CHAMOIS — Chamois R-1 school board members approved a new salary schedule for all school employees and staff for the 2025-26 school year at their March 12 meeting. Board members will adopt the state-required minimums of a yearly salary of $40,000 for all certified staff with a bachelor’s degree and $46,000 per year for all certified staff with a master’s degree in education and 10 years of teaching experience. The district expects to receive $149,000 from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Teachers Baseline Grant to cover the increases.

“The grant is offered on a year-to-year basis, but it does sound like it is included in next year’s budget,” said Superintendent Lyle Best. “Our approach is to maximize the amount of money we can get from the state as long as we can. We are not going to be able to go above the $40,000 required minimum.”

Best explained that while some schools will pay over the required $40,000 minimum, Chamois R-1 would not be able to afford that.

“A couple of years ago, our starting salary was $30,000,” Best said. “We have to be responsible. The required minimum is more than we’ve ever been able to pay before.”

Board members approved an additional annual salary increase of $42,000 for any certified staff with a master’s degree in education and less than 10 years of experience. Chamois R-1 currently has 14 teachers with bachelor’s degrees, three with a master’s degree and under 10 years of experience, and seven with a master’s degree and at least 10 years of experience.

The school board also approved a wage increase of 7% for all non-certified staff to keep up with the state’s minimum wage increases.

Extra-duty positions will retain the same percentage as last year, but they will be based on a base salary of $34,100 instead of $31,000, and are broken down as follows: athletic director (12.5%), boys and girls head basketball coach (10%), boys and girls basketball assistant coach (4.5%), boys and girls junior high basketball head coach (5%), volleyball head coach (6%), volleyball high school assistant coach (4.5%), volleyball junior high coach (2%), volleyball junior high assistant coach (1%), cross country coach (8%), boys and girls head track and field (7%), boys and girls head assistant track and field (4.5%), boys and girls junior high track and field (4%), high school academic team (2.5%), junior high academic team (2%), elementary quiz bowl (2%), senior sponsor (5%), junior sponsor (4.5%), FBLA sponsor (5%), FFA sponsor (5%), band (9.5%), year book (2%), and Educator Rising sponsor (3.7%).

Other extra-duty positions will not see any pay increase, including test coordinators ($1,500), Title program coordinator ($1,000), teacher mentor ($300), teacher buddy ($150), summer school teacher ($150 per day), summer school administrator ($185 per day), approved after-school tutoring ($20 per hour), supervising during plan period ($15 per hour), gatekeeper ($15 per game), clock keeper ($20 per game), and scorekeeper ($20 per game).

Parents As Teachers will be paid $50 per visit, with group screening at $20 per hour, group meetings at $16 per hour, and professional development and planning at $13 per hour. Seasonal maintenance will be paid $12 per hour. District Leadership and Professional Development members will receive $600 each.

“The idea is, as we go forward, we can take off the percentage and leave them as a set amount,” Best explained. “With the mandatory salary increases coming, I think we need to take it off a percentage basis so we have more control of it.”

Wage increases will cost the school district an additional $69,460 for the upcoming year as follows: certified staff and benefits ($30,267), non-certified staff with benefits ($26,880), career ladder with benefits ($7,442), and extra-duty with benefits ($4,871).

Best warned that DESE is projecting inflation increases in salaries in the upcoming years.

“When the grant goes away, we have to pay that amount of money and maybe more,” Best explained. “We’ve never been able to pay what other folks down the road can pay. We can’t do much about that. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to get out of that predicament.”

In other business, Best announced a public information meeting will be held on March 25 at 6 p.m. to go over the upcoming bond issue on the April 8 ballot. Best added, the district has distributed informational brochures around town.

Board members expressed concern that many district voters may not be informed about the upcoming bond issue.

“I’ve seen our pamphlets around town,” said Board President Steve Cramer. “Were we going to do some additional advertising to get information out? I was envisioning signs around to support the bond issue.”

Best explained that legally, the district is not allowed to do anything like that.

“How do other districts do it?” Cramer asked. “I feel like a lot of people are going to go to vote and say they haven’t heard anything about it because that are not reading the paper or picking up the pamphlets.”

Best explained that when districts have signs for or against a bond issue, it is a community group that funds the signs, not the school district.

“It just seems like we are going into this where a lot of folks are not going know what is going on,” Cramer said.

Board members suggested that district patrons could have signs printed, run an ad in the local paper, or write letters to the editor to get more information out about the bond issue. Best said that school board members could do those things as concerned citizens and individuals but not as school representatives.

• The board approved an amendment to the 2024-25 budget with the main change an increase to the district’s revenue, which increased a total of $124,921, from $2,990,180 to $3,115,101. Local revenues increased $43,682, from $1,276,857 to $1,320,539, and state revenues increased $81,239, from $1,358,128 to $1,439,367. Other revenue sources, including county ($105,000) and federal ($250,195), remained the same.

Expenditures also increased from original budget projections, from $3,147,285 to $3,150,184. Expenses increased by program as follows: elementary (increase of $20, from $457,772 to $457,793), Title 1 (increase of $15, from $74,947 to $74,962), student activities athletics (increase of $5,000, from $131,112 to $136,112), health services (increase of $10, from $11,126 to $11,136), board services (increase of $2,166, from $25,800 to $27,966), executive administration (increase of $15, from $193,239 to $193,254), special education administration (increase of $435, from $18,398 to $18,833), building level administration (increase of $20, from $165,226 to $165,246), operation plant (increase of $2,406, from $618,872 to $621,278), district transportation (increase of $175, from $20,965 to $21,140), and food services (increase of $5,852, from $159,171 to $165,023).

Two expenditures lowered by the board were high school (decreased by $6,804, from $415,475 to $408,671) and early childhood (decreased by $6,411, from $88,629 to $82,218). The following expenditure items remained unchanged from the original budget: student support services ($11,583), special education ($171,397), vocational ($154,639), tuition to other districts ($2,000), guidance ($62,551), speech and language therapy ($24,500), occupational and physical therapy ($12,000), consultant teacher services ($4,000), professional development ($15,159), professional development committee ($11,321), media services ($62,191), contracted therapy ($118,700), other transportation ($4,500), security services ($3,250), information service technology ($79,751), Parents as Teachers ($9,517), other community ($6,447), parent involvement ($3,446), principal/interest/lease ($9,200), and homeless set-aside ($400).

Best noted the district remains in a strong financial situation with an estimated fund balance of 73%, or $2,712,298, by the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year. Projected fund balances are divided between Fund 1 ($2,089,726) and Fund 2 ($622,573).

• Board Members reviewed and approved the Volunteer and Visitor Policy after an individual recently requested a review of the policy because they found it to be too restrictive.

The policy defines screened volunteers as individuals who can be left alone with students and assist the school without compensation. Screened volunteers must have clear criminal records from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The district is responsible for the cost of these records. Non-screened volunteers are described as individuals who would not be left alone with students, and a criminal record check would be required by local law enforcement. The district would also be responsible for any cost incurred with obtaining these records. Volunteers must fill out an application before being allowed to spend time at the school, and the district reserves the right to deny individuals the ability to volunteer if the best interest of the school district is not being served.

School visits are encouraged for parents and guardians. Visitors must report to the principal’s office, and notifications should be made as far in advance as possible.

Cramer asked if any of the teaching staff or administration were unhappy with the policy as it was written.

“I do not because it is trying to comply with the statutes,” Best said. “At the same time, it allows us not to create a lot of barriers to the volunteer effort, which is why the policy was written. I think it is meeting the intent and making sure that people who are coming into the school are people we want to have in contact with our students.”

Board members did not find the policy restrictive and instead thought it was needed to provide protection for the students.

• Board members reviewed and approved the policy for administering medicines to students. Again, Best explained that the policy followed statutes typically filled out at the beginning of the school year. The policy outlined that prescription medicines would need to be accompanied by a written request from the student’s provider and the parent or guardian. The medicine must be presented with a prescription label.

Over-the-counter medicines could be given to students with written requests by the student’s provider and parent or guardian. Medication must be given to the school nurse or designated staff by the parent or guardian and stored in its original container. Students with chronic health conditions may administer and carry with them metered-dose inhalers, but the school must be informed with a written letter from the provider and parent or guardian. At any time, the parent or guardian can administer medications to their own student at school. The policy included permission forms sent home with students. 

Best noted that even though the policies were approved, the policy and forms may be changed in the future if different needs arise or something is found that may work better for the district.

• Best reviewed preliminary details about the 2025-26 fiscal budget, noting that not much will change from the current year. The preliminary budget projects revenues to total $3,002,000 and operating expenses to total $2,848,000. The projected budget includes the anticipated loss of revenue from Proposition C since enrollment and attendance are down slightly. The expenditure has been updated to include proposed salary increases. Best expects many of the expenditures to remain the same, though he anticipates increases in utilities and food.

“The biggest increase will be for salaries,” Best said.

Board members will be able to look at the final numbers and vote on the 2025-26 budget at the April meeting.

• The board approved outstanding bills totaling $66,938.27.

• Chamois R-1 had the following ending account balances: general ($2,795,668), special ($111,968), and capital projects ($654,965).

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Best reviewed several bills that are currently moving through the Missouri legislature that may potentially impact the district. He noted the supplemental budget is moving quickly through the House and Senate, with double the small-school funding compared to last year’s budget, which will mean more money for Chamois R-1. Bills dealing with open enrollment are again being passed through the House with few new details. There is a 3% cap on the number of students allowed to leave any given district, and those numbers will include home-schooled students and those enrolled in private and parochial schools. Students would be able to request to leave a district through an application to DESE and be selected in a random lottery drawing.

“That is taking it out of the hands of the local school district and letting DESE be in charge of it,” Best explained.

Schools may be responsible for transportation if a student is eligible for free or reduced lunch. There will be a limit on the miles, and there may be state aid for transportation. Schools accepting out-of-district students can expel students for poor grades, disciplinary problems, and low attendance.

“The other district has flexibility, but the district of residence does not,” Best said. “It’s not quite keeping things on a level playing field.”

Best reported that generally, districts are being told that a good school needn’t worry about losing students, but parents can choose to move their children for a variety of reasons, including convenience, that have nothing to do with the home district.

“People are going to look at the numbers, and if they see a number of students have left, they are going to assume it’s because the school district is not doing a good job,” Best explained. “That’s how it is going to be interpreted.”

He cautioned that the district would have to wait to see if the bill passes.

Best praised legislation that allows retired teachers to continue to work more hours as substitute teachers and keep their retirement. He warned there are a number of bills moving through the state legislature to lower property and sales taxes. Although these may be seen as a good thing, the superintendent noted they could result in a loss of revenue for local schools. Best also favors legislation that would limit state funding to small schools or schools under 350 students to those schools with in-person instruction. Currently, small-school funding is also extended to districts with virtual learning.

A refrigerator compressor is going out but is still under warranty. The district has also started the process of repairs for the shop door damaged during snow removal.

Chamois R-1 is still on the hunt for a 10-person van or minibus.

Staff continues working on the curriculum.

Third and fourth-grade students have started a math intervention program two days per week. The program works with eight students at a time and a live tutor, according to Best.

“It’s the same thing as having a supplemental math teacher doing group instruction in the classroom, and that’s something we don’t have available, especially in math,” Best explained.

He went over reading data for the school year for grades K-5, noting that all classes are showing positive trends. Best hopes the trends continue through the end of the year. He noted that several classrooms should have 70% of the students reading at grade level by the end of the school year.

“We can see progress being made,” Best said.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Principal Jeremy McKague reported that the Kindergarten Roundup went well, with 10 potential students showing up and no tears.

“It all went nice and smooth,” he said. “Some of the kids didn’t want to go home.”

— McKague reported that on March 13, the Council for Drug-Free Youth spoke to the district’s freshmen.

— On March 18, the Red Cross worked with high school students for the docudrama and an assembly.

— On March 14, the district hosted a math night for students and parents.

— The Elementary Knowledge Bowl is scheduled for March 20.

— District band contests are coming up at the end of the month, and the Area FFA contest will be held in Owensville next week.

• The next meeting will be held on April 16 at 7 p.m.