GENTRY — School board members on July 16 approved the low bid of Moser Corporation of $28,280 for 70 cafeteria tables for the Gentry Intermediate School. Six bids were received, with the highest bid being $39,480. The bid of Moser is $404 per table.
The tables will replace all the existing lunchroom tables at the intermediate school campus because they are old and worn.
Plans are, according to Gentry superintendent Randy Barrett, to offer the existing used tables for sale rather than storing them.
The board approved the hiring of Misty Simmons as a seventh-grade math teacher and Robert Parton as a middle school physical education teacher and high school coach.
The board discussed possible plans to purchase a sign which includes an LED display to place at the south end of Otis Street and be visible from the Arkansas Highways 12 and 59 intersection. Cost estimates for the sign ranged from $20,000 to $50,000 in discussions held at the last two board meetings. The $20,000 double-side sign would have a two-feet by seven-feet Gentry School logo and a scrolling LED area of one-foot, eight-inches by seven-feet.
Barrett said the $20,000 sign may not be large enough to read and suggested possibly looking at a larger sign.
“If we wish to market theschools, the LED portion (of the sign) is not very large,” Barrett said.
“We could pay for (the sign) out of the building fund; it is a permanent structure,” Barrett said, adding that the school district spends $90,000 for a bus which lasts 13 years and is then rotated out of service.
“Do you want me to put it out to bid?,” Barrett asked.
Clarence “Beau” Kreger said he didn’t want to make any decision on a sign until the other three members of the board were present.
Randall Bollinger, Gary Dunlap and David Williamson were absent. Jim Barnes, Dani Cypert, Coye Cripps and Kreger were present.
Cripps said, “If the school and the city could get together and share the costs (of the sign), it would be a plus. I think it would be good for the community.”
In an email message to Gentry Mayor Kevin Johnston last week, Barrett suggested the city and the school possibly split costs on the sign and use it for informational purposes for both the schools and the city.
Under school transfers, two School Choice transfer requests for Hispanic students from Decatur to Gentry were approved. None of the other requests from Decatur to Gentry were recommended or considered because students of two or more races, Native Americans and Caucasians were not eligible to transfer from Decatur to Gentry under the Public School Choice law, according to a letter shared with board members from the Arkansas Department of Education.
Barrett told board members that the district was on course financially to finish out the school year with approximately $1.5 million left in operating funds, with a balance of $1.575 in the operating funds at the end of June.At Barrett’s request, the board authorized him to transfer money between the operating funds and the building fund, which currently has about $2.3 million, to make the year-end legal balance the $1.5 million it needs to be to avoid being counted as having a declining balance and possibly being counted as in fiscal distress by the Arkansas Department of Education.
Though Period 12 ended on June 30, the school district has a Period 13 in which the district’s financial records forthe year are reconciled and closed out.
Coye Cripps suggested the school do something to improve the air flow in the Carl Gym, recommending two belt-driven exhaust fans be put in the currently boarded up windows.
News, Pages 3 on 07/25/2012