School board discusses salaries

REARDAN—The school board discussed the need to increase pay for difficult-to-fill jobs within the district at the regular meeting Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Sobotta reported the district has a hard time hiring and retaining custodians. Because of that, the district is paying “hours and hours of overtime.”

He would like to see more flexibility to negotiate salaries, which would bring in new employees.

Butterfield agreed.

“It’s the right thing to do,” he said.

The school board also granted permission for eighth-grade girls to play on the high school’s basketball team at its meeting Wednesday.

Sobotta informed the board that 12 girls turned out for the first day of basketball practice on Nov. 14.

“To field varsity and junior varsity teams, we need 20,” Sobotta said.

“It would be a shame if we had to lose any games because of injury,” board member Simon Butterfield said. “It wouldn’t be fair to our seniors.”

School security director Brad Eylar reported on the district’s updated security operations plan.

“Every major crisis is addressed,” Eylar said. “We are now more prepared to handle any incident.”

He said the operations plan is “ever evolving, incorporates best practices and builds upon lessons learned from incidents from across the country.”

“We are trying to set the standard for Lincoln County,” Eylar said.

The Board recognized retiring employee Julie Campbell for 31 years of service, most recently as Transportation Department secretary.

The district also recognized finance office employees Justin Flaa, Laurie Landreth and Rochelle Wagner and substitute teachers Jenny McCain, Dorothy Balum, Heidi Clairmont and Stacy Burtenshaw.