Still no science teacher; the search goes on

The Odessa School Board met Wednesday, June 27, 2012, to learn from Superintendent Suellen White that the open high school science teacher position being vacated by Jeff Wehr is still unfilled. High hopes that the early start to the hiring process would quickly lead to the selection of a replacement are now fading to concern, as five candidates have been offered the position only to have them opt for other positions elsewhere.

In other personnel issues, the hiring of Frances Liner, Jennifer Swartz and Nancy Glines as paraprofessionals was approved, and the resignation of Mandi Braun as a paraprofessional was accepted. Larry Weber was hired as assistant boys’ basketball coach.

The board approved policies dealing with electronic resources, lesson plans, online learning, copyright compliance, commercial vehicles and program evaluations.

The board also approved extending the 2011-2012 contract with occupational therapist Debra Stotts by four days and with Superintendent White also by four days. The board approved the exempt employees’ salary schedule which provided 10 or 15 cent-an-hour increases for the 2012-2013 school year. The board approved the school district’s plan to continue using the 2012-2013 Highly Capable Grant to support the Knowledge Bowl team.

White reported that the summer food program got off to a good start and is going well. She reported Pam Williams and Juli Weishaar have been hard at work preparing the budget for next year. The next board meeting we will have a hearing prior to adopting the budget.

Facilities

White said the the contractor who is handling construction of a bus storage facility at the rear of the Finney Field grandstand presented a proposal to the board to add matching siding to the entire grandstand for $8,285. The board approved the change. The board also discussed removing the stairs at either end of the grandstand and replacing them with either a ramp or new stairs. There are cracked boards in the structure that also need repair.

The board asked Superintendent White to develop a multi-year facility plan to guide the decision-making process over the next few years with respect to facilities.

The financial report showed an ending fund balance for the general fund in May to be $819,974.

The board approved the fee schedules for the 2012-2013 school year. The only change was having three prices for meals as the new calorie guidelines have changed, limiting the portions for middle school students. So lunch pricing was adjusted to take this into consideration. Pricing was also established for ala carte service to allow purchase of a second entrée or a second side dish separate from the full meal.

The board declared as surplus the old laminator in the teacher’s lounge. A new laminator has been purchased. The old one does not produce good-quality laminations consistently. Trying to laminate pieces of paper that are too thin results in wrinkling of the plastic layer.

Employment contracts

The board approved the new three-year contracts presented by the negotiating teams for both the OEA (teachers) and the PSE (classified staff). Both contracts took care of some minor wording changes. The district added $2,000 to the health insurance pool for both types of contracts to help with the cost of health insurance for employees. The PSE contract also provided raises of 10 cents an hour for most covered employees and 15 cents an hour for the lowest paid employees on the salary schedule (paraprofessionals and assistant cook), as well as three paid holidays for classified employees working only the nine-month school year.