CHAMOIS — Chamois R-1 school board members approved two curriculum and learning tools for the upcoming school year at their May 14 meeting.

Board members approved the IXL Interactive Online Learning program which will cost the district between $76 and $78 per student for four content areas, including math, science, language arts, and social studies. The program focuses on students in grades K-10. The district committed to the program for the next three years.

“This program can be used for a lot of different things,” said Superintendent Lyle Best. “It provides assessments in Language Arts and Math.”

One of the main components of the program, according to Best, is that everything will be the same for all students and teachers.

“A third-grade teacher can talk about scores and the high school teacher will know what that means,” Best explained. “This puts a lot of things under one umbrella. This program breaks things down for students and teachers, and gives recommendations based on the scores.”

Best noted that teachers can assign work without a lot of preparation and the program provides weekly plans instructors can utilize. The program includes many learning activities that can be used for the entire class or individual students.

Best explained that the IXL Interactive Online Learning Program will replace several subscriptions the district has been paying for, which will offset part of the program’s cost.

“This program shows us the student’s data for math and we don’t have that right now,” Best said. “It’s a good program.”

Board members also approved the purchase of the Missouri Assessment and Teaching Tool Curriculum Resource, which Best said would have an initial startup cost of $5,000 to $6,000 and an annual fee of $500, all of which will be covered by federal funds.

“This is another great resource,” Best said. “This is a digital package for the core curriculum. It includes priority standards, teacher tools, student tools, standard progression, and links to other resources.”

Best showed board members an example of what the program would look like for teachers.

The program covers language arts, science, and social studies, and has both a teacher and student portion. The program will also help the district to develop its curriculum.

“It documents progression and defines standards,” Best said. “It is a good resource for teachers and students.”

The superintendent also hopes to incorporate another learning program, called Learning Blade, which is geared toward grade 6-9 students.

“It is a combination of online learning, which includes self-paced lessons and whole class activities,” Best explained. “It has real-life situations and events broken into lessons. It incorporates math and science and introduces students to careers and technologies that would be involved in the pretend scenarios. It’s a pretty neat program.”

The program is contracted through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Best is hoping that the teachers will be able to supplement their curriculum with the program starting next year.

Chamois R-1 also has put a new program on the website called Parent Pro Tech that is available to teachers and students.

“There are resources and videos to help parents to educate themselves on how students are using technology,” Best said. “It is a platform that helps educate parents. They can talk about it at home with their kids about what they are doing online and with social media.”

Parent Pro Tech is also a resource for teachers and Best is hoping they utilize the program in the classroom.

“Hopefully, parents will look at this and take advantage of it because it is hard to know what’s going on and what’s out there,” Best said. “This is a new resource we hope both parents and teachers take advantage of.”

• Best presented year-end reading data for elementary students and there has been a steady increase in reading proficiency throughout the year.

“There was a lot of upward movement,” Best said. “Most of the kids, over 75%, were in groups one and two. That’s a really good place to be at the end of the year. That’s a good improvement. “

Best noted that trends indicated increased reading levels throughout the school year for elementary students.

“We ended up in a much better place this year than last year,” Best said. “We made quite a lot of progress. When you do things the way you should do them, you see improvements.”

School Board Member Nick Schollmeyer thanked teachers profusely.

“I’m critical a lot of times on testing, but when you can see reading data that is improving, I think we have to step back and say, thank you to the teachers,” Schollmeyer said. “Well done. Thank you.”

• Best discussed the preliminary budget with school board members, noting that most of the revenue and expenses are similar to last year.

Best focused the discussion on the breakdown of revenues for the district, noting that 43% ($1,290,765) of revenues came from local sources. The preliminary budget breaks down local revenues as follows: local taxes ($910,626), Proposition C ($182,670), local food program ($7,000), interest ($90,000), pre-kindergarten payments ($30,000), and other ($2,000).

“This number varies a little bit every year,” Best said. “With this being an assessment year, we should expect some changes but we’ll use the best information we have based on historical data.”

Revenues received from the county account for just 4% of the total revenues for the district totaling $110,000, which breaks down to county fines ($5,000), and utility tax ($105,000).

Best noted that revenues collected from the county vary only slightly from year to year.

The district receives 45% of its revenue from the state for a total of $1,436,903 and is broken down as follows: transportation ($63,000), Basic Formula and Classroom Trust ($1,082,817), small school ($103,969), baseline salary ($149,988), and career ladder ($24,300).

Best explained that there has not been much change in state funding for a number of years.

“It is not projected to change much this upcoming year,” Best said.

The district receives 8% of its revenue from the federal for a total of $233,064 which is broken down as follows: Special Ed ($47,000), Title Programs ($94,564), Small Rural School Achievement Program ($13,000), federal food service ($67,000), and Medicare ($11,500).

“Federal funding usually doesn’t change much,” Best said. “We budget off the prior year since we will not receive the notice for allocations until June.”

Best explained that all the federal money is a reimbursement to the school after it has already spent the money.

“You have to spend it to get it back,” Best said.

He touched on the expenditures for the preliminary budget only briefly, noting that most district expenditures are spent on salaries.

“The expenditures for next year are pretty standard,” Best said.

School board members will vote on the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year at the next meeting.

• Best announced the dates that have been set up to work on the district’s new Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP). The district is working with Fired Up Consultants again, which set up the CSIP three years ago.

The tentative timeline for working on the CSIP is Sept. 25, Oct. 2 and Oct. 16.

Best noted the aim is to approve the new CSIP at the November meeting.

Best added that he thought the CSIP that the school had developed and put into action had been a very good plan.

“We need to take a final look at what we did and didn’t get accomplished with this plan,” Best said. “I think it has left us in a very good spot for the next three-to-five-year plan because we had a good plan. I think we are much more knowledgeable about what we need to be doing as a district and what direction we want to go.”

Best would like three school board members to volunteer to be part of the meetings to get their input on the new CSIP.

• School board members agreed to have the bond issue put on the agenda as a discussion and action item in November or December so that the issue can be put on the April 2026 ballot.

• Board members approved outstanding bills for the month totaling $85,404.09.

• The district had the following ending account balances: general ($2,732,154), special ($129,325), and capital projects ($666,622).

SUPERINTENDENT             REPORT

Best was happy to report that open enrollment had not been approved by the state legislature this year.

“The good news is open enrollment won’t go anywhere this year, but the Speaker of the House said it would be a priority next year,” Best said. “I think that it not passing is a good thing for us.”

Best also reported that the Senate had added $300 million to the foundation formula.

“That doesn’t necessarily help us because we are a ‘hold harmless’ district but it is good for education, and that is a good thing for us,” Best said.

He was concerned that $50 million had been allocated to go towards school voucher programs.

“This is the first time that state money is going to fund private schools,” Best said. “It’s only $50 million, but it’s the idea that tax money is going to that versus an income tax deduction. It is concerning.”

Best noted that homeschool student participation in activities and sports has been approved by the legislature but what changes that will bring to local school districts are yet to be seen.

The legislature also passed a school safety bill that has had a lot of things added on and will be in effect for the next school year.

“I don’t know how many of them will make a difference to us,” Best explained. “Some of the regulations might create some busy work for the administrators and some of it will involve state-appropriated funding. There is a lot in it, and it will take some time for everyone to comb through it. We will tackle what comes.”

Best is planning on several staff members attending a conference at the Lake of the Ozarks on May 28 and 29. He has scheduled a curriculum workday for June 9 and 19.

“We also have three conferences over the summer, and we have eight slots for staff to attend that we have reimbursements for, so there would be little cost to the district,” Best said.

He is hoping to send out more information to staff members to see who would like to attend the conferences.

“We’ve got some opportunities coming up and I hope we can take advantage of them,” Best said.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Principal Jeremy McKague noted that a lot of activities were held as the end of school approached. The athletic banquet had been scheduled for May 15.

Preschool graduation was held in the gym because of the large number of people who indicated they would attend.

“Those students have a lot of support,” McKague said.

The PTO Carnival, classroom field days, and fun days were scheduled for the remaining days of school.

CTA REPORT

The Community Teachers Association (CTA) reported that they had recently elected the following officers for the 2025-26 school year: President Kara Keilholz, Vice President Misty Hilkerbaumer, Secretary DeAnna Lamb, and Treasurer Beth Sieg.

One of the first things they talked about was making sure that a CTA representative would be present at each school board meeting going forward.

The CTA is made up of nine members who hope to attend a conference on July 14-15.

Keilholz noted the CTA has not had a response from any legislators after sending a letter noting the teacher’s opposition to open enrollment.

STUDENT COUNCIL          (STUCO) REPORT

The Student Council was been busy all year with activities, including Red Ribbon Week, which is a nationally recognized week to bring awareness to drug abuse. STUCO organized dress-up days, trivia questions, and presentations for the elementary students.

The group organized a Halloween Fun Day with the annual chocolate mile; everyone ate s’mores and took part in additional activities in the gym. The FFA helped by organizing pumpkin carving for the event.

STUCO organized a Veterans Day ceremony, two blood drives, a Christmas Fun Day, Homecoming, the Docuseries Drama, a Buckle-Up presentation, and Spring Fun Day.

The Student Council Operated “Grog,” a snack and coffee stand that profited $400 this year. The money was used to pay the DJ for homecoming.