Royal Valley board votes to keep golf program
The golf program at Royal Valley High School was saved from the chopping block Monday after board of education members voted to keep the sport while considering budget reductions for the 2015-2016 school year.
During the USD 337 Board of Education meeting, the board approved a list of budget reductions for the 2015-2016 that did not include cutting the school’s golf program. The golf team had just two team members by the end of the season.
At the board’s May meeting, three of the five board members in attendance voted in favor of eliminating the golf program. The motion did not pass then since four votes (which is a majority of the seven-member board) is required to pass a motion.
On Monday, board members Pat Tuck, Jeff Stithem and Ann Kelly voted in favor of removing the sport while members Linda Hegemann, Boone Smith, Rusty Douglas and Jim O’Toole were not.
“I’m definitely in favor of keeping it,” Board President Hegemann said. “I don’t want to see the golf program go. There might be that one golf kid that wants to play and that’s his only activity. I can’t take that away from him.”
Eliminating the program would have saved the district $5,000, it was reported.
When the motion to approve a list of budget reductions that included removing the golf program failed to pass, the board voted on a second motion to approve the list of reductions that did not include eliminating that sport.
That motion was passed and approved by six votes, with Stithem opposing.
The approved list of reductions did not include a proposal that would have required each enrolled student to bring a ream of paper to school as part of their school supply list. That will not be requirement this year as board members did not deem it necessary.
Superintendent John Rundle noted that there are six open assistant coaching positions for the coming school year at both the high school and middle school level. In the passed motion, the board agreed not to fill some of those coaching positions if participation numbers were low during fall practice.
The complete list of budget reductions approved Monday include:
* Reduce and share professional development ($5,000 savings).
* Reduce postage/mailings budgets ($5,000 savings).
* Reduce school and district office and furniture budgets ($20,000 savings).
* Reduce school and district cleaning supply budgets ($10,000 savings).
* Reduce summer school budget ($3,000 savings).
* Reduce subject/club related field trips ($3,000 savings).
* Reduce paper use by e-mailing district newsletter and listing all handbooks online ($5,000 savings).
Total savings is expected near $51,000.
To increase revenues, fees for next year’s driver’s education program will increase and generate an additional $1,750 in funds. Textbook fees for the district have been raised for this coming year for $7,500 in additional funds.
Three teachers that have either resigned or retired this year will not be replaced, saving the district $98,840.
In other business, the board:
* Approved consent items.
* Discussed and approved a request from Sharon Gabriel to allow the city of Hoyt to host its citywide garage sale at the high school parking lot on Saturday.
* Heard school site council reports from building principals Noah Slay (RVES), John Linn (RVMS) and Jim Holloman (RVHS).
Slay said that one of the biggest projects the school’s site council worked on this past school year was creating opportunities for teachers and staff to recognize outstanding behavior in students.
Several awards were developed, such as the achievement award, citizenship award and creativity award. Each quarter next year, a select group of students in each grade with be honored with the awards.
“This will hopefully promote these character traits throughout the school days,” Slay said.
The RVES site council also hosted a science fair at the end of the school year.
At the middle school, Linn reported that the site council met three different times throughout the year, with a large focus on the new technology initiative in the district.
“We talked about the benefits of Chromebooks, and we had some teachers share how technology was being used in classroom,” Linn said.
Linn said the school’s reward system was also discussed and modified since the rewards are no longer tied to state assessments.
Holloman said the site council at the high school met twice, looking at enrollment data, as well as student performance on the ACT test.
The council also looked at trends on what classes students are enrolling in at the school, as well as looked at the RVHS discipline report.
Holloman noted that a senior exit survey was formulated and sent out by the council seeking feedback on several issues.
* Received a draft copy of the district calendar.
* Received a budget update from Rundle.
* Approved the Greenbush Learning Services Consortium renewal agreement totaling $9,192.45.
* Awarded the escalating milk bid of $45,319 from Hiland Dairy for the 2015-2016 school year.
* Approved preliminary staff development points for 2014-2015.
* Approved an increase to the district’s substitute teacher rate. The rate will increase from $85 a day to $90 a day.
The board also agreed to increase the rate for substitute bus drivers from $20 per route to $27.50 per route and classified staff substitutes from $7.50 an to $10 an hour.
Stithem removed himself from the meeting during this discussion due to conflict of interest.
* Accepted RVHS activity fund donations totaling $4,010, which included donations for wrestling, vocal music, powerlifting and baseball received in the fourth quarter.
* Met in executive session for 15 minutes with Rundle to discuss non-elected personnel and teacher salary negotiations.
Back in open session, the board agreed to offer a contract to Melissa Peven as a Parents as Teachers educator for 15 hours a week.
The board also agreed to increase classified staff salaries by 1.5 percent for the 2015-2016 school year and administrative staff salaries by 1.16 percent
* Adjourned the meeting at 9 p.m. All board members were present.
