Sale Of Bonds To Fund Football Field Lights Approved

By Alex Haglund

The Nashville Community High School Board approved a resolution allowing the district to sell $310,000 in working cash bonds at their monthly meeting held on February 22, a move that will help them to finance new lighting for the football field.

The bonds will be sold between Farmers and Merchants Bank and Community Trust Bank.

“We should be ready to start the process on replacing these lights,” said District Superintendent Ernie Fowler, “probably in April.”

The board also received three quotes for demolition of the football bleachers, but they decided to reject all three. Fowler stated that the American Threshermen had contacted the district and had offered to remove the old bleachers at no cost to the district.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Principal Brian Pasero gave a report to the board on Spring Parent Teacher Conferences.

Overall, teachers sent out letters to invite parents to 424 conferences and 207 scheduled. There were also 20 no-shows.

From the parents that responded to a request to return an evaluation of their experience at the conferences, 12 were freshmen parents, 15 were sophomore parents, 10 were junior parents and nine were senior parents.

Most of the parents surveyed stated that the time scheduled was convenient, they had a chance to ask questions, they had enough time for discussion (one in 40 said they did not), that the conferences were well prepared, and that they had an opportunity to see samples of their child’s work (again, one in 40 answered no to this as well). Comments present were also positive.

In the past, the issues that teachers and Pasero have stated they had with the conferences is the parents they would most like to see, those of the students who might need the most aid or direction, are those that do not schedule a conference or do not show up.

Overall, Pasero stated that the conferences went well, but he did say that spring conferences are never quite as well attended by parents as the fall conferences are.

Personnel

NCHS School Nurse Kim Kell has tendered her resignation, effective at the end of the school year.

Dan Blazier was employed as the Junior Varsity Baseball Coach.

Bryce Harre and Craig Dalman were approved as non-paid volunteer assistant baseball coaches.

Charlie Hatch and Jessica Spenner were approved as non-paid volunteer assistant track coaches.

The board approved a reduction in force (RIF) for Tim Kuhn, down to one-third time, and for Bethany McQuiston, down to two-thirds time, until the time at which the federal title grant used to pay that portion of their salary is restored.

“We expect them to be returned to full status upon payment of our federal title funds,” said Fowler.

Other

The NCHS Fine Arts Festival will be held on the evening of Thursday, March 17. The public is welcome, and the event starts at 6 p.m.

The board approved an overnight trip to the FBLA State Leadership Conference on April 1 and 2. A trip to St. Louis by the Biology II class was also approved.

The videotaping policy which was discussed at the January meeting was approved on second reading.

Next year’s school calendar for the district was approved. The first day of school will be August 15, 2016, while the last will be May 17, 2017.

The use of the football field by the Optimist Club was approved.

In January, the board approved a $50,000 repayment of a loan from the working cash fund to the bond and interest fund. Now and $86,000 bond payment is due and in order to meet that obligation, the board voted to cancel their January action.

The board also voted to repay the balance of a loan from the working cash fund to the tort fund for $61,500, and to repay the balance of a loan from working cash to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) for $50,000.