GENTRY -- The Gentry School Board on May 19 renewed contacts for 88 classified staff members, hired a media specialist, physical education teacher and coach and an English as a second language instructor.
Jennifer Brown was hired as a middle school media specialist. Tyler McReynolds was hired to teach middle school P.E., coach junior high boys basketball and for other unspecified coaching duties. Rebecca Summers was hired as a secondary level ESL teacher. Also approved by the board were a number of transfers, a contract adjustment and a one-year leave of absence.
The board gave final approval to policy revisions, including an across-the-board increase in the certified personnel salary schedule of $1,000. As a result, teachers in Gentry will be receiving a $1,000 raise next year in addition to already scheduled step raises, meaning current teachers will receive approximately $1,500 more in the next school year than in the current year.
Approved on its first reading (meaning a final vote will be taken next month) was a recommendation of Barrett to give classified personnel a 3 percent raise in the next school year and add another step -- Step 22 -- to the salary schedule.
An opening item of business for the board was a junior class request to again hold the senior prom off campus. The class presented, through class sponsors, a request to hold the 2015 prom at the Fairlane Station in Springdale. Reasons for the request included student surveys indicating possible attendance and locations where students attend pre-prom activities.
Citing no problems with this year's prom held in Fayetteville, the board gave unanimous (Coye Cripps was absent) approval to the request.
The board gave Randy Barrett, Gentry superintendent of schools, approval to pursue a plan to refund an Oct. 1, 2009, bond at a lower interest rate with an estimated savings to the district of $400,000. Barrett suggested putting money saved into a building fund earmarked for the construction of a new high school. Barrett said the refunding would not extend the terms of the bond and would not be an additional cost to the district. It would just be for the savings, he said, adding that the possible building of the high school was still about three years out.
Board approval was conditioned upon continuing low interest rates and the move being a significant savings to the district.
The board approved participation in the national and state breakfast, lunch and commodity programs for the next school year. Barrett also reported the district would again be participating in the Seamless Summer breakfast and lunch program with meals served at the middle/high school cafeteria this summer. (See the announcement in Hometown Events for more details on this summer's program.)
Barrett asked the board for direction on a couple of summer projects, including some concrete sidewalk work to make the new concession stand more accessible to the visitors' side of Pioneer Stadium, to pave the parking area for visitor buses, and to put in a sidewalk at the primary school to make it possible for students to access playground areas without crossing school driveways and possibly encountering motor vehicle traffic. He also said plans were in place to put up fencing at the intermediate campus, add a security camera or two where they are needed and work on the ceiling at the Carl Gym. The board gave approval to Barrett to pursue the projects and report back with details for a board decision.
Barrett reported that the district was a little behind where he hoped it would be at this time in the fiscal year but was still on track to finish with a healthy year-end operational fund balance of close to $1.5 million.
General News on 05/28/2014