Nevada R-5 School Board discusses budget, facility updates

Friday, September 13, 2019

The Nevada School Board met in regular session at 7 p.m., Wednesday, in the Central Office board room. Those in attendance included Dr. Jeremy Fast, Jay Sloniker, Monty Smith, Lois Pendrak, Mike McCaffree, Joy Hawks, Dr. Tyson Beshore (Superintendent), Jodie McNeley (Assistant Superintendent), and Diann Marti. Board member Alyson Harder was absent.

A motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of the meeting agenda, minutes of the previous meeting, payment of bills, monthly reports, and the sub/volunteer list was made and board approved, 6-0.

In Program Planning and Evaluation, Scott Myers (the new Special Services Director for the district) spoke to the board and presented the child count for the previous school year, 2018-2019. Following the presentation of statistics, Myers opened the floor to questions. "I'm familiar with IEP (Individualized Education Program), but what is 504" asked board member Pendrak. "The 504 plan is more like a federal government definition of a student who has a disability that includes a medical diagnosis of any impairment that prohibits them from accessing the public classroom and lasts for six months or more," stated Myers.

Next on the agenda, Dr. Beshore gave facility updates. "The press box at the football field needed some TLC," said Dr. Beshore. "Our maintenance crew, as well as our building trades class, participated in that and worked that entire week before the first game to get it done so they were extremely busy with it. We also had a plumbing issue at Truman Elementary two weekends ago. They were able to get it fixed.

Dr. Beshore then went over the budget update. "In Fund 1, our revenues last year (2018-2019) were $861,000 and this year they are $640,000," stated Beshore. "In Fund 2, last year, our revenues were $1.6 million and this year they are just under $2.1 million. Here's the rationale for that: We always transfer money over to Fund 2 because that's our salaries. In the past, we've always put 25 percent of our state funding in Fund 1 and then 75 percent of it in Fund 2 — so, we've always had to transfer. This year I changed that. Zero percent of our state money now goes into Fund 1 and 100 percent goes into Fund 2. Instead of making the transfer as big as we do at the end of the year, we're just putting all of it in there now. The money is still there, it's just the matter that we've already put it into Fund 2." In addition, Dr. Beshore state that the Weber Estate funding is in Fund 4 but does not show up in fund balances because it is not in Fund 1 or 2.

Dr. Fast briefly touched on the current status of the Weber Estate funding during the board meeting. "The Weber Estate money is not in our general fund balance," noted Dr. Fast. That means this particular money will not be seeded for any budgetary items. "That is correct. It is there in fund form," added Dr. Beshore. "That is not touched until the board decides what you want to do with that, and when you want to do something with that. It will not show up in fund balance."

Recently, the Daily Mail reached out to Dr. Beshore in regards to reports that some of the school building cafeterias lacked air conditioning and what the district's plans were going forward. "We do have a couple of kitchens without AC, as well as a middle school gym," stated Dr. Beshore in an e-mail to the Daily Mail. "We are fully aware of these needs and plan to list them on our possibilities list for future facility renovations. We will be looking at all of our options for possible funding of the possible projects in the near future."

In new business:

• The board approved the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Special Education Local Compliance Plan.

• The board considered the MSBA Policies (to be published in a future edition of the Daily Mail), and approved them 6-0.

• The board approved, 6-0, the consideration of out-of-state travel for several trips, including the NRTC trip to the Association of Career and Technical Education Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

• The board approved the consideration of Memorandum of Understanding for Offsite Educational Experiences with the Nevada Country Club, 6-0. More on this will be covered in a future edition of the Daily Mail.

With no informational items on the agenda, the board meeting adjourned at 7:58 p.m.

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