Decatur Schools now set to finish up classes Memorial Day

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

DECATUR -- The Decatur School District received a state waiver for six of the seven days requested from the Arkansas State Board of Education and will now have its last day of student classes on Memorial Day.

In the superintendent's report at the March 17 regular meeting, Larry Ben reported that Decatur school district has missed 16 total days of instruction due to snow. A plan was formulated to use all available service days, spring break and Memorial Day to make up for some of these snow days.

A memo from the Arkansas School Board allowed school districts which missed more than 10 days of instruction to apply for a waiver of days over that limit.

Decatur School District, in an effort to eliminate classes on Memorial Day, applied for a seven-day waiver and planned to make up nine days of missed classes.

Decatur and Quitman were the only districts not receiving the full amount of days requested. Other districts in the state requested a waiver for days missed which were more than 10.

"We have held school on every possible Monday through Friday this semester, except for the days we couldn't go due to weather," Ben said. "There have been no days off, no holidays, no teacher in-service days. Every opportunity for instruction has been utilized."

The state school board met March 20 to either accept or reject the waiver request and granted the Decatur School district a waiver of six days due to inclement weather. The district originally applied for seven days, but the state wanted all schools to make up a uniform 10 days of missed classes before waiving instruction days required under state law.

Ben reported that attendance for the Decatur school district, as of March 14, is 556, up by over 40 at this time last year. This number indicates that the district continues a positive growth trend.

Ben gave an update on the middle school renovation project. The partnership application has been submitted. The total cost of this project was estimated at 2.9 million dollars.

"This is a high estimate from what we had been given originally because of the one unknown variable, which is the safe room possibility," Ben stated. "It is possible to get a safe room incorporated at about the same cost."

The district's share of this 2.9 million dollars is estimated to be 1.8 million dollars should the partnership project approve the district's application.

To fund the 1.8 million dollar cost, the district will explore different payment options.

"One would be a construction-only bond that would require no vote, no new millage, no new taxes, no extension of the current debt. It would take $150, 000 to $160,000 annually out of our cash flow to go this route," Ben said. "The second is a construction-only bond with a 30-year term which would require a vote. This option would take a $110,000 annual payment out of our current cash flow."

He said a third option, which would also require a vote, would be to refund existing bonds and reissue 30-year bonds, which would take between $5,000 and $20,000 out of the district's current cash flow. The district might not be able to get the same interest rates it has on current bonds.

These options will be explored once the middle school project is closer to the construction phase.

In other business, the school board approved the following items: salary schedule increases, national board certification stipend, personnel policies update and the ACSIP plan.

The next meeting of the Decatur School Board will be April 21 at 7 p.m. in the conference area between the cafeteria and the old middle school building. The public is invited to attend.

General News on 03/26/2014