Archive for 2022

At the Salem R-80 Board of Education meeting Thursday night at the district administrative offices, Dr. Heman Blau, Principal of William Lynch Elementary, was proud to announce the school received the Mary Miller-Richter Award from the University of Missouri Center for Positive Behavior Support and Missouri Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support. Only one school and one district each year is honored with this award. Wiliam Lynch Elementary provided a positive learning environment and achieved positive social, emotional and behavioral outcomes for students through the exemplary implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support. Congratulations to Dr. Blau, teachers, staff, administrators and students of William Lynch on this fantastic accomplishment!

The Salem R-80 Board of Education met Thursday evening at the district administrative offices. Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed introduced Dr. Nathan Wills who will be replacing John Smith as the Assistant Superintendent July 1st. Dr. Reed discussed with the board the school district should not be sending e-mails to personal e-mail account as any request for information could expose their personal e-mail account to the public. She said the district could provide them with a district e-mail if they would like one. She said she spoke with Energy Solutions Professionals and after some discussion, it was determined work would be done on the Tim Gym first around October 1st, then on the locker rooms after football season. After the principal’s reports, the new Technology Director Mark McElvy explained to the board how the school is complying with the security standards required by MSIP 6. He said he was also working with Homeland Security for no charge on testing and finding red flags. McElvy also said the current phone system owned by the school has not been supported since 1998 and he is looking into new phone systems with a number of vendors. The board approved amending the 2021-2022 budget to reflect actual expenses and revenues, then the board discussed the 2022-2023 budget that includes funding from the state grant for the teacher $38,000 salary base. Reed said that when the benefits are added that the state does not reimburse, the 70% reimbursement drops to 54% of the salary increase. The budget also included $1,000 increases for all teachers making over $38,000; and a 3.5% increase to the base of all classified staff. The budget also includes revenues of 1.9 million dollars of ESRA funds and the $1.8 million cost for the Tim Gym and Locker Room renovation. The board then adopted the 2022-23 budget. Corky Stack from Stack & Associates talked with the board about the construction trades building project. He said the estimated cost of the proposed building in August of 2019 came in at about $860,000 or about $1.31 a square foot. Stack said he was contacted by the MRPC in June of 2021 about the project and with the inflated cost of materials, the project jumped to about 1.3 million dollars or 2.02 a square foot. Stack said some of the costs have stabilized, but the new cost could be as high as 1.807 million dollars. Stack said the cost to create a design that could be submitted to CDBG for their approval and one that could be used to generate bids would be $68,500. The agreement went on to say there would be a charge of $3,500 to solicit and hold a pre-bid presentation, and then $18,000 would be charged for the general contracting administration. The board approved the district curriculum that is now available on the Salem R-80 website. Five board policies were discussed and the board approved the technology usage updated policy, asked for more information after the discussion to change the student cell phone policy, asked for more information about the sick leave pool and how many people are using it if it were to be phased out, asked for more information on how many days currently are being used as sick days or personal days, and approved the change on the staff fringe benefits that does not provide dental insurance, but offers it as an employee option. A few handbook changes were made that were approved by the board, one where insurance will terminate at the end of the month of the last day of work for an employee who is leaving the district. Superintendent Reed asked the board if they could use Stifel for bond underwriting for the new elementary school project and the board approved her request. The board then went into closed session where they hired high school counselor Susan Jadwin under the critical shortage provision, employed Mark Howard as assistant track coach, hired Brenda Hanning as a part-time special education secretary and adopted the administration salary schedule as presented. The board accepted the resignation of Alaena Tyler as an upper elementary special education instructor and heard a retirement letter from Rolland Todd. The meeting was then adjourned.

Airport Board President Tyler Naramore called a meeting of the City of Salem Airport Board for this evening at 6:30 in the City Hall Council Chambers. The board will hear the fuel pump update, go over other business, then have an election of offices before adjourning.

The Dent County Commission met Thursday for their regular meeting. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams reported the county received $64,770.43 in CART funds in June and year to date, the fund is up 6.74% over last year. Williams said the county received $172,159.00 in PILT funds and those funds were up from last year. After the road report, the commissioners approved the Notice of Decision of ARPA funds for the $75,000 requested for the SMDH Transformer. Two bids were opened on selling the Road and Bridge Department’s tractor with the winning bid going to Gary Kolthoff for $9,300.00 The meeting was then adjourned.

The City of Salem Utilities Committee met Tuesday evening at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. Chairman Kyle Williams discussed the need for the city to reduce expenses as well as find ways to increase revenues to make a balanced budget for fiscal year 2022-2023. Next years proposed budget shows the city at a deficit of $3.5 million before city department supervisors and staff were able to find additional ways to cut costs and have lowered the deficit to $1.9 million. If the utility committee does not propose a new electric rate for the alderman to consider, the yearly automatic increase from the electric supplier will go into effect in July at a rate of 34%. The committee approved asking the alderman to raise the utility rates 24% with a monthly $10 service availability fee for residences that will sunset and go away after one year; and $15 for commercial businesses that will also sunset and go away after one year. This will bring in enough revenue to cover the proposed budget shortfall and put funds in the electric reserve. The committee also discussed additional ways to raise future revenue including asking the voters to approve a sales use tax that would impose a tax on all online orders. This tax could be earmarked for public safety to fund the police department which is currently 42% of the total general fund expenses. The aldermen will discuss this proposal being placed on the August ballot at the next aldermen meeting.

The City of Salem Finance Committee met Wednesday evening to review the proposed 2022-2023 budget. Finance Director Stacey Houston and City Administrator Ray Walden presented updated figures from previous meetings based upon the utility meeting recommendations from Tuesday night and other recognized revenues and expenses that came in that still shows a projected deficit of over $900,000. The budget includes no raises in the upcoming year that will save about $125,000, a reduction in city staff from 61 to 57 saving about $109,000, a change in wearing apparel policy that will save $2,900 and the reviewing and renegotiating of contracts that will save another $69,000. Some funds like the water fund and the sewer fund, will have to use reserves to balance for the year end or have to borrow money from another fund to balance for the next fiscal year to balance. Those two funds will be reviewed by the utility committee to possibly adjust rates to cover the losses incurred. Chairperson Kala Sisco wanted the finance committee to review the documents and bring any questions or suggestions on the 2022-23 proposed budget to the next Finance Committee which will be held this afternoon at 12:00 noon at the Salem Community Center @the Armory located at 1200 West Rolla Road in Salem. The meeting is open to the public.

Join Echo Bluff State Parks team members on Saturday evening at 8:00 to listen to The Current River Band, sponsored by the Betty Lea Lodge, at the outdoor amphitheater. The band just wants to have some fun and play some music. Join them for a night of fun and laughter. Echo Bluff State Park is located at 35244 Echo Bluff Drive in Eminence. For more information, call 573-751-5211. This event is being held in conjunction with the National Park Trust’s Kids to Parks Day. For more information, visit mostateparks.com.

The City of Salem would like to thank its electric customers. Last week the city issued a PEAK ALERT asking our citizens to help by conserving energy where possible. You responded and cut back and thanks to your efforts, the city avoided a new Peak Power Event on that day!

The Salem Community Choir will be performing this Sunday afternoon at 2:00 on the courthouse lawn. Lemonade and cookies will be served by the Cosmopolitan Club of Salem. There is no cost to attend!

The University of Missouri Extension’s Woodland Steward program will host a workshop with a twilight tour on Monday and Tuesday demonstrating woodland management practices according to University of Missouri Extension natural resources specialist Sarah Havens. The program begins with a virtual session on woodland management tools from via Zoom, Monday evening from 7:00 until 9:00. Tuesday evening, participants will meet in person from 6:00 until 8:30 at the MU Wurdack Extension and Education Center in Cook Station for a tour of recent examples of forest management practices. The $25 fee includes a light meal prior to the tour. Missouri has 15 million acres of privately owned forestland, and management on the private acres is just as important as on public lands as good forest management on private lands benefits wildlife and forest health in the state. You can register for the workshop at muext.us/WoodlandWorkshop2022.