Coach Chuck Borey reported on a meeting that he had with Northeast Nodaway Athletic Director Charlie Burch about the possibility of the two schools combining to offer coop football. The proposal would first involve Junior High; if the plan worked, they would consider doing a coop program for High School.
Borey said that there were a lot of advantages to doing a coop program; he said that there were over half a dozen schools who were looking into combining their football programs in the area. He said that numbers would be lower for Junior High next year and that it was important to have at least 16 people. The deadline for this year would be May 1st if Worth County were to do a coop football program with Northeast.
For Worth County and Northeast to coop at the High School level, there would have to be less than 200 students; otherwise, Worth County would have to go back to 11-man. Currently, the combined High School enrollment of the two schools is at 197. Borey said that Worth County regularly had 15-16 students out for Junior High while other schools routinely had 20 or more.
Borey said that a coop program would have another advantage; "there are schools that can’t have JV because of lack of interest," he said. He said that one strong point of Worth County’s program was its ability to field a JV squad; he said that it was instrumental in the development of players who could play three years of JV ball and then make all-conference their senior year.
Northeast Nodaway would transport their students to Worth County and pay the transportation costs; there would be 5-6 kids in the Junior High program who would go out from Northeast. Borey said that there would be an increased gate from more fans coming; "there are all sorts of Northeast Nodaway people who are Worth County fans," he said.
Borey said that he thought that the liability would be covered by the school’s insurance; students would be subject to Worth County’s rules. Borey said that it would not matter which school they were from; "the kid who works the hardest will start." He said that practice times would not be a problem because Northeast gets out of school earlier than Worth County.
Worth County would still retain their name and be called the Tigers; either school could opt out in one year if things did not work out. If the two schools were to coop in high school, they would have to coop for two years because of district assignments. Coop programs may only be with one contiguous district. He said that he was "not 100% sold" on a coop program but that he wanted to give it a shot for one year and see how it would work out. In answer to if there were other programs that the school might coop in, Borey said that basketball numbers were healthy, with many students going out for basketball at the Junior High level.
Megan McClain and Brooke Adams of the Worth Cares Coalition gave a presentation to the board about underage drinking in the area. They said that younger kids were doing it more, with some starting as early as 9-10 years old. They said that the most common age to start was 14. "It leads to academic failure and other problems, such as rape." They said that the key to combating underage alcohol use was to give kids something to do; for instance, they recently put on a hip-hop dance class which drew a lot of people. They said that it was important for older kids to set a good example for younger kids because younger kids hang out with older kids more and followed their lead; for instance, if an older kid did not drink, the younger kid would follow their example. They said that 13-year-olds tended to rebel against their parents, so role modeling by older kids was crucial in the effort.
Superintendent Dr. Linda Gray Smith reported that revenues went up for this year in preschool, but that expenses went up as well due to rising gas prices.
The board voted to award the bid for mowing the ball diamond to Wyatt McClain. The field is currently under renovation and will be ready for use by the first of June.
Discussion switched to the heating and cooling system. Board member Paul Tracy convinced other board members that the proposed expenses for putting in a new heating and cooling system were too much and that it would be cheaper for the board to do a little bit at a time. While Dr. Smith forecast more money for the school, she said that most of it would be eaten up by pay raises for the teachers. Tracy wanted to see the school move away from a boiler system. Another problem, as board member Terry Green pointed out, was that there would need to be an electrical upgrade because the electrical systems were maxed out already.
Green said that the first priority for any heating overhaul should be the cafeteria, the gym, and then the lockerrooms. Green wanted to see the heating and cooling itemized so that they could see how much more it would cost to put in cooling; for instance, it might cost only $20,000 for heating and $26,000 extra for cooling.
The board voted to purchase a new bus to replace a 1994 bus that had 186,000 miles.
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