Rich School Board Meeting

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  March 23, 2016. The regular meeting of the Rich County School Board was called to order by Chairman, Pete Cornia.  

Bryce Huefner noted that the $25,000 shortfall last month included in the minutes needs an explanation to let the public know that this will not happen again in the future.  The lack of funds was a result of the fees not being high enough to cover all of the costs that have been incurred.  Huefner felt that some action needs to be taken so that this doesn’t happen year after year.  The Board decided that this issue needs to be given consideration when the next year’s budget is discussed.  

The question was asked why the monthly Accounts Payable total does not match the expenditure summary.  The accountant noted that the expenditure summary goes from the beginning of the month to the end of the month.  The accounts payable, however, goes from one board meeting to another—thus a month’s payouts goes from the third week in the month to that time in the next month.

There was a payment to JB for $6,540.  It was determined that this was fuel, repairs, and maintenance of the buses.

Mrs. Keetch teaches in the school district.  Her son will begin kindergarten next year.  She would like to have him go to school here in Rich County and be able to travel back and forth with her.  She requested that out-of-state tuition be waived for him to attend school in Randolph.  The board granted her request.

The School Board discussed and passed the proposed school calendar for next year.  There hasn’t been any negative feedback from the public so the motion was made and ratified by the board.

An RFP had been sent to several auditors who work with school districts to see what the costs would be for the required audit for the next few years.  Two companies responded to the request.  It is the general policy to choose a company and give them a contract for the next five years.  Squires and Gilbert & Stewart were the two who responded.  One company was much cheaper than the other.  It was decided to contact several schools who use either of these companies for their opinions concerning these companies.

Superintendent Lamborn has been working on Policy 300.  It contains several different procedures that have been used in the past.  However, because of changes over time, many of these procedures are no longer used.  He has removed the old methods and deleted things that no longer apply to the school setting.  The Board made a motion to adopt Policy 300 with the changes.  It should be ready for ratification next month.

The principals and teachers decide in the fall how trust land monies will be spent each year.  At this point in time, the report was made showing that the monies had been spent according to the plans made earlier.  There were very few variations from the original plan.  One group bought computer hardware instead of software but made sure the monies went into the computer area.  Upon hearing the report of how the monies have been expended, the Board made a motion and approved how the trust land monies had been spent.

Personnel insurance for the school district costs about $100,000 per month.  Because of the size of this expenditure, the district is always looking for ways to keep all of the benefits without having to increase the amount required to provide this benefit.  This past year, Rich School District entered into an agreement with several other schools to obtain a policy that would be cheaper for them because of the number of individuals involved.  However, the claims made against the insurance company exceeded the amount put into the pool.  Also, medical costs went up another 10 percent this past year.  Thus, it appears that the cost of insurance will increase by at least 21 plus percent.

The Board requested that the accountant look into some different pools to see if Rich can join with some other groups to continue to offer the same benefits and keep the costs down.  The accountant said he would check out several other options and present them at the next Board Meeting.

Six students from the robotics class went to Logan to try out what they had learned thus far.  A couple of Board Members went along.  They noted that the students did really well.  This program seems to be doing especially well.  The Board Members noted that the program was pretty impressive, and the trip to Logan was an especially good experience for the students.

The State is looking into the non boundary schools to see if they can’t come up with way to make tournaments and games a better experience for the schools involved.  At least the State is looking into the matter.

The next board meeting will be held April 20.