Chamois R-1 approved funding for the Fired-Up Consultation Group to work with the school’s staff and administration on strategic planning and the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP). The cost to the school district will be $5,750 plus travel expenses not to exceed $1,000. 

“There will be a total of four meetings here,” said Superintendent Lyle Best. 

 Dr. Tammy Ridgeway will conduct all of the meetings. The first is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29 and will discuss team building, review the current CSIP, and review school district data and information. The second meeting is scheduled for Aug. 30, at which Dr. Ridgeway will review the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 6) and identify the top four to six priorities for the school district. 

After these two meetings, there will be a virtual meeting between Chamois R-1 administrators and Fired Up Consulting Group Founder, President, and Senior Consultant Dr. Kevin D. Daniel.

The third in-person meeting is scheduled for Sept. 6 to form a consensus on the top priorities, identify goals, develop action steps, create a three-year timeline, identify responsibility, and identify fiscal resources.

The final meeting is scheduled for Sept. 7. It will continue working on the items from the previous meetings and discuss communication strategies, the CSIP annual review, and ways to monitor, report, and adjust the school district’s plan.

Virtual meetings will be set up and scheduled as needed with the administration throughout the process.

The CSIP group will include up to 30 staff members that have not yet been named.

In other business, the board approved a new student information system because the current version will no longer be available. The new system through PowerSchool will have a one-time cost of $5,523 and will include the migration of all the information the school currently has on file. There will be an ongoing annual cost of $3,900 per year. 

Best noted that staff wanted to stay with PowerSchool as the provider since they are familiar with the system and had no issues with it previously.

• Chamois board members approved service contracts for the upcoming year. Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP) and Speech and Language Pathologist Assistants (SLPA) will be contracted through the Ability Network for the same rates as last year. SLPs will cost the school district $115 per hour, and SLPAs will be $60 per hour.

An occupational therapist will be accessed through the Special Learning Center at $70 per hour and $.54 per mile for travel, up slightly from last year.

Counseling services will be available from the Ability Network at the same rates as last year at $115 per hour.

Principal Jeremey McKague noted that although the school district does not have many students who participate in these programs, those that do receive a lot of benefit from them.

“For the students that need these programs, this is money well spent,” McKague said.

• Board members decided to get bids for smaller items on their priority list for school improvements. The school will request bids on paving the parking lot with asphalt and improving the gym entrance to make it compliant with American Disability Act (ADA) standards. School board members do not believe that either of these construction areas would require engineering services. 

Board member Kris Wuelling brought up the idea of pursuing a bid to close in the spaces around the buildings, basically a smaller version of the idea that was originally proposed by Porter, Berendzen, & Associates.

“I don’t know about the idea of closing in the space just to close it in,” President Steve Cramer said. 

He and other board members hope to pursue the larger project in the future if construction prices go down.

Harold G. Butzer Inc. is scheduled to perform routine maintenance on the boiler system this summer, and Best is also seeking a bid for the intercom system. The school district continues to watch for a truck the school can purchase for maintenance.

• Chamois R-1 is interested in participating with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office to share the expense of a school resource officer. The cost to the school district would be $6,000 per year, and the district would have an officer at the school for roughly one-third of the time. 

“We are basically looking at splitting the position three ways,” Best explained, noting that all three county school districts were approached with the offer. The sheriff’s department would be creating the full-time position with grant money. 

“I would love to have (a school resource officer) down here periodically,” Cramer said. “But are they really going to come to Chamois as much as they go to Linn and Fatima?”

“Yes,” Best replied. “That’s how it was presented.”

Details are not all ironed out yet, but according to Best, the officer could be at the school for the entire school day or later in the day and present for sporting events later in the evening.

“From my perspective, this is the only way we could ever afford something like this,” Best said.

He will continue in discussion with the Osage County sheriff’s department and provide additional details to the school board as they are decided.

• Best presented board members with details of legislation that was recently passed.

“We are trying to get everyone up to speed on the governor’s $38,000 minimum salary,” Best said.

At the time of the school board meeting, the provision had made it through budgeting and was waiting for the governor’s signature.

The provision is to go into effect on July 1 and applies to all certified salaries under $38,000. The state will provide 70% of the funding.  

Fifteen certified staff members are earning less than $38,000 per year, and nine staff members are making more than that amount.

Chamois R-1 board members recently approved a base salary schedule increase of $1,000 for certified staff. The anticipated cost to the school district was estimated at $36,000. 

Under the new provision by the state to increase all certified staff to a minimum of $38,000 per year,  Chamois will see an increased cost of $26,000 annually with the 70% cost share from the state. That would be a total cost to the school district of $62,000.

Best created a tentative salary schedule based on the state funding. He suggested removing the $1,000 raise that was recently approved and using state funding to get the teachers’ salary to the same amount.

“How we get to the numbers doesn’t matter, as long as the contract dollars remain the same,” Best explained. “We pay everybody the same as we had anticipated, factoring in the $38,000 but instead of costing us $62,000, it will cost us $33,000 because the state is picking up a bigger portion of that $1,000. That’s a win for us.”

• The state also increased transportation reimbursement for all the school districts. Best noted that he never remembers this area of funding being increased. School districts will receive 75% reimbursement for their transportation costs. Best estimates that this will be a $30,000 to $40,000 increase in revenues for Chamois. 

Best proposes looking at the nine teachers in the district who make over the $38,000 per year and using the additional revenue from the transportation reimbursement to give them a salary increase. Best’s proposal would add $750 for those teachers, which would cost the district an additional $8,000. 

“That would help those folks make more money and still adds up to what we can expect in the transportation allocation increase,” Best said. 

He also pointed out that the new salary schedule was subject to the state continuing to fund the provision for minimum teacher salaries at the 70% mark.

“If they don’t fund this the following year, then this doesn’t exist, and we revert to the original district salary schedule,’ Best explained. 

“It is hard to take money away from people once they already have it,” Cramer cautioned.

“They would get their additional money in May, it would not be added to their monthly salary,” Best said. “People need to understand what may happen (if the funding goes away). The governor is going to be signing off on budgets for the next couple of years; there are reasons to believe this will remain a priority.”

“I think we should be clear that if it doesn’t get appropriated the following year, we need to try as a district to make up what we can to get them that $1,000 raise anyway,” said board member Nick Schollmeyer.

Best agreed and noted that for him, that would seem like a reasonable starting point.

“We are going to have to find a way to incentivize teachers to continue with their education; if you don’t, we’ll have all new teachers,” Schollmeyer continued. “Experienced teachers are going to go where they can break out of the $38,000 minimum sooner.”

“That’s one of the topics that is being discussed,” Best acknowledged, noting the idea is to get out of the pattern of adding raises to the base and, instead, increasing salaries for master’s degrees.

Board members will vote on the salary schedule at the next month’s meeting.

• Best reviewed other legislation bills that were recently passed that will affect the school district, including Senate Bill #681.

“This was one of the main legislative bills passed, and there were a lot of things put into it,” Best explained. 

He briefly discussed increased funding to charter schools, changes in virtual enrollment, reading intervention, the language as to how items can be placed on school board agendas, mandatory gifted programs, a more permanent modification to regulate training for substitute teachers, a mandatory computer course for all high school students, additional suicide training for staff, health planning for students with epilepsy and seizures, lead testing for schools water pipes, change in regulation for student residency, and state funding for career ladder for school districts. 

Best will continue to update the school board members as more information becomes available and how these areas will affect the Chamois School District.

• The school district will not be able to offer free meals to all the students in the upcoming school year.

“Students have been getting free lunches, and the school district has increased reimbursements; it’s been a win-win for everyone,” Best explained. “I wish we could still continue it, but I don’t think we can.”

Best noted that he had researched one program that would allow the school to offer free lunches. The school could enroll in the four-year program, which would require all students to fill out forms for reduced and free lunches, and the school would have to keep track of all the lunches in this manner throughout the year. The program would reimburse the full amount for free and reduced lunches but only $.44 per student lunch, traditionally being paid the full amount. 

Best estimates this would cost the school district about $4,000 per month.

“Financially, that’s not good for the district, but it would be the only way we could offer free lunches to everyone,” Best said. “I can’t really recommend it unless we have some way to offset it or some big donation.”

The school district plans to go back to a more traditional cafeteria setting for the next year. Best estimates that 50% to 55% of students in the school district receive free or reduced lunches. 

“It will be really important for people to fill out those applications,” Best said. “

• Children’s Mercy Hospital has completed the air quality assessment. 

“They basically came out and surveyed 13 locations within the district,” Best explained. “They looked at anything that would impact air quality.”

They made several recommendations to the school district of things they could do to improve air quality for students and staff. 

“The biggest impact to improve our air quality would be to have an HVAC system,” Best explained. “Because we don’t have air conditioning in most of the rooms and spaces, air is just not coming in. The air doesn’t circulate well, and there is no air replacement.”

Other recommendations included a review of cleaning products and other chemical agents that may have fragrances added, decreasing the use of harsh chemical cleaners, making sure cleaners are used correctly and stored correctly, cleaning fabric items, including rugs and curtains, frequently, and using HEPA filters in vacuums to clean rugs.

Best plans to talk to maintenance employees about cleaning supplies, their application, and storage.

He mentioned that another easy step would be to buy portable air purifiers.

“It was a very interesting, very thorough report,” Best said.

• Board members will complete their one hour of board refresher training together. They will plan to meet before the June or July board meeting to watch the video together.

• Board members approved outstanding bills for the month totaling $65,530.30.

• Chamois R-1 has the following ending balances in their accounts: general ($1,871,547), special ($131,259), and capital projects ($175,266).

SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Best was happy to report that the district will participate in the pilot program for MSIP 6.

“Since we are going to be working on our CSIP next year, this would be an opportunity for our current CSIP to be evaluated for strengths and weaknesses,” Best explained.

A cultural and climate survey for students, staff, and parents will begin in the fall.

“It’s been a long time since we have done anything like that in our district,” Best said. “I think it would be something good for us to do.”

The school is still waiting on shop doors. Maintenance has been told that the side panels for the doors are not being manufactured right now. There is no time frame for these to be delivered.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

On April 29, elementary students presented career videos they had made. McKague will try to post these on Facebook. Elementary students participated in a fun day where they had stations to visit and rotated every 30 minutes. They also watched a movie and ate popcorn. May 10 was the high school fun day. Students watched a movie and ate popcorn. The student council had a Kona Shaved Ice food truck come down to the school campus. Everyone from junior high and high school and staff received a free snow cone. Additional snow cones were available for purchase.

The school’s kindergarten roundup was well received. There will be 10 kindergarten students next year.

Summer school started recently with 29 students enrolled. Summer school students will be going on a field trip to Grant’s Farm.

• Christina Hord presented a report from the Community Teachers’ Association (CTA). She noted that while the CTA is technically a part of the Missouri State Teachers’ Association, its goal as a local group is to help staff maintain morale and keep teachers interested in staying teachers. 

CTA officers are President Beth Sieg, Vice-President Leah Koenigsfield, Secretary Katie Troesser, and Treasurer Joyce Wright.

Throughout the year, the CTA organizes meals for the teachers for Professional Development days and brings snacks to the teachers’ workrooms in December. They collect money to purchase gifts for the administration at Christmas and administrative professionals and custodians in April. 

The CTA put together a retirement reception and purchased a gift for Kathy Mehmert.

Thirteen teachers participated in a Secret Pal program this last year. They gave gifts to their secret pals throughout the year and revealed their secret pal at the year-end get-together.

• Athletic Director  Robbie Bates presented an Activities Report. Bates noted that the upcoming fall will be busy with junior high basketball and volleyball games. Coaches are hosting open gyms this summer from 9 to 11 a.m. About 13 students are taking advantage of the program. The girls’ basketball team plans to play some games in Jefferson City this summer and a junior high girls’ shoot-out. Dates are yet to be determined. 

The boys’ basketball shoot-out will be June 1-2, and there are several other schools planning to attend. The high school boys will play at Kirsksville later this summer.

Chamois hosted the Knowledge Bowl district championship this year. 

“It was kind of exciting to host the quarterfinals here and then go on to win the state championship,” Bates said.

He noted there had been some changes in the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) regulations for the upcoming school year. Sixth-grade students will be eligible for junior high sports.

“For the last several years, we’ve had sixth-graders playing junior high basketball, which made us affiliate members of MSHSAA, but now they are completely eligible to play, and we’ll be full-time members (of MSHSAA),” Bates explained.

Another rule change will allow three hours of practice per week starting seven weeks prior to the start of the sporting season. 

“The rule up until now was, if you are in a fall sport, you weren’t able to go to those practices,” Bates explained. “That has changed as of today. If we have kids in cross country, they can come to practice, and the same will be true for volleyball in the spring.”

VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT

Vo-Ag Teacher Kate Kuschel presented a report on the district’s Ag program to the school board. She noted that seventh-grade students are required to take her class but there are no classes for eighth-grade students. Kuschel said that some students found this upsetting but adding classes for eighth-graders did not work in the school schedule.

Kuschel noted that she has about 40 students in the Vo-Ag classes. Kuschel said that instead of her students taking a typical End-of-Course Assessment (EOC), she has the students participate in Vo-Ag contests.

Kuschel explained that these are the same contests that school board members would remember being involved in but that they are more difficult. She noted that some students had trouble this year since this was the first year returning to in-person contests after COVID-19.

“After not going to contest for the last two years, they weren’t even sure what they were doing part of the time,” Kuschel said. 

There are 38 kids enrolled in the Chamois FFA Chapter. 

Kuschel plans to visit all of her high school students at least twice over the summer. She hopes to highlight the agricultural projects of several of her students by placing pictures and articles in the local paper once a month over the summer months.

Kuschel also plans to visit with her junior high students to keep their interest levels up.

She is hoping to keep students involved in helping with the greenhouse and gardening over the summer months. She is also hoping to increase interest by inviting students to the Osage County Fair. Students can attend a livestock showing clinic, and they are invited to help Kuschel and her family show sheep if they want some firsthand experience.

Kuschel will plan to meet with the officers and adult advisory council over the summer to plan a program of activity for the upcoming year.

Kuschel hopes to plan an outing for the newly elected FFA officers and have a chapter summer fun event which may include a day at the Owensville or Hermann pool.

Kuschel plans to attend the District of Continuance Improvement program in St. Louis as well as another continuing education program in Crocker and an Ag teacher summit conference in Springfield.