Bronaugh board members view bus, phone system

BRONAUGH -- School board members reviewed buying a school bus, taking bids for a new telephone system and setting the 2011-'12 property tax rate.

With Andy Brannan absent, the panel accepted Superintendent Patricia Phillips' proposal to view buying an "off-lease bus," or an otherwise new one used for a year by a leasing company, to replace a 1996 Bluebird with a troublesome engine.

Chaired by Chris Baker Aug. 11, the directors tabled consideration of new phones to replace those "fried" by lightning July 7 until Brannan can participate.

Phillips said the Phone Booth Co. of El Dorado Springs put the R-7 District's 25-year-old analog system back into service after the lightning strike.

She said last month the district would seek bids from the Total Communications, Ideal Acoustics and CenturyLink companies, noting Northeast Vernon County Schools at Walker have CenturyLink.

The board set 7 p.m., Aug. 25, the first day of school, to hold a public hearing on the tax rate, currently 3.7487 cents per $100 in valuation.

In other business, director Saundra Bogart put an artifact on the table of Wildcats' lore, a green and white trophy basketball from the BHS boys' 2005 season, when they went 22-7 and reached the state quarterfinals.

Bogart said the donated ball will be given to coaches and put into the school's trophy case. Bronaugh is 15 miles south-southwest of Nevada on Missouri Route 43.

Phillips said the city's June conversion to a new well water system has proved as vexatious to the school as it has to many citizens, who have complained of its "rotten egg" odor. "It has not improved the taste of any water in this building," she said.

"The sulfur content is really high."

Principal Bryan McArthur garnered approval of 2011-'12's list of 14 substitute teachers, including the recently retired Gina Dodson and Debbie Potter.

McArthur said the terms of their state retirements will allow Dodson and Potter to work half-time, or 550 hours during the school year.