Local News – Monday, July 25th, 2022
On Thursday, July 21st, the Dent County Commissioners approved County Ordinance No. 2022-1, which is a burn ban ordinance. The ordinance applies to all outdoor burning and open burning within the county. The ordinance covers open burning of any refuse, trees, logs, brush, stumps, leaves and grass clippings. Open burning of agricultural materials including weeds, brush, and crop stubble is prohibited. A person or persons utilizing or maintaining an outdoor fire shall be responsible for all fire suppression cost and any other liability resulting from damage caused by the fire. Any person found to have violated this ordinance shall be guilty of a class “A” misdemeanor and subject to a range of punishment of up to 365 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.00 or any combination thereof.
The Salem R-80 Board of Education held their regular meeting Thursday evening at the District Administrative Offices. At the meeting, Martin Ghafoori from Stifel Public Finance talked with the board about financing options through bonds or certificates of participation for the new elementary school. He went over the difference between the two, the district’s current obligations and what their bonding capacity is. He also showed some samples to the board on how they could approach the construction with 20 and 25-year paybacks. This was just an informational meeting to give the board an idea of what they can expect in passing a bond issue or lease debt. Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed said ESP hopes to get the materials in for the Tin Gym Project in August and get started in September while the locker room work will not begin until November. She said the HVAC is on site and will be installed over the next three to four weeks, and the roofing should be completed before school starts. Dr. Willis updated the board on the work on CSIP and smart goals have been established for each indicator. More meetings with principals will follow with a preliminary submission in August. Willis also said the new Tiger Training is going on for the new 20 teachers to the district of which six have never taught before. He said they will split off by schools and the mentor teachers will work with the new instructors. He also said they met with the Salem Police Department, and the school will run scenarios at the high school to acquaint officers with the campus. They will also increase the amount of walk throughs on campus. After hearing building reports and holding a discussion on cell phones as well as the policies associated with them, the board approved the RFP request for the baseball infield restoration as the soil has hardened and the lip around the field has gotten out of control. The board approved the Instruction Coach Job description, the SRCSP “Back to School” Policy that is pretty much the same as the way it was at the end of the last school year, and they approved the list of items of surplus property at the upper elementary school that is to be sold. The board approved removing two policies for the sick leave pool, but any teacher with days in the pool can use them until they run out. They also approved revising two board policies changing short term leave to just personal days and allowing only one per month which comes to 10, down from 12 that were allowed last year, unless the employee is a 12-month employee. Also any employee that wants to take three days or more in a row must have a doctors reason or have approval by the administration. The board approved as presented some changes to the Personnel Handbook including increasing the pay for unused personal days to the current rate for a substitute teacher which currently is $100 for teachers and $50 for support staff. Reed said the high school senior high students will have to pay for their lunch this year as the Salem R-80 only qualified for the free lunch program in the elementary, upper elementary and middle school just missing the student quota at the high school. The board approved the corrected support staff salary schedule and set the tax rate hearing for August 18th at 5:45 before the next regular meeting. The board did accept the resignation of Julie Harris, an Art and Intervention instructor from the William Lynch Elementary with the late resignation penalty. The board then went into closed session.
An accident occurred Saturday evening about 5:08 in Franklin County on Interstate 44 near mile marker 239.4 in the eastbound lane. According to the highway patrol report, a 2011 Toyota Tundra driven by 20-year-old Jack Porter of Rolla, was travelling westbound when he was struck from behind by an unknown vehicle. The Toyota then crossed the center median and the back right of the Toyota struck the front of a 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander being driven by 52-year-old Richard Cooper of Rolla. Porter suffered serious injuries and was transported to Mercy Hospital St. Louis by St. Clair Ambulance District. He was wearing a safety restraint at the time of the accident. Both vehicles were totaled and removed from the scene by Vogelsang’s Towing.
The Salem High School Registration for the 2022-23 school year will be held at the Salem High School Library starts today with Seniors registering from 10:00 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon. Juniors will register on Tuesday, July 26th; sophomores on Wednesday, July 27th; and freshman on Thursday, July 28. New student registration will be on Tuesday, August 2nd from 10:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. If a family has more than one child or sibling in high school, you are more than welcome to register all of them on one of the days one of them will be enrolled in. Otherwise, a parent or guardian will need to be there the day the student is assigned. The last days to register at the high school will be August 9th and 16th from 4:00 until to 7:00 in the evening. Everyone will need to be registered by August 16th. The Open House will only be used to meet the teachers, walk the student schedule, and to locate and work with lockers. If you have questions, call the Salem High School at 729-6611.