Board of Education reorganizes for year
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Originally published 01:56 p.m., July 10, 2008
Updated 01:56 p.m., July 10, 2008
Emporia school board president Grant Riles turned the board meeting over to a new president, Angie Schreiber, soon after the board meeting opened Wednesday evening in the Mary Herbert Education Center.
Schreiber’s election on a 4-2 vote was part of the board’s annual opening of a new fiscal year. Board member Glen Strickland had nominated Schreiber; Riles had nominated board vice president Mary Helmer.
In the next voting, Strickland was elected vice president, defeating both Helmer and board member Mike Crouch, who was not present.
The board accepted a $156,072 bid from Emporia Construction and Remodeling for remodeling Mary Herbert into new offices for the central-office staff. The administration is moving to Mary Herbert, after selling the current board of education building.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Rob Scheib, who attended the meeting for the first time in his new position, said that a number of items had been removed from the bid as a result of the board’s directive to spend “not a penny more” than the proceeds from the sale, after expenses.
Trimming such items as additional exterior concrete, labor for painting rooms, and other similar expenses, the bid had been reduced and $13,213.50 will remain for smaller, unexpected expenses that arise.
“What we took out was someone else applying the paint, but we will still have to purchase the paint … so it will be fairly tight,” Scheib said of the money remaining.
“This is something the board felt very strongly, staying within the budget, so I appreciate this,” said Helmer, who had made the motion at an earlier board meeting.
Board member Mike Helbert concurred.
“I’m pleased to see that was done,” he said.
The board accepted an audiometer donated by Sertoma Club. Club president John Newland and member Les Nuessen made the presentation.
“I believe Sertoma purchased (the current audiometer) many years ago, and it’s about worn out,” Nuessen said.
The club combined its own $2,500 donation with a grant from the Sertoma Foundation to donate the equipment, valued at a total of $3,054.23.
During the evening, the board also voted on a number of appointments or re-appointments to positions related to the district.
The board voted unanimously to consider a new process for hiring a board attorney. The board attorney was one of the appointive positions listed as Item 8A on the board agenda. That item was moved to the end of the meeting and voted on after a 20-minute executive session to discuss personnel.
A memorandum from John Heim had recommended appointments in 11 categories, including board attorney, a position that has been held by Thomas Krueger. Heim wrote in his recommendation to re-appoint Krueger that he does not charge a retainer fee, but charges hourly for services.
“We also make extensive use of KASB legal services,” Heim wrote.
After the executive session, Strickland moved to accept Item 8A “with the exception of Item 3,” board attorney.
“In regards to Item 3, I would move that we instruct our superintendent John Heim to study the process related to bringing this into, making this consistent, with professional service contracts,” Strickland said.
The board also passed a resolution allowing the district to waive Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Procedures and a resolution allowing home rule.
The move, done annually, is recommended by the Kansas Association of School Boards, Heim said.
“With home rule, we can do things basically what you want to do, as long as the board approves them,” Heim said.
Otherwise, the board would be required to meet all procedures mandated at the state level.
Ratification of the master contract for teachers and contracts for administrators and classified staff was removed from the agenda for the second time.
“They removed it from the agenda,” said community relations director Nancy Horst. “It has not yet been ratified” by teachers.
Comments
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)