NEVC projects getting going

Contractors paid through an innovative contract with an Overland Park company will arrive within the week to put new lighting and insulation in Northeast Vernon County Schools in Walker and Schell City.

Superintendent Charles Nass told board members last Thursday that bids for a new roof on the junior high-high school in Walker will be opened at a special meeting in August.

Naas has said the board will retire the debt within 15 years with financing from a Kansas City area bank and keep paying Kansas City Power & Light, MFA Oil & Propane and the Schell City and Walker water departments.

He said the R-1 District will give the Overland Park firm, Energy Solutions Professionals, the difference between what it typically pays for energy and that if the lesser amounts aren't enough to pay the debt, ESP will assume the difference.

Naas said the roof will be funded independently by the district. ESP leaders plan to finish their work before the school year starts Sept. 1.

In other business at the 7 p.m. session, board members awarded low bids of 10 cents per gallon over cost for diesel fuel and $1.72 a gallon for propane to MFA.

Kids First program official Alberta Hays reported on three meetings she attended in June and July with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Steering Committee in Springfield, saying the committee is considering untenable policies.

For example, Hays said the MDESE might impose a requirement for all high school graduates to have passed a physics course.

"I never took physics," said Naas. "Everyone in education is for having high expectations, but some of these are unreachable. They didn't just leap, they went crazy."

He said the steering committee is also mulling a requirement "for a lot more data" when NEVC already provides the state with beaucoups information.

Elementary School Principal Kendall Ogburn of Schell City reported the resignation of School Secretary Yalonda Conner and his appointment of special education aide Brenda Guffey to replace her.

Ogburn's recommendation was accepted to hire recent Southern Illinois University graduate Rebecca Cutler, a Schell City native, as a pre-school aide.

Naas said bus leasing companies will make presentations in August for the board to view as well.