Mountain Grove R3 Addresses Calendar and Maintenance Issues

The Mountain Grove R3 School Board met at the High School Media Center last (Wednesday) night. Due to the board president Howard Hawkins and vice president Mark Hyde being absent, the 4 board members present voted to allow Superintendent Jim Dickey to chair the meeting.

The board held a hearing on the proposed 2016-17 school calendar. One issue addressed was that the state fair would overlap with the first couple days of the school year. The proposed start of the 2016-17 year will be August 18th. The board approved the minutes of the last meeting, financial statement and paid the bills. The board also announced the swearing-in of incumbent members that will be starting a new term will be on April 14th.

The board heard a presentation from the third grade elementary teachers. The presentation was entitled “What Story Does Your Data Tell?”, the teachers explained how they look at all the test data from their students to get an overall view of how their students are doing. The board also reviewed the spring assessment schedule for the district.

In new business, the board approved the annual extension to the Opaa! Food Management contract. This is the last year the contract can be extended for a total of 5 years. The board approved the purchase of a new school bus from Central States Bluebird for just under $85-thousand dollars. The bid from Midwest was cheaper but did not include security cameras and training and maintenance materials for the Thomas brand of school bus, the district is currently maintaining a fleet of Bluebird buses. The board also approved a bid from Styles Roofing for re-roofing the freshman wing of the high school. That bid was the second lowest but came with better references than the low bidder.

In administrative reports the board heard a report from Tom Johns about the house that burned down near the high school that belonged to the district. Mr Johns reports that the city is allowing the school to board up the house until they can tear it down in the summer. Johns also reports that the track needs cracks filled which would cost about $25-thousand. Another option would be to upgrade the track to an all-weather rubber surface for $250-thousand. He said that if they go that route they would need to evaluate if they wanted to expand the track to 8-lanes which would also require the replacement of the visitor bleachers and the building of a retaining wall on the north end of the track, which would add an additional half-million-dollars to the cost.