Your World Today

The Salem R-80 Board of Education held a special meeting Wednesday, February 19th to address a personnel issue. In closed session, the board heard from seven staff members. On Thursday, February 20th, the board met for their regular meeting. Superintendent John McColloch presented the Free and Reduced Lunch Count. Currently, all students in grades Kindergarten through the 12th grade continue to eat school lunch and breakfast for free. The total free and reduced number of students stands at 1,428. McColloch gave the January Membership count numbers that showed the student enrollment for the district was at 1,322 students. The Preschool enrollment is 110 and 281 of the students are non-resident. McColloch gave a health insurance update that indicated the cost of health insurance per employee per year is now $9,267 which is a 60% increase over the past 5 years. He explained that if the school district remains with their current insurance, next year they would be in tiered system. Salem is currently running at 120% which could result in a 20%-25% increase in insurance costs for next year. Nick Gover from the Athletic Advisory Committee had the committee’s budget recommendations. They recommend a $60,000 athletic budget with $8,000 additional monies added for professional development for coaches. The Construction Trades Advisory Committee gave their recommendations for transitioning the cost of the program to Salem R-80 over a four year period. Each building principal gave the reports for their respective building that should the William Lynch Elementary School with an enrollment of 272 children, the Upper Elementary School had 325 enrolled, the middle school had 232 students in January and the high school’s current enrollment is 550 students. In new business, the approval of the 2020-2021 school calendar was tabled until the March Board of Education meeting. The board did approve revising the language in teacher’s contracts from the current 180 contracted days to a contract being tied to the school calendar the school adopts. After some discussion, the board approved the district facility plan presented by Superintendent McColloch. The board also accepted the resignations of pre-school teacher Carolyn Curley, Title I math teacher Teresa Pitchford, and high school counselor Jillian Doddema. The board went into closed session where four staff members and one parent discussed a personnel issue with the board. Superintendent John McColloch then discussed a personnel issue with the board before discussing the growth plans and evaluations for all district administrators. The board approved to extend by one year the contracts of high school assistant principal Clay Moody, high school principal Marty Anderson, upper elementary principal Melanie Wisdom, and special education director Jody Heavin for the 2021-2022 school year; and they approved extending assistant superintendent John Smith’s contract for one year for the school year 2022-2023. The board also approved extending by two years the contracts of middle school principal Rich Parks and assistant high school principal Conrad Prugh through the 2021-2022 school year. A motion was made to extend a one year contact for elementary school principal Kriste Crocker for the 2020-2021 school year, but the motion failed by a 5-2 vote. The meeting was then adjourned.

The Salem Police Department has released some reports. On Friday, February 7th at about 10:39, officers were dispatched to a business for a report of shoplifting. As a result of the investigation, a 26 year-old Salem male was arrested and issued summons for shoplifting and possession of drug paraphernalia. The value of the items stolen was $29.99. On Monday, February 10th near 1:00 in the afternoon, an officer conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for not having taillights or visibly displaying registration. During the stop it was found that the driver had a revoked driving status and did not have proof of insurance. The driver, a 29 year-old Bucyrus male, was arrested and the vehicle was towed. During an inventory of the vehicle, marijuana and drug paraphernalia were located. The driver was released with a summons to appear in court. That same afternoon at about 3:46, an officer was contacted at the Salem Police Department in reference to stealing. It was reported that numerous transactions were fraudulently taking place with her bank account. The total amount of money missing from the account was $151. The incident is still under investigation. If anyone has information regarding any on going investigation, please call the Salem Police Department at 79-4242.

The Dent County Commissioners met for their regular meeting Thursday morning in the Dent County Courthouse. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams reported sales tax receipts for the month of February. She said that General Revenue received $62,094.36, which was down from $63,075.06 or $980.70 from February 2019. Year-to-date general revenue is down $5,799.66 or a bit less than 3.8%. Williams said that the LEST receipts were identical to GR. She reported that Road and Bridge receipt were $28,447.99, which was up by $370.32 from the $28,077.67 for February a year ago. Year-to-date Road and Bridge is down $1,595.10 or nearly 2.3%. Williams went on to report that the Jail Operations and Jail Trust Fund received identical amounts of $56,812.29, which is up by $741.52 from 2019’s $56,070.77. However, year-to-date these funds are down $2,363.85 each or a little over 1.72%. In the road report, District One Commissioner Dennis Purcell said if road conditions permit grading would be done on Dent County road 2400, while materials would be added and grading done on county road 5630. He also reported he attended a Tourism Tax Committee meeting Monday where one reimbursement request was submitted and approved, while one event proposal was presented and approved. District Two Commissioner Gary Larson said grading was scheduled for Dent County roads 2403 and 6130, plus materials would be added and grading done on county roads 2160 and 5220. He stated materials would be added to county roads 4380 and 4390, plus brush would be cut on county roads 2165 and 2170. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said Wednesday of last week he attended a joint hearing of the Missouri House Agriculture Committee and the Missouri Senate Agricultural Committee on the feral hog issue. He said two of the individuals testifying were the head of the Texas Feral Hog Management Program and a USDA Hog Eradication expert. Skiles said it was a very interesting discussion and in summary Missouri has a very small window to get the problem under control or we’ll have a problem as big and bad as Texas has. Commissioner Larson said people without cattle or farmland and outside of agriculture need to realize the severity of the feral hog problem. Skiles went on to report that all three commissioners were attending training in Columbia last week. He said that on Wednesday he attended the MAC Board meeting in Jefferson City where the collection of internet sales tax and prisoner per-diem owed to the counties by the state of Missouri were the main topics. Skiles said that even Governor Parson has stated that the state owes $32,000,000 to the counties. Skiles noted that Dent County is owed $178,000 as of December 2019. He said there will be a hearing Monday on the prisoner per diem and several MAC Board members will be attending. Skiles said that all three commissioners attended the IDA Board annual meeting Wednesday evening and that the SACBA Trivia Night fund raiser is coming up March 13th. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley reported she attended the MAC Board meeting Wednesday and had the opportunity afterwards to visit with several representatives, senators and lobbyists. She noted that bills were being approved by the Commissioners for payment. Bids for food service at the new jail were opened at 10:00. Bids were received from Consolidated Management Company, Tiger Correctional Service and Trinity Services Group. Sheriff Bob Wells is to review the bids and present his recommendation at the February 27th meeting. The next commissioner meeting will be Monday at 9:00 in the Courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.