NCHS School Board Meets For Final Time in 2021
The NCHS School Board met last Thursday for their last meeting of the year. The board began the meeting by approving the consented agenda including a) minutes of the regular meeting held on Nov. 16th, b) minutes of the closed session held on Nov. 16th, c) December bills, and d) December payroll.
Superintendent Brad Turner then went over the Treasurer’s Report.
“Our fund balances look good,” said Turner.
The school has received two installments of tax funds, one in early November and one in late November. They have currently received around ninety percent of their tax money from Washington, Jefferson, and Perry Counties.
“That’s why you see some fund balances that are higher than last month,” said Turner.
President Cook then touched on a post that was made on a social media platform and reminded the members of the school board they are representing the people on a public body who represent the public and people who vote for them.
Principal Begando then went over the Principals Report.
“December is always a hard month for everyone. What I will say is our teachers, I want to give them every ounce of credit for getting these kids ready to take the exams. The grades I’ve been looking at from the exams have been outstanding. Kids are receiving it well,” said Principal Begando.
While the stress was high, he felt the reaction and vibes from the students were encouraging coming out of the exams.
“I get to see your kids and the looks on their faces directly after they come out of the exams, a lot of you don’t get to see that. It’s something special, this building,” he said.
As far as attendance, the school is at one of the lowest percentages of tardies since Begando started as principal.
“This is a step in the right direction,” said Begando. “For the most part these kids are doing it.”
The school had to loan $2,000 until they get their tax money, and they will repay that loan back to the working cash fund. In order to bid their commercial insurance, they need to provide notice to the Prairie StateInsurance Cooperative notice of withdrawal and seek new bids. Continuing with new business, Turner spoke on school improvement, specifically the doors in the school seeing that most of the doors in school still have knobs. Turner proposed they submit a Health Life Safety Amendment, they have over $500,000 in that fund, and it will take about $22,000 in Health Life Safety in addition to what they are putting in the maintenance grant. The goal is to get all of the classrooms, bathrooms, closets, and other doors used daily to have the same hardware which will equate to a better key system. All of the motions were approved by the board.
In December, the school received approval for the maintenance grant project submitted in September. It was to replace four to five doors outside of Assembly Hall in the lobby, a teacher’s door, and the set of doors outside the office. Due to the fact they submitted over three months ago, since then the price of materials has gone up, meaning the price is 5-$6,000 more than they were originally quoted in August. The other projects were for the three rooftop units above Assembly Hall and the North Gym.
It is expected to be roughly $365,000-$468,000 to air condition Assembly Hall. It is possible they will have to hire a structural engineer to come investigate, which is something not factored into the price.
“That’s not a bid or a quote, that’s not a quote a quote, that’s just them (J&R) taking a look at what we have and what would it take to air condition it,” said Turner. “Obviously that has to be bid so you have to factor in an architect for the bid process and documents.”
The North Gym can have air conditioning for $22,000. Heating and conditioning units would be put in to replace the old ones in the corners of the gym. They agreed to go forward with the North Gym project but will come back to the Assembly Hall project at a later date.
The board approved the resignation of Karyn Wilson as Stingers Coach and hired Jen Maschoff for the position. Cody Bauza was hired as a custodian, and Mike Miller has been hired as the maintenance director which will take effect April 1st. A MOV with the Nashville Education Association was approved.
