GRAVETTE -- School superintendent Richard Page announced at last week's school board meeting that the board would host a reception to honor new staff members preceding the August meeting. The reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 17 in the high school commons. The regular board meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the high school library.
Financial manager Bill Hayford presented the June financial report to the board, including assets, liabilities and fund balances for the last month.
Richard Carver gave an update on several facilities meetings held over the last few months. Since several staff members will be in training in early August, he suggested it might be necessary to reschedule the Aug. 5 facilities committee meeting.
Superintendent Page presented the home school report to the board, and he and high school principal Jay Chalk presented a vocational update. Board members discussed the need to look at the draft Conversion Charter Application before moving ahead. Information to do this review will be made available to board members by Aug. 10 and they will have a week to consider it before the Aug. 17 meeting. A public hearing will be held on Aug. 24.
Robin Leonard presented the HP Streams to the board.
Superintendent Page presented the student transfer requests to the board, one for a student transferring out of the district to Bentonville and four wanting to transfer from Bentonville to Gravette. All transfers were unanimously approved.
Transportation director Richard Carver reported three bids were received for the school bus offered for sale. High bid of $3,505 was from Colcord, Okla., Public Schools. Members voted unanimously to accept the Colcord Schools' bid.
A discussion was held on the two pieces of property recently offered for sale by the school. Bids of $80,000 for the Hiwasse property and $40,000 for the old bus barn property were received from the city of Gravette. A motion to sell the Hiwasse property passed unanimously. A motion to sell the old bus barn property passed with a 4-2 vote. Some discussion was held about the possibility of the school leasing the bus barn property for some time, to continue doing maintenance jobs from there. This possibility will be discussed further in the future.
Athletic director Norman Mitchell presented the athletic participation packet. The board voted unanimously to approve the 2015-2016 athletic handbook, with minor corrections. Approval was also given to adding cross country to the school's athletic program. Mitchell reported that all the schools in the conference except Lincoln have cross country programs and money for the addition is already in the budget.
Approval was given to raising the price of tickets to athletic games from $4 to $5 for adults. The student price will remain $3 per ticket. A season pass was also approved at a cost of $25 for adults and $15 for students. The season pass will permit the holder to attend any 10 regular athletic events in any sport. This is 25 percent off the regular ticket price, Mitchell said. Season passes will be sold at Pride Night and at the scrimmage and will also be available at the gate. A senior citizen pass, permitting persons over 62 to attend regular season games at no cost, is also available.
Board members moved into a brief executive session to discuss personnel matters. When they returned to regular session, they voted to accept the resignations of bus drivers Dawn Pierce and Michelle Gruver and high school secretary Patti Bertschy. All resignations are effective immediately. They also voted to hire Lynn Johnson as the part-time K-5 enrichment (gifted and talented) teacher and Savannah Cawthorn as high school family and consumer science teacher.
General News on 07/29/2015