New school board takes oath on bus

Benton County Clerk Tena O'Brien administers the oath of office to the elected members of the Gentry School Board Monday on board one of two new school buses recently received by the district.
Benton County Clerk Tena O'Brien administers the oath of office to the elected members of the Gentry School Board Monday on board one of two new school buses recently received by the district.

— Gentry’s school board members took their oaths of office Monday night on board one of two new school buses purchased by the district. Benton County Clerk Tena O’Brien administered the oaths to the seven members of the board, all of whom were elected at the recent school election, with one chosen in a runoff election just last week.

Following the brief swearingin ceremony, board members looked at the new buses which were brought back to the district on Saturday and are being readied for service on city bus routes.

A first order of business for the board was drawing lots for term lengths and organizing. Because of the new zone boundaries, a result of the 2010 population figures, all the board members were elected or re-elected at the fall school board election. The only contested race, in Zone 4 between Kent Swinney and Randall Bolinger, was decided last week in a runoff election with Bolinger being elected.

Since school board positions are five-year posts but elections for the different posts are to be staggered to avoid having all school board members replaced in a single election, possiblyresulting in an entirely new and inexperienced board, a drawing was held with numbered golf balls (between 1 and 5) drawn from a coffee can to determine term lengths for the board members.

As a result of the drawing, the terms of Jim Barnes (Zone 5) will be one year; Randall Bolinger (Zone 4), 2 years; David Williamson, II, (At-large), 2 years; Gary Dunlap (Zone 1), 3 years; Coye Cripps (At-large) 3 years; Clarence Kreger (Zone 3), 4 years; and Dani Cypert (Zone 2), 5 years.

The board chose Barnes to serve as president for the current school year, Williamson as vice president, and Cypert as board secretary. By resolutions, the board also appointed Cypert as primary board disbursment officer and Randall Bolinger as the alternate. District superintendent Randy Barrett was again appointed as the board’s ex-officio financial secretary and legal and fiscal agent.

In other business, Barrett reported that the district, at the end of Period 3 in the 2012 fiscal year was “fiscally solvent” witha legal ending balance of $1.29 million and an actual bank account balance of nearly $5.3 million.

According to Barrett, the district staff is “monitoring what we do, but at this point in time, we’re doing good,” he said.

The board accepted the low bid of Hoadley Construction to install six new sets of doors at the Gentry Intermediate School for $60,900. The new doors and frames, which are to be made of an aluminum alloy, will include a system whereby the school is handicap accessible with a door opened remotely when a person pushes a call button and is identified by video camera.

The work is to be completed over the Christmas holidays so as to not disturb classes when the old doors and frames are removed and the new installed.

Williamson suggested more research be done to explore the possibility of the school building an athletic facility which would qualify as a safe room for the community in the event of severe weather. He said other districts were doing this and using Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to pay for a large portion of the projects.

News, Pages 1 on 10/18/2011