Watson Chapel School District Superintendent Danny Hazelwood asked members of the district board of directors Monday evening for their input into how best to accomplish several key goals of the district’s facilities master plan in the aftermath of the failed special millage election in April.
As part of the board’s regular monthly meeting, Hazelwood invited Chad Davidson, facilities coordinator at the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative, to brief the board on the district’s options moving forward.
“I’ve seen school districts in the same situation several times before,” Davidson said. “Immediately after the millage increase proposal was voted down in April, the state required a meeting to discuss how to hold a successful millage campaign the next time. We are looking at what steps need to be taken to prevent having a second failed millage. We need a game plan on how to move forward. We have a little bit of time to make the final decision but we need to do it soon.”
Hazelwood reminded the board that a second failed millage vote was something that must be avoided.
“The state has agreed with our assessment that Edgewood Elementary needs to be replaced,” Hazelwood said. “The state says if we don’t build a new building then they will do it. Now, if that happens we won’t be around to see it because they will relieve us of our jobs if we can’t get it done ourselves.
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“It is going to take a different approach from us,” Hazelwood said. “We need to hold another millage election in March of next year, but instead of using the money for a new middle school we might want to look at building a new K-1 building on or near the Edgewood campus. We might be able to keep the existing gymnasium there and use it as part of the new school. If we did this we would also avoid having to move students to different schools as we had planned to do with the construction of a new middle school.”
Board vice president Sandra C. Boone asked if an estimated price tag for the new construction had been determined and Hazelwood replied that it had not been.
“We will need to talk to [district financial adviser] Jack [Truemper of Stephens Incorporated] to determine how many mills we will need to ask for once we have determined what our facilities plan is going to be,” Hazelwood said. “We also have to address the need to replace the air conditioning systems at Coleman and L.L. Owen, roofing work that is needed at several schools, and the construction of a new physical education multi-purpose building at the high school.”
Several board members, including Boone, board president Danny Holcomb and board secretary Ronnie Reynolds, asked what would be done to address plans to add technology rooms and science labs to the high school as well as the need to find a solution to the housing of the junior high school’s two guidance counselors in a second floor office space.
“Most schools today are not building new rooms for technology but instead are using carts that hold laptops, iPads, and things like that with wireless capability, to move from room to room,” Hazelwood said. “As for science lab needs, you are absolutely right. We need to do something about that. We also need to work on finding a place for the counselors.”
“When the junior high school was built there was no concern about putting the counselors on the second floor because there were no Americans with Disabilities Act regulations in place as they are now,” Boone said.
Holcomb said the district had not done a good job of communicating the urgency of the district’s needs before the April millage vote.
Davidson said that the district needed to stay mindful of the need to keep plans for a new millage vote on track.
“It is essential for Jack [Truemper] to tell us what we need to ask for in a millage increase once we determine what we want to do,” Davidson said. “We need to let the state know that we will have a new millage vote.”
Hazelwood said that a vote will be taken at the August board meeting on whether the board wants to build a new K-1 school instead of building a new middle school as originally planned.
Personnel
In other business the board approved several personnel recommendations made by Hazelwood.
The board approved the hiring of Jared Dutton as a junior high football coach; Greg Easter as a junior high assistant football coach, junior varsity baseball coach and physical education and health teacher; Joey Moon as a junior high basketball coach and physical education and health teacher; Angela Billingsley as an elementary teacher; Stephanie Sampson as a junior high physical science teacher; James D. Mitchell as a junior high Tools for Learning teacher; Zachary Taylor as a junior high ALE teacher; Erick Davis as a full time custodian and maintenance worker; Arthur M Kight Jr. and Jared Dutton as morning bus drivers; Michael Whitworth as an afternoon bus driver; and Terrick Robinson and Terry Shelton as bus drivers.
Hazelwood informed the board that he accepted the resignations of Mark Cantwell as junior high football coach, Brandon Austin as a junior high teacher, Marcelle Goins as a junior high assistant football coach, Michael Funk as a Tools for Learning teacher and Deborah Smart as a high school counselor.
Handbook changes
The board approved a change to the student handbooks to indicate that junior and senior high students will not be able to make changes to their class schedules after August 1.
The board approved the addition of a promotion/retention and remediation policy to the 2012-13 student handbooks.
Financial report
The board approved the June financial report, that included $2,488,232 in revenue with $4,677,820 in expenses for an ending monthly balance of $6,422,076.