A new licensed practical nurse position was created and superintendent Tim Davis said the school district is heading into its most important time of the year after a week off for the 75th Highland County Fair.
Davis said one of the school district’s two nurses resigned at the beginning of the year and that the district wanted to create a new LPN position instead of filling the second nurse position.
“It’s something we felt we needed to have in place instead of the nurse classification,” Davis said, adding that the LPN will not need to have a bachelor’s degree. “Things are becoming more complex with diabetes and things like that, so we want to have to the most qualified person as possible.”
In his report to the board, Davis said, “We survived the fair break and are headed into kind of our most critical time of the year between now and Thanksgiving.”
The superintendent congratulated board member Beverly Rhoads on being inducted into the Highland County Historical Society Hall of Fame, and noted that most of the HVAC and other work the district started on over the summer with COVID-19 funds was complete.
The board approved field trips for eighth-graders from May 9-12, 2023 to Washington, D.C., and the FFA to Indianapolis on Oct. 26-29, 2023.
For the last few years, Davis said, the district has used only school staff to chaperone the annual eighth-grade trip to D.C. He said there will be six staff members per 100 students on the trip, that those students are selling Indian cards to raise money for the trip, and that, “We are very excited for them to make the trip again.”
He said two staff members would accompany the 52 FFA members planning to visit Indianapolis.
Treasurer Ben Teeters reported that the district had a general fund balance of $6.97 million at the end of August compared to $8.27 million the year before. Expenses for August were $2.18 million compared to $2.18 million a year ago, and revenue was $1.34 million compared to $3.39 million a year ago. He said the difference in the balance and revenue figures was because the district had not received real estate tax funds yet from the county, but expected to very soon.
The board accepted the following donations: an anonymous donation of books for the elementary school, $20 anonymous for hand sanitizer for the elementary school, $300 anonymous for Camp Joy fees, $200 anonymous for Camp Joy fees, $200 anonymous for clothing for elementary students, and $200 from a ladies auxiliary for student school supplies.
The board accepted the resignations of bus drive Wanetta Cooper effective Sept. 12 and Spirit Store advisor Pam Harp for the 2022-23 school year.
Supplemental and change of status contracts approved by the board included: Chris Fauber from reserve boys basketball coach to varsity assistant coach; Trevor Gleadle from freshman boys basketball coach to reserve boys basketball coach; Nathan Boatman, varsity boys golf coach; Rachel Storer, Spirit Store advisor (split), Carey McBride, varsity girls golf coach; Tayler Middleton, varsity football cheerleading coach; Taylor Reed, middle school football cheerleading coach; Larue Turner, girls tennis coach; Matt Schneider, varsity swimming coach; and Ben Young, middle school girls cross country coach.
In his report, board member Larry Lyons said a Hillsboro High School alumni account has been set up on LinkedIn.
Board member Jerry Walker said in his report that he wanted to reflect back on board member Tom Milbery’s report a few months about about the services a student “closet” at the school provides. He said that through a program called Soles for Students operated by local attorney Susan Davis, 4,000 pairs of shoes have been donated for Highland County students.
“There are needs that exist beyond academics,” Walker said. “…It’s just a nice service we have. We don’t talk about it a lot.”
The board retired into executive at the end of the meeting, but said no action would be taken after the session.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522.
