Hume Schools get improved lighting

The Hume R-8 School District is starting an $89,000 project to replace all its lights with smaller, more efficient bulbs installed by Rich Hill contractor Mark Yohe.

Superintendent David Quick said Yohe will remove the old size T-12 bulbs and put up T-5s in reflective housings everywhere except in the gymnasium, which got new lights a few years ago.

Quick said the project is being financed with an $82,000 loan from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and a $7,000 Kansas City Power & Light rebate obtained by Control Technology & Solutions of Kansas City.

The superintendent said Jan. 24 that CTS agreed to repay the MDNR loan if the resulting 10-year energy savings are insufficient to do so.

In other Jan. 11 reports to the Hume School Board of Directors, Quick reported the strenuous opposition of statewide educators' groups to a series of proposals being debated by legislators in the 96th Missouri General Assembly in Jefferson City.

He said the Missouri Association of School Administrators and State Association of Rural Education are bringing the full weight of their displeasure to bear against plans to allow open enrollment, replace the state income tax with a sales tax, expand charter schools and approve tax credits to support private schools.

"Can you imagine what kind of a nightmare open enrollment would make for athletics?" he asked. "Schools could recruit athletes to come play ball regardless of where they lived. Charter schools aren't held to the same academic standards as public schools and they could recruit the cream of the crop and leave the students who struggle in the public schools.

"There is no clear indication that kids do better in a charter school than they do in a public school. Going to a sales tax instead of the income tax would kill education. There are people in the legislature who bring these things up every year and we have to fight them."

Quick said the April 3 ballot is set for Hume's school board election with Jerry Davis and Meredith Yurick seeking the unexpired one-year term left with the death of board member Ralph Franklin last fall.

With incumbent Marvin Querry not seeking re-election, the top two vote-recipients among Sean Allen, Michael Harris and incumbent Josh Rogers will serve three-year terms.

Local board members whose terms are not up this spring are Lesa Berry, Kristy Brooks, Stacey Swickhamer and Steve Yarick.