May Rich County School Board Meeting

Chris S. Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

The regular monthly meeting of the Rich School District board was held May 18, 2016, in Randolph.  All members were present.

The first order of business was to recognize and commend Lilia Brown, who received an Associates Degree from USU at the recent graduation.  Then Mitch Jarman and Kristina Peterson were recognized for being awarded Academic All-State designations.

The Special Education faculty opening has been filled by Brandy DeGraw.

 

Following up on the faculty hire in the previous meeting, in a conversation with Superintendent Lamborn, it was learned that the recent hire of a high school teacher was completed with a different set of requirements than initially advertised. 

Briefly, in March, 2016, the district posted an open position for a teacher with the following qualifications: 1)  Certification (endorsement) in Biological Science, 2) Certification (endorsement) in Physical Sciences, and 3) Certification in Spanish.  20 days after posting the opening the superintendent , at the April meeting, told that board that two persons had applied but that neither met the posted qualifications, however he was recommending that the board hire Cooper Cornia.  Superintendent Lamborn indicated that Mr. Cornia would have 3 years to complete the missing courses, which were in the physical science certification requirements.  The board voted to hire Mr. Cornia. 

At the recent May meeting the superintendent indicated that the missing courses now needed by Mr. Cornia were two in number, but the courses were not from the physical sciences, instead they were from the list of classes required for an Environmental Science endorsement.  In other words, between the time of job posting and the offer of a position, the required (and posted) qualifications were changed without posting in that the initially listed requirement of a physical science endorsement was dropped and apparently replaced with an environmental science endorsement.   There will be no course in physics at the high school next year.

In other major action the board voted to switch the insurance group that provides health coverage for all employees from EMI to PEHP.  There will be significant changes beginning September 1.  Meetings had been held with faculty and staff prior to the decision and it was observed that some will benefit from the change while others may be adversely affected. 

On budget items Mr. Clark presented an initial projection which indicated a nearly 5% increase in assessed valuation of property in the county which should produce an increase in available funds in the district.  The vast majority of the increase comes from the property growth in the vicinity of Bear Lake.  While the data is still not completely precise, Mr. Clark did not envision a tax rate increase in his initial presentation.  For the record, the state required public hearing on the budget is scheduled for June 14, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. in the office in Randolph.

The board was in favor of allowing graduating seniors to keep the laptop computers they used during the school experience but noted that the software could not be included, as the district has a license agreement with Microsoft that precludes gifting of the software.

The board voted to spend approximately $40,000 to purchase the used Skid-Steer that is used for snow removal.  Annual leasing appeared to be an economically worse choice.

Finally, Principal Kip Motta expressed a need for an additional Special Education person to meet actual (not projected) increased demands.  The board agreed with this request.