The Fairfax R-3 School Board held a regular board meeting October 16, 2019. Mike Lewis, president, called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Board members present were: Mike Lewis, Sam O’Riley, and Josh Oswald. Jon Graves joined via phone at 6:30 p.m. and entered the meeting at 6:53 p.m. Doug Miller, Marshal Oswald, and Chris Smith were absent. Also present: Jeremy Burright, superintendent; and Dustin Barnes, principal.

Board members voted to approve the agenda with any additions and deletions as presented.

Financial Report/

Monthly

Reconciliation

So far about 16% of the school’s budget has been spent. Transportation (19%) and transportation repair (79%) will have to be watched. O&M is at 19% and O&M supplies are at 113%. O&M still has $3,393 in repairs.

5.2.A. Monthly

Reconciliation:

5.2.A.1 19-20 Year

5.2.A.2 18-19 Year

5.2.B. Monthly Budget Comparison:

18-19 Expenditures:

$357,106.35

19-20 Expenditures:

$350,659.23 (-6,447.12)

18-19 Revenues:

$225,449.11

19-20 Revenues:

$249,430.43 (+23,981.32)

5.2.C. Fund

Balance Report

As of 10/2/2019 it is $918,355.27

Payment of Bills

The October monthly bills in the amount of $144,150.72 were reviewed and approved for payment.

Special Report

The lease purchase balance is $58,529.28.

Superintendent’S Report

Fire alarms: The school is required to be in compliance with national fire code when upgrading/installing a fire system. This means the bids received will most likely be higher than originally expected. Bids for the school’s fire alarm upgrade are due  November 8.

According to Dr. Bur-right’s last communication with the locker supplier, locker installation will be the first week of November. A team is coming to pick up the lockers that won’t be needed and get them out of the way prior to the installation week.

The exhaust fan in the high school boys’ locker room hasn’t worked properly in a while. Initial bids for replacement parts landed in the $900 range. A more affordable unit that moves the same amount of air for a fraction of that price was located and installed by local workers. Labor and parts ended up costing around $300.

Bus 17 is at Tru2U this week having some repair work done. It should be back in service in a few days.

The MOCAP program allows students to enroll in online courses that are already offered by the school of attendance at the expense of the school district. Hold harmless schools, like Fairfax R-3, do not receive any reimbursement from the state for these courses. Additionally, companies with online programs that have been approved by the state are soliciting parents to enroll their children without the consultation of the school. Dr. Burright reported they are currently working on ways to make this a more appropriate system.

Recently, the Commissioner of Education spoke to the Northwest Superintendents regarding a few items that are emerging at the state level. One of these items was minimum teacher pay. She reported that the governor would like to increase minimum teacher pay to $46,500. Currently, the minimum teacher pay is $25,000. If this goes into effect, it would increase the Fairfax R-3 School’s overall budget by more than $300,000 per year. At this point it isn’t likely for this to happen. However, the school will be looking at ways to reduce insurance costs to employees and give another raise this year to all staff.

The public release  of the APR is tomorrow. Dr. Burright will discuss it in detail in November.

The school is currently utilizing subs to fill the need for an additional part-time paraprofessional.

Principal’s Report

Mr. Barnes reported on the following general information: The first quarter ended Friday, October 11. Parent Teacher Conferences were held October 17. The elementary field trip to Arbor Day Farms was October 16.

Elementary staff members are still in the process of working on Math Standards and are evaluating curriculum and extra resources. Two elementary teachers went to a MAP Math training this past week.

High school staff is working with Dr. Burright regarding setting up a more formalized At-Risk Procedure.

Mr. Barnes also reported on athletics. Homecoming was October 11. The Senior Night football game is October 18 at Fairfax vs. Stanberry.

The Senior Night volleyball game is October 22 at Fairfax vs. North Nodaway.

Four members of the girls’ golf team qualified for sectionals.

The district volleyball tournament will be held November 8 at Tarkio.

Junior high football and volleyball seasons have ended, and junior high basketball practices have started.

Mr. Barnes reported on a sample drug testing policy, as well as drug testing cost/collection information.

CONSENT AGENDA

Board members voted to approve the consent agenda.

NEW BUSINESS

The board heard a presentation by Patty Hodge regarding a possible student trip to Spain. Programming, transportation, cost, and teacher background were discussed. The board decision was to allow Mrs. Hodge to act independently of the district to raise funds and facilitate the trip. The board is thankful Mrs. Hodge is willing to take on this responsibility for the students.

The board was updated on the need to reclassify $7,000 from the regular operations budget into building and grounds.

The school district has been considering creating a list of priorities to provide direction to the school’s community of givers. Originally, this list was to be finalized during the October 16 meeting. However, the school’s insurance provider conducted a walkthrough that listed multiple items that need to be worked on or changed. This list may impact the priorities for the district. The school hopes to receive clarification on this list soon so they can move ahead with necessary repairs and finalize our list of priorities.

Fairfax R-3 contracts with ACES for special education and behavioral consultation/assessment. ACES creates their own handbook that acts as a guide for Fairfax R-3 in the world of SPED. This handbook was adopted by the board for use in conjunction with special education services. Board members voted to approve the ACES handbook as presented.

Changes were made to Regulation 4411 (Professional Development Committee) to allow for a teacher to be a member of the PD Committee after his/her second year of teaching. Also, wording was changed to allow a longer timeline for member selection pending personnel changes in the spring. Board members voted to approve Regulation 4411 as presented.

Todd Fogg was awarded the contract for snow removal again for the 2019-2020 school year. Snow bids were added to the October agenda in order for services to be in place before the first snow.

The next regular board meeting will be Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.