Small Town News

School district revises summer work schedule

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Unit 305 School Board last Wednesday scaled back the number of summer maintenance projects that will be completed this year due to cost and the state's inability to keep up scheduled general aid payments.

A project that made made the cut, but was scaled back, is the removal of the awning over the northwest entrance to Arthur Grade School (off the circle drive). The awning originally was scheduled to be replaced with a new awning or similar structure.

Also put on hold were maintenance and improvements to the baseball diamond at Lovington Grade School. The diamond is used by the Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond High School baseball and softball teams. Improvements will have to wait another year or more.

The district is still withholding the final payment to Grunloh Construction for the junior high addition to the Arthur Grade School. When the wing was completed last summer, the floor tiles did not seal properly and had to be repaired. Officials are waiting to make sure the tiles have sealed properly before releasing the rest of the money.

The board did authorize paying Grunloh $18,000, which is one percent of the total project cost ($1.8 million).

Because the meeting was the board's first in the new fiscal year, members set the time, date, and place of board meetings for 2015-2016.

The board will continue to meet on the second Wednesday of each month in the district superintendent's office at the high school in Arthur. However, the meetings will begin one hour earlier at 6 p.m. instead of 7.

The board will conduct a public hearing on August 12 concerning the waiving of out of district tuition for children of Unit 305 employees who five outside the district.

For example, if an ALAH High School teacher who lives in Mt. Zion, would prefer to enroll his or her child in Arthur Grade School, normally the family would have to pay out of district tuition. The requirement can be waived, but it involves a public hearing.

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. on August 12 in the superintendent's office.

The board chose a different provider for student accident insurance and should save a considerable amount of money. The district will enter into a contract with Gerber Life to provide student accident insurance at a cost of $12,000 to the district.

Last year's policy, from another provider, cost the district $32,750 and was scheduled to increase to more than $42,000. The policy covers accidents that occur during school and school sponsored activities.

The board approved a collective bargaining agreement with Arthur Education Association.

In personnel matters the board:

— Accepted the resignation of Brett Creager as an assistant high school football coach;

— Accepted the resignation of Candi Thomas as Arthur Grade School web manager;

— Authorized hiring Gabrielle Morrow as Lovington Grade School pre-K teacher and Cassandra Miller as Atwood-Hammond Grade School math teacher;

— Assigned Jared Vanausdoll as assistant principal at Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond High School;

— Approved salary increases for non-certified and administrative personnel commensurate with the teachers' collective bargaining agreement.

Next regular meeting of the Unit 305 Board of Education will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19. This is a change of date from the regular schedule. The date change was necessary to assure a quorum due to vacations.



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