By BARBARA PROFFITT | August 10, 2022

(From board notes.)

The USD 346 School Board met on Monday, Aug. 8, with the first order of business being the approval of the consent agenda which included:

- Approved the agenda

- Approved minutes of previous meeting(s)

- Approved paying bills and payroll

- Approved Staff Handbooks

Mark Proffitt, Elementary Principal, complimented the custodial staff and their hard work over the summer. He shared an update on enrollment numbers and with the addition of 20 new students; he projected that we should be in line or possibly up a few students although it’s too early to tell for sure.

Bob Beckham, Junior High and High School Principal, also complimented the custodial staff on their efforts this summer. He shared that Brett Kramer has worked very hard rearranging schedules to account for those students going to the STARS program in Pleasanton this fall. Mr. Beckham said that summer school went very well with 10 in attendance, nine of which set themselves up to get out of their credit deficit.

Superintendent Shawn Thomas began by discussing summer maintenance. While there are a few projects that weren’t able to be addressed, several of them were completed including:

- a new monitoring system for the credit recovery room/football concession stand

- fixed drainage issues along the JES car line

- new awning at JES

- concrete poured at JLHS to fix a large pothole.

Thomas complimented Wes and Malcolm Cox for their hard work.

Thomas gave an update on the budget and shared that it has been reviewed by Dale Dennis. While Thomas will recommend that the revenue neutral rate be exceeded at next month’s revenue neutral rate hearing, the total mill rate for all four funds will be 57.209.

Thomas invited the board to the ribbon cutting ceremony of the STARS Academy on Friday, Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. He also invited them to the employee kickoff meeting on Aug. 15 at 9 a.m at Jayhawk-Linn.

Thomas gave a brief update on KESA as it is the accreditation year. Since so many school districts are in their accreditation year, they are trying to get some schools to move their visit from the spring to the fall. The KESA team is talking with the outside visitation team/chairperson to decide when the best time to proceed with the visit would be.

Thomas closed by giving a brief update on enrollment noting that almost 400 students have fully completed the enrollment process, while several others are in the process and predicting our numbers to slightly go up.

The board then set a revenue neutral rate and budget hearing for 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 12.

The board then entered into an executive session for personnel matters. Following the executive session, the board approved the resignation of Lora Compton as JLHS cook and then approved the updated extra duty list.