The Board of Education met Tuesday evening and several topics were on the agenda.

LaDonna Junghans is the new Board President, and Dr. Ferrell Miller is Vice President.

The Board ratified teacher’s contracts for the 2016-2017 school year that included a 2% pay raise.

A 2% pay raise motion was also passed for classified staff, occupational therapists, and administrative salaries for the 2016-2017 school year.

A major, continuing discussion was on creating a new position for a Hiring and Retention Coordinator in the district. This person would be working toward decreasing the subsitute shortage in USD 475.

Dr. Corbin Witt proposed that the Board approve the new position on a trial basis for one year without a secretary for that person.

Board member Carolyn Gaston suggested two options to consider before creating a new position/department:

• take payroll and benefits out of Human Resources to lessen their load and allow them to do the necessary recruitment themselves
• look at contracting an individual to handle recruitment and retention rather than creating a new department in lieu of the budget cuts that affected USD 475

Board member Brian Field says that he is looking for something more concrete in the form of pay for this proposed Recrutiment and Retention Coordinator.

The Board agreed that not enough information was given to them or shown that requires the addition of a new department; the issue was postponed to be discussed again with more information at the August 1st Board of Education meeting.

Board member Tom Brungardt once again spoke out on his displeasure with a provision in the Subsitute Teacher’s Handbook.

According to Brungardt, the handbook states that subsitutes will be paid extra to ‘sub’ during their plan period, but according to Brungardt it doesn’t make clear that subsitutes may be told they have to cover classes that they didn’t sign up for when they accepted the job.  Brungardt further stated that “making” subsitutes cover classes they didn’t agree to when they accepted the job that day may exasterbate the subsitute shortage in the district.

Field, who said that he previously worked as a subsitute, says that most ‘subs’ know that there is a possibility that they may move around throughout the school day and that from experience it wasn’t an issue when those situations arose.  Field says that letting subsitutes know ahead of time that this is a possibility allows teachers to keep their planning period open and not have to move teachers from classrooms.

Brungardt still didn’t like the idea that subsitutes will be made, as he puts it, to cover classes other than what they agreed upon.

The Board approved the Handbook, as is, with a vote of 6 to 1.

Technology fees and textbook charges were shaken up for the 2016-2017 school year.

Dr. Anwar Khoury made a motion for reduced and free students combined textbook/technology charge to be $0, and students that don’t qualify for free or reduced services to pay $40. The motion was passed 4 to 3.

The Budget Review for 2016-2017 showed the effects of the State Legislature’s return to the 2014-15 financing formula for Equity Funding solution that was approved by the State Legislature on June 24, signed in to law by Governor Sam Brownback on June 27, and the Kansas Supreme Court found the 2014-15 financing formula met the Kansas Constitution for equity of funding.

At this point the impact of that legislation on USD 475 is still being processed, but a difference of $307,775 is the estimated tentative loss to the district.

On July 8 the District will participate in State Budget training, and at the August 1st Board Meeting the draft budget will be discussed to get the approval to propose the budget to the public.

On August 2, the proposed budget and hearing date will be provided to the public for a period of 10 days and on August 15 a special Board meeting will be held to approve the proposed budget for 2016-2017.

Per state law, the district must certify the school distric budget and provide to the county clerk by August 25, 2016.

The next monthly Board of Education meeting is August 1, 2016 at 5:00 pm.