The members of the Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education remain unchanged after the three board members whose terms were up for reelection — Kenny Coffelt, Michael Stees and Scott Gardner — faced no opposition during the April 4 election.
With that continuity in place, the board has a number of items for consideration before them at tonight’s meeting.
Superintendent Brad Pollitt provided board members a proposed salary schedule in March for district employees.
“For the last several years we have been able to provide the teachers and staff with more than just their step on the salary schedule,” Pollitt said Friday afternoon. “We will also be able to pay 100 percent of our employees insurance again this year.”
Despite an increase in premiums from the District’s insurance provider, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and uncertain cuts to federal and state funding, teachers in columns A, B, and C on the salary schedule will receive a $100 raise to the base, if approved by the board. Those in columns D, E, and F will see their base increase by $150, pending approval.
Support staff has a proposed $0.05 increase added to their base salary with an added step with either a $0.10 or $0.15 as the increment.
Proposed steps to the extra duty schedule and director/coordinator and licensed staff salary schedule are also requested for the 2017-18 salary schedule.
“After discussing the proposal with the teacher salary committee, they indicated that the staff appreciates the fact (insurance coverage) and sees it as a valued benefit,” Pollitt said. “Each year our insurance rates continue to rise so that is something we have to take under consideration each year.
“At some point in time we may have to place a cap on the amount of premiums we can provide,” Pollitt added. “We are grateful we can offer that to our employees once again this year.”
Pollitt commented that there are no major changes to the Five-Year Maintenance Plan this year. The plan is a method the district uses to plan for expenses, allowing them to address building and grounds concerns at the time they are needed.
“It’s a working plan and sometimes items may shift as to when we address them if a need arises at another building,” Pollitt said. “We want to stay ahead of our building and grounds needs.
“It’s important to build new facilities, but it’s equally important to maintain what you have,” he added.
One item for discussion will be the district’s food service program. According to Pollitt, the board has several factors to consider before voting on the item at an upcoming meeting.
“We received two bids for our food service contract, one from Oppa! (the current provider) and one from Southwest Foodservice Excellence,” Pollitt said. “One of the things we need to look at is if we want to hire one of these firms or if we want to take the program back and run it ourselves.”
The district provides free breakfast and lunch to all elementary students in the district, which is something the board is expected to discuss.
“Our school lunch program is not designed to make money,” Pollitt said. “But it is not a program that we should be losing money on either, as a district we have to limit our loss.
“We have been very cautious in raising meals prices in the past but that is something we may have to consider as well,” Pollitt added. “If we do raise prices it will be by a small amount.”
At the meeting the board will also be given new policy updates for the district to vote on in May as well as the building quarterly reports and the attendance updates for each school and the district.
Athletes who participated in winter sports at Smith-Cotton High school will also be recognized at the start of the meeting.
The board meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Smith-Cotton High School in the Heckart Preforming Arts Center, 2010 Tiger Pride Blvd. For more information, call the central office at 829-0450.
