Gentry School Board approves raises, creates psychologist position

GENTRY -- The school board in Gentry, at its regular May 20 meeting, approved the creation of a new school psychologist position in the district at a base salary of $60,000 per year. The new job was created due to an emergency need in the district, according to Terrie Metz, superintendent of Gentry Schools.

The school board also approved the hiring of Coye Cripps as maintenance supervisor, Anthony Dutton as middle and high school choir teacher, and Andrea Mullen and Savannah Lyons as intermediate school teachers.

Approved were the resignations of Troy Holman, high school math teacher; Jordan Campbell, high school social studies teacher and coach; and Justin Demieville, middle school social studies teacher.

Mike Mullen was transferred to be a middle school science teacher and Karen Williams was approved to receive an Opportunity Culture Direct Reach Teacher II stipend.

The board passed, on a final reading, the raises proposed for teachers and support staff. At its regular May meeting, the board approved, on their first readings, two policy changes authorizing a $1,000 pay raise for teachers and a 50-cents-per-hour (amounting to nearly $1,000 for the year) pay raise for classified staff in the 2022-2023 school year.

The board approved a recommendation to make direct deposit the required method of

receiving paychecks from the district.

The board approved the $434,271.14 bid of Springfield Grocery for food services in the next school year. It is reviewing recommended price increases for meals -- student breakfasts to increase from $1.50 to $1.60; student lunches from $2.85 to $2.95; adult breakfast from $2 to $2.50; adult lunches from $3.75 to $4.50; reduced-price student breakfasts to 30 cents and reduced-price student lunches to 40 cents.

The board asked that the cost increase be examined to see if it was sufficient to cover actual expenses incurred by the district to subsidize the meals program. The board will take up the matter again at its July meeting.

The board approved a $30,644 expenditure for Promethean Boards and Chrome Boxes, as well as educational software upgrades, for use in the new classroom facility. Other approved expenditures include licenses and software for Read 180 and System 44, SEL Program, an intermediate school site license for Imagine Learning and CKLA classroom kits and student materials for the intermediate school.

Additional training days were added to contracts for middle school and intermediate school teachers for specialized training above and beyond the regular professional development days required.

The board learned of five people interested in filling the vacant Zone 4 position on the board and asked to visit with them at a special meeting, now scheduled for July 5 at 5:30 p.m.

Reported to the board was the purchase of playground equipment at the middle school at a price of $24,880, under a TIPS contract. The 4-bay, 8-swing equipment comes with the required mulch base. It was reported that the old equipment (installed when the school was built) fell apart when taken down for the installation of the new portable classroom facility and could not be moved and reinstalled. It was heavily used by students.

Jason Barrett, transportation and facilities supervisor, told the board that three of the four units of the 10-classroom portable building were on their way from San Antonio, Texas. He said the support piers and utilities were installed for the building and the arrival and setup of the building appeared to be on schedule.

He also reported progress on the HVAC projects for the high school and middle school gyms, with notification from the state for approved funding, and anticipated the project would be put out for bids soon.

He reported the completion of a new roof on the agriculture building from a TIPS vendor who honored a bid from four years ago. The decision to reroof the building was made on an emergency basis because of leaks in the old roof.