Chamois R-1 employees will get a salary increase next year following a decision last week by board members.

Certified staff will receive a $100 increase in the base salary. There will also be an increase in the salary steps for certified staff, with increases of $250 to $350. This salary increase will go along with the $240 increase in insurance benefits that was approved at the February school board meeting.

“That’s an increase of between $600 to $700 per person, which is about two to two-and-a-half percent of the base,” Superintendent Lyle Best said.  “I thought it was important we increase the insurance benefit last month, which we did. That was a big step for us.”

Best told staff not to expect big increases this year because there had been a big salary increase last year when the district increased the base for certified staff by $2,000.

“I did not do a regional breakdown (of salaries) this year,” Best explained. “I didn’t think it was necessary but even after (raising the base salary) last year we knew that we are at the bottom. But the number is better than it was.”

Non-certified staff will receive a salary increase of 4%. Originally, Best proposed a salary increase of only 2% for non-certified employees but noted that with the rise of minimum wages in Missouri to $11.15 an hour in January there would be several employees that would fall below this level. The school district is exempt from the minimum wage increase but that did not sit well with many of the school board members.

“Even though we are exempt (from the mandatory minimum wage increases) it seems like a kind of precarious situation to be in for our employees here to be able to go to McDonald's and make more money,” board member Nick Schollmeyer said.

“I agree,” President Steve Cramer said. “I think our staff should make just as much money as a fast-food worker.”

“We do have retirement benefits and paid days off and an entire benefits package that probably isn’t available to a fast-food employee,” Best countered. “But I would like everybody to be above the minimum wage.”

“I think it is important to try to recruit and retain quality instructors and staff and if we don’t have good benefits and we aren’t paying competitive wages it’s not going to happen,” board member Rebecca Mehmert added.

“We could have a first-year teacher with one or two kids and they are going to qualify for reduced lunch and while there is nothing wrong with qualifying for reduced lunches, when you talk about going to school and being part of a profession but your eligible for assistance, that’s deflating,” Best said. “That’s a system issue and we’re not going to be able to fix that in one night but that’s why I think we need to keep moving forward with salaries.”

The board also approved an increase of 2% in administration salaries.

All the approved salary changes will cost the school district an additional $33,000 for the new school year. Best believes that the school district is in a good position to be able to make the increases and not affect other parts of the budget.

In other business, board members discussed the basketball games scheduled for the past season.

Cramer and board member Kris Wuelling praised the administration and coaches for working in a difficult season and still doing an exceptionally good job for the teams. 

“We had a lot of games this year that we didn’t make up,” Cramer said. “I understand most of the time it was another school that said ‘we don’t have another day that works so we are not making it up.’ So, my complaints are not against us, it’s a complaint against the school that stood us up and didn’t want to make up the games. Is there anything that can be done about that?”

Best and McKague did not know of any way that a school can be penalized for not playing a scheduled game, especially when the game schedule was affected by winter weather and COVID-19.

“It hurts our kids, our student-athletes,” Cramer said. “We probably missed seven to nine games, counting the Belle tournament. That’s over a third of the season.”

“It is frustrating,” Best agreed. “There were a lot of reasons for (the cancellations) this year and we hope we don’t have these problems going forward. Students want to participate. Parents want to watch them. It was stressful, to say the least on the people who were trying to make it happen.”

“Hopefully, there will never be another year like this,” Cramer said. “But if there is there should be a way we can safeguard ourselves against it.”

“I guess you have the option of trying to replace those teams with somebody you feel is going to be more dependable or at least honor agreements but I would say probably for us it’s difficult finding other opponents that we don’t already play,” Best said.

“I don’t think it has ever happened before this year that someone just called and said they weren’t coming,” McKague said.

“Let’s hope that is it just an anomaly,” Cramer said. “Everything worked against us and I get that.”

* Last summer, the school district had the solar panels removed to repair damage to the elementary roof. Once the roof repairs were complete, Best contacted Generate Capital to replace the solar panels. Although the school district received confirmation emails stating the firm would be out to reinstall the panels soon, that has yet to happen. 

“We’ve reached out to them several times this year,” Best said, not the last contact with Generate Capital was Jan. 4. “We stopped sending them the money for the lease for $348 per month hoping that might generate a response. Nobody has called or cares that we are not sending a check.”

The school has sent a termination of services letter to Generate Capital in January and has not received a response from that either.

The school district had originally signed a lease agreement for the solar panels with the company Brightergy, which has since stopped doing business in this area, and the school’s contract was bought by Generate Capital.  The school has a five-year lease.

Best has contacted a lawyer to explore options.

* COVID-19 vaccinations were to be available at the school for interested staff as of Monday, March 15.

“Their (the Osage County Health Department) plan is to come out and try to do that at school to more convenient to those staff members that wish to receive the vaccine,” Best explained.

The school has 15 to 16 members of the staff that were interested in getting the vaccine, though Best noted that some of the staff had already received their vaccination through other means.

* The district plans to offer a summer school program from May 17 to May 28. The school will plan on using federal funding to pay for the program which will be open to grades K-6. Best noted that the school will not be offering bus service for summer school.

“We have the money to offset the expense and I think we should be doing it,” Best said. “I don’t know that the teachers are excited about it. I think some were hesitant, which is troubling because we’ve said this year, we’ve got funding to do different things and develop different programs to help students because they’ve missed so much school, and they need extra support or enrichment, and there haven’t been any ideas about what anyone wants to do about it.”

* Chamois is considering amending the 2021-22 school calendar. Best said that beginning this year, the school district has shortened the required number of days students are to be in school and built in snow days so that students would not have to make up any days.

Best noted that with the winter weather that hit the area in February, the students missed six school days over the course of two weeks.

“I felt like we really got behind on things,” Best said. “That was my perspective. We didn’t have to worry about potentially making up days and we’ve got the hours as far as the state statute goes but if we miss over a certain number of days do we need to add days into the end of the calendar even if it is not required?”

Cramer indicated that it would make more sense to not have the built-in days if snow days would have to be made up anyway.

“What we’re saying is we want to build in days above the minimum number of days,” McKague said. “We don’t care that we can get away with 153 days for the school year. We want 160 days of instruction.”

“I don’t think we should shoot for the minimum when we are educating our kids,” Schollmeyer said. “What’s the downside of it?”

“I think that is the most important point of all,” board member Kurt Kuschel said. “It’s about getting the material to the kids.”

Best plans to look at the 2021-22 calendar and present some alternatives to the board that would make up for a school year when there are a lot of lost days.

Students will not make up any of the snow days for the current school year.

* The board approved the outstanding bills for the month of $58,809.65.

* Chamois has ending balance for the following accounts: general ($1,657,077), special ($61,639), and capital projects ($41,856).

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Best told the board that the district is waiting for the official notice from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regarding the release of federal funds. Unofficially, DESE is saying that they should be able to fund the school districts funding formula back to 100%.

The Chamois R-1 school district is planning on slightly less state funding next year because of a drop in student enrollment.

DESE is advising school districts that they will be able to use the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) funding to pay existing staff salaries. 

“It makes it allowable and easy to draw down on the funds and then whatever amount that is used will free up state and local money to be used for something else,” Best explained.

Best further explained that this is complicated since a percentage of local and state revenue streams has to be spent on salaries. DESE is currently trying to work out the details on how best the school districts can utilize the CARES funding.

* Bus inspection was to be conducted Monday, March 15.

* Porter, Berendzen & Associates is waiting on more favorable weather to complete the facilities study report.

* The heat exchanger on the high school’s boiler has been replaced but in the process, another part had been damaged. Harold G. Butzer, Inc. is coordinating these repairs and recommended that the plumbing on the boiler system be reworked. This is the second company that has suggested a problem with how the original boiler system was set up for the high school. Butzer will provide the school with an estimate to make the necessary changes.

* Board reorganization will be at the April meeting and will include certifying board elections and returning members taking their oath of office.

* The Missouri State Legislative Session is underway and lawmakers are considering several bills that affect education. Currently, they are debating a bill that allows for open enrollment in school districts. The bill has seen at least seven amendments while it was on the floor last week. There are also bills pending that deal with charter expansion, allowing homeschool students to participate in Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA)-sponsored sports, and several bills pertaining to reassessment and property taxes.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Four Chamois art students are participating in the Youth Art Month Capitol exhibit. The event will be virtual this year due to COVID-19. The four students who have been selected to participate are Olivia Kuschel (first grade), Grace Gerloff (fifth grade), Riley Davis (eighth grade), and Brittney Patridge (ninth grade).

The Show Me Art Conference will also be held virtually this year.

* Kaylee Sieg participated in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) contests this year. She qualified in both the Advertising and Journalism competition.

* FBLA is holding its spring community service project March 22-25. The event is named “A Change for Good” and students are encouraged to collect spare change and put it in each class's jars. The class who collects the most money will get a party. All proceeds will go to Healing Horses in Linn.

* Yearbooks went on sale on March 12.

* There are 15 students signed up for preschool for the next school year. McKague noted that there may be two more students who will be placed on the waitlist.

* A junior and senior lunch will be held on March 26 for students.

* A blood drive will be held on March 19.

* McKague noted the school is hoping to do a mock crash on March 24 as part of a safe and sober presentation.