The Worth County School Board learned at their regular meeting Wednesday that the school will finish the year with a $90,000 surplus. The board approved the new budget this year. The budget includes a 4.3% increase to non-certified staff compensation, a 7% increase in certified staff pay with minimum salary legislation, and a projected deficit of $250,000, which would bring the operating fund reserve from 72% of total expenses in a year to 57%. The school typically puts together a worst-case scenario budget with a projected deficit of around $300,000 and then ends up in the black.
Personnel expenses are expected to increase by $250,000. The non-certified pay scales will increase to at least $15 per hour. Missouri voters approved a minimum wage increase of $15 an hour, and the legislature took out some paid sick leave provisions as well as the cost of living increase, but left the $15 minimum wage intact and required schools to pay it.
The board named Daniel Gladstone as Varsity Assistant Girls Basketball Coach under April Healy. The board also hired Blair (Schmitz) Baker as a private-duty nurse. The board named Cree Beverlin as RootEd Advisor for senior career and education advising.
The board received the School Counseling Report from counselors Anna Gladstone and Amanda Pottorff for the previous school year. All eight staff members who responded understood the role of the school counselor, felt comfortable working with them, felt they provide important services, and felt the students benefit from classroom lessons. Responsibility was identified by 50% of the staff that students needed the most help with.
Twenty parents completed the needs assessment. 80% of parents marked friendship skills as an area the students needed to get more counseling lessons on. 75% marked responsibility and 75% marked conflict resolution.
72 students responded to the needs assessment. They were from third to sixth grade. 92% felt they need more help in showing kindness and thinking about other peoples’ feelings. 86% felt their class needs help with responsibility, 83% felt they needed help in solving problems with teach other, and 81% felt they needed help in being leaders and role models.
The board received a testing report from counselor Amanda Pottorff, who is the District Testing Coordinator. 26 students took the ACT score. Composite, Math, science, STEM, English, and Reading were all higher than the year before. State assessment data for the current school year will be available this fall. .
The Facilities were rated as Above Average by Superintendent Chris Healy. Strengths listed include dedicated personnel who take pride in the building’s upkeep. Among projects completed:
—Painted ag shop;
—Installed new football bleachers and softball lights;
—A new carpet for the business room;
—A new outfield fence at the softball field;
—LED lights at the elementary;
—Hail damage at the greenhouse was repaired;
—The welding area was renovated;
—A sewer line was replaced south of the school;
—New electric buses and charging stations along with a new lot;
—The old 1950’s boiler was finally removed.
Concerns listed include the following:
—Maintaining the HVAC systems;
—The asphalt pad northwest of the elementary needs replaced;
—Drainage issues between the ag building and the school;
—An enclosed walkway between the ag building and the school is needed;
—High school guttering is aging;
—The art room cabinets need replaced.
Some of these projects will be addressed this summer and will be paid for out of the voter-approved bond issue. The administration is in the process of developing a facility plan to help guide district decisions.
The board voted to accept the Missouri Quality Pre-K Grant for the 2025-26 school year. This will fund up to 20 children in the preschool for the next school year.
The board voted to declare various items as surplus property. Bids should be submitted no later than July 11th, 2025. The board voted to declare the following items as surplus:
—Five HP Chromebooks;
—Five Lenovo Chromebooks;
—12 Nobilis Windows 10 desktop computers with 8 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive;
—An Epson Powerlite 83+ projector, an Epson Powerlite 95 projector, an Epson EB-720 projector, and a Smart U100 projector;
—Eight Apple iPad computers. Two have 32 GB and six have 16 GB.
All of the district’s buses passed the Highway Patrol inspection.
The board approved a transportation agreement with NEN for the 2025-26 school year.
The board approved a professional development plan for the upcoming school year. Points of emphasis include positive behavior support, data-based decision making, critical thinking, assessment capable learners, and required training.
The board set various fees for the upcoming school years. Student admission to athletic home games is still free. Visitor student admission will be $3 and adult admission will be $5.
The next meeting will be July 16th at 6 pm.
The board added incoming principal Amber Hawk to the school credit card and removed outgoing principal Chuck Borey.
The board voted to approve a $960 stipend to the superintendent, high school principal, elementary principal, transportation supervisor, and technology supervisor for performing duties related to safety, transportation, and technology that happen outside of contract hours.
The board renewed the contract with Lunchtime Solutions to provide school breakfast and lunch.
The board approved the elementary handbook, high school handbook, board manual, and employee manual for the 2025-26 school year.
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