Sheldon starts repairing damage in preschool

Nevada Daily Mail

The winter weather spelled more than canceled school for the Sheldon school district, a pipe burst in the preschool building and ruined insulation, part of the ceiling, carpeting and some school supplies like books and tables.

"The restoration company had 17 fans going half a week," superintendent Tim Judd said during the Sheldon Board of Education meeting Wednesday. "We canceled two days of preschool and made arrangements to have classes in the Baptist Church until we get moved back in."

Judd said repairing the plumbing, putting up sheetrock, replacing the flooring and fixing light fixtures will take a week to a week and a half to be completed.

On a positive note, the elementary school's roof was fixed to stop the accumulation of snow and sleet in the attic and the wind-damaged east side of the Ag building is scheduled for repair.

In other business the board reviewed bids from three companies for scoreboards to be purchased with the Max Wisehart donation to the school.

"We're looking at $8,000 to $12,000 for both scoreboards," principal Jason Irwin said. "Everything is wireless. They should last 30 to 40 years. That figure includes the Max Wisehart sign that will go on it."

Judd suggested they also consider using the donation to replacing the carpet in the elementary halls with tile as well. He also presented them with three possible school calendars for next school year.

"They are all 168 day calendars which is what we're doing this year, since we are no longer required to have 174 days," he said. "Option one is just like the calendar we are using this year as far as start date, three days of in-service, two weeks of Christmas and long weekends with no spring break. The last day of school would be May 14."

He said the staff overwhelming prefers long weekends rather than a week-long spring break. The second option would start and end school the same day but include a week-long spring break. Option three was the same as the first but moved the in-service days.

The first calendar passed 6-1, with board member Jerod Lamb against. He said he preferred the second calendar. The board also approved having summer school.

Judd told the board the school would be switching its school information system to SISK12.

"We are one of the last schools to get on board with this," he said. "It's going to be much better school information system with a parent portal. This wasn't something planned in the budget. There will be a one time $1,000 installation fee plus a yearly housing fee of $1,000. They will be flexible on our payment schedule."

Assistant principal Carolyn Compton said the new system will make technology upkeep on the school's end easier.

"We won't have to host everything here," she said. "We don't have to worry about the data manager going down anymore and not functioning. We don't have to keep up software. We just have to make sure our bandwidth is good. It should be faster and slicker. Grade book and attendance will look basically the same. Next year, parents will be able to log into it and see the kids grades and attendance. You can pay your lunch bills and sports equipment. It will be a learning curve for everyone to use in the beginning. It will be a process, but it will be worth it in the end."

In his report, Judd told the board about changes in the district's health insurance because of the Affordable Health Care Act.

"We are in a SMEG (Southwest Missouri Educator Group) group with 12 schools," he said. "Every year our broker will go in and try to get the best rates possible. With the Affordable Health Care Act, we think businesses with fewer than 50 full time employees would not be eligible to be in that group. All the different schools were asked if they would be interested in forming a partially self-funded trust. The big question a lot of superintendents want to know is what are these rates going to be like compared to what we are paying now. We are going to get some kind of idea on rates, and I don't think it's going to be completely accurate. We don't really have an option because if we're not in this, we can't be in the SMEG group. Last week, I received a letter that says we will be allowed to stay within the SMEG for another year."

He said either all the districts will go into the trust or nothing will change.

"If we stay in our group for another year, we have a 10 percent increase cap plus taxes of 3.9 percent, so we might have a 13.9 percent increase in rates. Right now we pay $398 per month per employee, that would bring it up to $452."