going to be pursuing additional revenue sources to be reimbursed for some of the expenses associated with our special education student population for students who are designated with an IEP who participated in that program."
Principal Sean Kirksey also announced at the meeting that Rep. Sara Walsh presented information on the House floor that California High School was one of the top-rated high schools in the state. This statement was collected from data gathered by DESE and niche.com.
"As a district, we're ranked 80 out of 450 districts, which is the top 20 percent in the whole state," Sanders said. "We are extremely proud as a district to what the high school is doing."
The board chose The Architects Alliance to be the proposed architectural firm to work on an expected 2020 bond issue. The firm is based out of Jefferson City, and Sanders said if the fee structure meets with the district's expectations, The Architects Alliance will be officially accepted.
"They've done quite a bit of work locally," Sanders said. "They haven't done anything in the district or in California, but they're currently doing construction in Jefferson City and are working on the Blair Oaks project that was passed in April 2019. Eldon has also used them in the past.
"They're local, so we felt they would have great connections with contractors in this area," Sanders said. "We want to keep this project and the work that's being done on our campus as local as possible with contractors and subcontractors that have connections with our district and pay taxes to this district."
In other business, the board:
- Accepted the resignations of Dennis Davis, high school track coach; Jon Lindquist, high school business teacher, high school yearbook sponsor, high school head track coach and FBLA C-sponsor; and Mikel Gragg, high school body conditioning teacher, high school football coach and high school assistant girls basketball coach effective at the end of the 2018-19 school year.
- Announced not all summer school teachers will be full time, but some staff will be teaching for 10 days while others will teach for nine; the teacher to student ratio is 19:1.