Dr. Mark Stanton, superintendent of the McDonald County School District, announced at the school board's April 10 meeting that the district will contribute an additional $88 per month for each employee as a health insurance benefit in the 2014-2015 school year.
The increase brings the total amount the district will contribute toward medical insurance per staff member to $353 a month. Stanton said the increase will more than offset the increase in premium increase for the 2014-2015 year.
He said the new insurance package also includes a health and wellness opportunity, part of which is a free health screening. Stanton said that having healthy employees would help in keeping insurance rates lower, so he encourages staff to take advantage of the health and wellness plan.
In the health and wellness vein, Stanton said the new track will be open to the public when completed. He said the main surface is done, but there is still equipment present to complete work on runways for field events, along with a security fence to be installed.
Another new construction project recently completed at the high school will be on display for the public to see at an open house scheduled from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1. The district will show off its new vocational agriculture/carpentry workshop.
The board also announced dates for several other upcoming events. Senior awards and scholarships will be presented on May 13 at MCHS. Eighth-grade graduation will be held May 22 at each of the junior high schools. The Teacher of the Year banquet is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, at River Ranch Resort.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for tornado-safe facilities in Pineville and Southwest City will be scheduled in the near future, Stanton said. Pineville's will be held first, sometime in May while Southwest City's will be in August or September.
Newly elected board member Jeff Cooper received his oath of office as did incumbents Dr. Scott Goldstein and David Bunch. Goldstein was re-elected president of the board as was Sammy Helm III as vice president and Tammy Clark as treasurer. Kathie Mitchell was also re-elected board secretary.
Laurie Kinder, band director, updated the board on the band's efforts to raise funds for a trip to Hawaii in January 2015. Kinder said the band booster club has about $20,000 in its account and the band's student activities account is at almost $10,000. She said the cost for airfare is estimated at $56,000.
Kinder told the board she will need to meet with the freshman class next fall to make sure the band will make the trip or not. She said Plan B would be to distribute the funds through scholarships for band students attending college.
In other business, the board approved:
• an additional $1,208.40 for bus purchases due to a slight increase in interest rates from the time the board approved the purchase to when the contract was finalized;
• gave the OK for two DECA students, Tiffany Ward and Austin Bond, to attend national competition in Atlanta, Ga., after they recently qualified at the state DECA contest;
• purchased new science textbooks at a cost of over $60,000; and
• approved bills in the amount of $1,285,446.06.
General News on 04/17/2014