Hume school accredited

Nevada Daily Mail

Hume teachers received a welcome present, a donation from Parents As Teachers of $50 per teacher for supplies.

The donation wasn't the only good news at the Hume Board of Education meeting Wednesday.

"I can tell you if the revenue comes in each month at the rate it has the first two months, we'll have $40,000 more revenue than we budgeted," superintendent David Quick said.

Down the road, in 2016, Hume may be seeing increased funding from an oil pipeline in northern Bates County.

"We're not going to get anything until the pipe goes into production and the state takes over the assessment of land values," he said. "Then every school district in Bates County will get some revenue off of it."

In other business, the board members voted to hire Justin Wehar as a part-time high school industrial arts teacher, Teresa Sword and Rodney Blakeman as junior class sponsors and Jaleana Thompson and Hannah Elliot as cheerleading coaches.

In the superintendent's report, Quick said at the beginning of the year he discovered the bells in the elementary hall and library didn't work, the exhaust fan in the kitchen had burned up and outdoor lights had been damaged by lightning.

"We've run new wire for the bells, and the lights are replaced," he said. "We're just waiting on a motor for the exhaust fan. We also have the roof that covers the sidewalk to the library finished."

He added he is looking into additional roofing around the school's other entrances as well.

"Our old bus sits in the barn most of the time, but occasionally we have to use it," he said. "In the budget we have money set aside to have the valves run on it, $1,500. I've gotten word on a bus that is three years newer and 50,000 miles fewer. It seems foolish to me to spend $1,500 on an old bus that we're constantly putting money into if we could replace it and sell it for parts for the same amount."

Quick said he would continue to research the used bus.

In other business, he brought up the possibility of installing interior storm shelters throughout the school.

"Miami has bought 10 or 15, and I'm going to see how they look," he said. "The storm shelter company is going to work up a proposal for our building. We could put two in the main hallway to fit every elementary student and teacher, two in the commons area, one in the weight room and one between the shop and library that doesn't fold up. All together we could easily get 200 adults in them. They are metal structures with a window in the door that is bullet proof. When folded up, a kid could pull the lever to open them. They deploy in 10 seconds and you can fill them in about a minute."

He said if the pricing for the six structures is reasonable, between $45,000 and $60,000, he would bring the proposal before the board for approval.

"We can save $1,000 per unit by learning how to install the shelters ourselves," he said. "When I have more information, I'll be sharing it with you."

Quick also brought the board up to date on the school's annual performance review through Missouri School Improvement Program 5, the state's school accountability system for reviewing and accrediting public school districts.

"We are accredited," he said. "We have some areas we are working on; one of them is high school attendance. There were 10 points available, and we got 7.5 points. We're going to hit hard on that. On the academic side, our students did really well; we had a 92.9 percent average, and that's excellent. The areas we feel like we can gain have to do with advanced placement courses."