Chamois R-1 school board members at their meeting last Wednesday night approved the calendar for the 2020/21 school year. Students will begin Aug. 24, and the last day of school will be May 12.  Classes will start at 8 a.m. and the day will end at 3:27. Students will be in class for 163 days and for a total of 1,141.62 hours, which is fewer days but more total hours of instruction than the current calendar.

“This is a little different, obviously,” School Superintendent Lyle Best said. “We have a later start date and the biggest change is going to be the daily schedule of having a longer day.”

The longer day will allow for the junior high and high school to have eight periods each day instead of the block classes that are currently scheduled.

Board members also approved a change to the current calendar that will require students to attend classes on March 9, which has been identified as a staff in-service day.

“Since staff are working that day, I think the best use of our time is to make that an instructional day for students,”  Best explained.

At the beginning of the year, the school sent a handout home that said that make-up days would be added to the end of the school year.

“I am not opposed to making this a day for classes,” Board President Steve Cramer said. “But I think this has the potential of upsetting parents if they scheduled doctor appointments are whatever on that day.”

Cramer suggested that going forward the school not send out this documentation so that the school district has more leeway in scheduled make-up snow days.

In other business, the board agreed to offer the same medical plan in 2020-21 as was offered this year and to keep the contribution from the school district the same, even though employees in the district will see a 10% increase in premiums this year.

Chamois is a part of the Ozark School Benefits Association (OSB), which offers medical, dental, vision, health and disability insurance to public school districts. The OSBA is governed by an executive board made up of select school superintendents. Renewal rates have increased at various rates over the years with the lowest at 1.95% in 2017. This year’s renewal will be the highest rate at 10%.

“This year’s renewal is higher than most people would like,” Best admitted.

The school’s contribution per employee is about $486 and includes medical, life and long-term disability insurance. There are different options available to the employees to choose from.

“There will be an increase that the employees will have to pay per month,” Best said.  “Next year, depending on what the renewal is we may want to look at increasing our contribution rates.”

* The district does not have a professionally-developed strategic facility plan in place.  Best would like to address this issue.

“The last actual development we have done was the shop building, which was added on in the 1970s,” Best noted. “You’re talking 50 years ago since anything has really been done. The questions have come up, are we prepared going forward?”

Best was approved to advertise for a Request for Qualification (RFQ) for an owner’s representative, who works as an agent for the school district on a specific task or plan, with parameters laid out by the school board.  The first task would be to develop a strategic facility plan.

“We don’t have a strategic plan for our facility,” Best said. “I think that would be a good benefit for the district to have.”

Best pointed out that the initial investment would be money to advertise and time.

* The testing schedule has been set for both the End of Course (EOC) and Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) Testing for April 27 through May 8.

High School principal Jeremey McKague explained that the testing schedule was adjusted to accommodate Information Technology Director James Wiegand’s return from the senior trip. 

“Mr. Wiegand has set up a second server in hopes that we can test on it,” McKague explained. “In the past with our bandwidth, if we were testing, no one else could do very much on the internet, so it was a pain. So here we are pushing for technology and then we are saying but you can’t use the internet. We’ve tested the second server and so far, it looks good. Hopefully it will work, and Mr. Wiegand will be back in case we have a snafu.”

* Best presented the board with numerous policy updates, all of which are revisions of current policies for the school district. Adoption of all the policy revisions are mandatory and will be addressed at the March meeting.

— Policy 1210 (School Year) stipulates that schools cannot begin earlier than 14 days prior to the first Monday of September beginning with the 2020-21 school year.

— Policy 4871, Regulation 4871 and Form 4871 (Driver Drug Testing) addresses drug testing for bus drivers.  School Districts will use a clearinghouse to assist in hiring qualified candidates. Districts are required to register with the clearinghouse and run all of the potential drivers through the system before they can drive for the school district.

— Policy 3070 (Board Member Training) requires board members to be trained in identifying and dealing with sexual abuse.

— Policy 1425 (School Volunteers) would require volunteers that are left alone with students to be screened and have a clear records check through the FBI and Missouri State High Patrol. The school district would be responsible for the cost of these background checks.

— Policy 1430 (Visitors to School) clarifies that the 1,000-foot barrier from school for sex offenders does not apply to sex offenders that are receiving treatment in a facility or nursing home that is within 1000 feet of the school.

— Policy 2230 (Admission of Non-Tuition Students) allows parents who are being relocated to Missouri because of military orders would be allowed to register their students remotely.

— Policy 2710 (Reporting Student Abuse) includes volunteers and contractors in the group who are required to protect students from sexual abuse.

— Policy 2742 (Sexual Abuse Awareness Training) requires students to be provided with sexual abuse awareness training.

— Policy 3470 (Average Daily Attendance) revises qualifications required for Early Childhood Development Programs.

— Policy 4120 (Employment Procedures) requires school districts to obtain prior employment information from other school districts if a teacher had been terminated.

— Policy 7210 (Construction Contracts) reflects an increase in the threshold required to advertise for bids from $15,000 to $50,000.

* The board approved the current bills in the amount of $50,897.05.

The financial report for the month of January showed a balance of $1,471,056 in the General Fund,  $140,182 in the Special Fund, and $45,737 in the Capital Project Fund.

Best noted that general revenues were higher than normal because of tax money coming in.

“Overall, year to date, we’re down $20,000 in revenue,” Best said. “But that’s pretty well spot-on where we were last year. Expenditures for the year have been reduced by $53,000.”

REPORTS

Best noted that the State Board of Education recently approved the Missouri School Improvement Program of standards and indicators.

“They have been working on this for a couple of years,” Best noted. “We’re going to be seeing information coming out on how they are going to evaluate districts within those standards.”

More details are available on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website.

* Best noted that the legislative session involves discussions of the same themes for education that it have occurred over the past several sessions. The issues getting the most attention are charter schools, school vouchers and property taxes. There is one bill in the house that is gaining some attention. That bill would raise the minimum teacher salary to $32,000.

* Board filings are now closed, with incumbents Steve Cramer and Angela Hagenhoff having filed for two of the three open spots.

“Write-ins will be accepted when we get to the April election,” Best said. “We probably need to be thinking about someone in the community who might fill the position and encourage them to get their name out there.”

Board member Kurt Kuschel noted that in years past current members of the board who are not up for renewal have had their names written in on the ballot.

“We’ve been through this process before and it has worked out pretty well for us,” Best noted. “We need to let people know that there is an opportunity to serve,”

McKague reported to the board that there are currently 74 students with a 95% attendance rate.

“There has been a lot of illnesses going around in the last couple of weeks,” McKague noted.

* Juniors are scheduled to take their ACT test on February 26.

* There are four entries in the youth art contest, two from the elementary and two from the high school. The projects will be on display at the Capitol from Feb. 28 through March 16. There will be a recognition ceremony for students, teachers and family members on March 16 at which winners will be announced.

Everyone receives something for participating.

* Russellville College Fair will be at Chamois High School on February 26 for sophomores and junior students, and Feb. 28 there will be a nurse’s career presentation for anyone interested in the field. Several area residents who are nurses will be available to talk to students as well as a representative from State Tech.

* In her report, Elementary Principal Dee Luker said that the school currently has 70 students enrolled plus 11 students in the preschool program.

She echoed McKague’s report on attendance, noting that although the current number is holding steady, there have been a lot of students absent due to illness over the past couple of weeks.

* The knowledge bowl team will be competing on March 13 in Jefferson City.

“This is really a fun day for students,” Luker noted. “We’re going to eat at Pizza Hut afterwards.”

* Valentines’ Day parties were scheduled for Feb. 14.

* The elementary school will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday in March with dress-up days and a birthday cake.

* Grandparents day is scheduled for March 2. Invitations have been mailed and sent home with students.