R-I board discusses upcoming retreat

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Facilities, personnel and instructional needs will be the topic of the upcoming Palmyra R-I Board of Education retreat on Dec. 2

The board discussed the retreat during their regular school board meeting last week, at which they also set the dates for board filings, discussed meeting with the architects in December to review design and costs of projects, discussed a policy for overnight trips, selected the Belcher Scholarship recipient and the Christmas card design winners and accepted three resignations.

During the Dec. 2 board retreat, which will be facilitated by Roger Kurtz, former MASA director, the board will review data from the school and community survey that was given to students, staff, parents and community members. 

The board will also review facilities, personnel and instructional needs of the district.

Board candidate filing dates were set and will begin on Dec. 5 at 8 a.m. and will run through Dec. 26 at 5: p.m. 

It was noted that except for the first and last days of filing, filing will not occur on days that the school district’s central offices are closed due to inclement weather.  

Filing will also not occur on Dec. 25 when the school district’s central offices is closed for Christmas.

There are two spots up for election this year, those currently held by Darin Redd and Andrew Lehenbauer.

Besides giving an update on the bond issue (see related article), Superintendent Jason Harper reported BLDD architects have met with user groups relating to the proposed projects. 

The architects will be attending the Dec. 12 board meeting to discuss high level designs and cost estimate.

In other business, the board discussed school groups and sponsor travel responsibilities.

While currently there is no policy, Harper said the board is looking at some basic rules to create better consistency in how the district funds overnight trips. 

No official action was taken.

The board chose Ava Weiman as the 2024 Belcher Scholarship recipient.

They also selected the district Christmas Card. 

This year’s winner was Jolene Bessy, a sophomore at Palmyra High School. Travin Rice, a junior at Palmyra High School, was awarded second place.

The board of education and Harper attended the annual Missouri School Board Association meetings in Kansas City, during which the board reviewed updates in school finance, school law and educational programs.

Three resignations were accepted by the board including

• Monica Bross, elementary teacher, effective at the end of the 2023-24 school year;

• Alysha Barnett as girls tennis head coach; and

• Tracy Fountain as girls tennis assistant coach.

They also approved Curtis Stout and Nathan Meyers as volunteer boys’ basketball coaches.

The board also:

• approved the MSBA full maintenance agreement was approved by the board. MSBA manages school policies and provides updates to those policies with the appropriate legal review;

• appointed Kinsey Cissna as the district EL coordinator and is responsible for providing appropriate accommodations to English second language students;

• approved the district Homeless policy; 

• reviewed the CCC fall sportsmanship results; 

• heard reports regarding vocational agriculture and math curriculum as well as from principals; and

• approved an updated substitute teacher list.