Rich County School Board Report

Kathie B. Anderson, Reporter

Rich Civic Times    

LAKETOWN, Utah.  November  20, 2018.    The Rich County School Board meeting was held at the Rich Middle School.

The proposed 2019-21 Utah High School Association Alignment was presented for all sports except football.  For football Rich High School is considered a Bubble School, meaning it is between two classifications: 1A and 2A.  During a meeting on Tuesday, November 27th, Superintendent Dale Lamborn and Principal Rick Larsen  will ask the UHSAA to leave Rich High School in 1 A , citing several reasons including scheduling, weekend concerns, and keeping Friday games and the four day school week. 

 "We can compete in either classification," said Lamborn, "but moving to 2A would allow the UHSAA to schedule us on weekdays, which would create school day problem that were solved by going to a four day week."

Lamborn said also that he believed that individual sports would suffer in a 2A classification which  would be unfortunate as fewer students are participating in sports in the district.

Brandon Johnson, Bond Counsel with Farnsworth Johnson PLLC, reported that, the voters having approved the issuance of general obligation bonds to pay for new school facilities and improving existing school property (628 votes for and 470 votes against), the School Board may begin the procedures for the issuance of the bonds.  

The breakdown of votes by precinct were:

Woodruff -                  112 For,   73  Against
Randolph-                  146 For,  100 Against
Laketown-                  187 For,  110 Against
S Garden City-            98  For,  100 Against
N Garden City-            84  For,    87 Against

The New School Building bond was approved by the Rich County School Board.  Preliminary plans and costs for the new construction for the election information were done free of charge to the District by an architectural firm who had done work for the district before.

Now that the bond has passed, an RFP (Request for Proposal) will be issued and bids will be accepted.  An architecture firm will be selected from these bids to prepare final plans and drawings for the construction.  The final plans will then be presented to the School Board for approval.  Cost estimates for the construction MUST be consistent with available bond funding for the plans to be considered by the Board.  This should be completed within the next few weeks.

James Gilbert, Auditor, discussed the District's revenues and expenditures, income, balance sheet, assets, liabilities, property taxes, the payoff date of old outstanding bond, and the proposed schedule for the issuance of the new bond.  He gave the district a "clean audit" and said that everything had been done very well.  For answers to questions and concerns, individuals may contact the office of the Superintendent of the Rich County School District.

Guns are not permitted in the schools unless they are carried by someone with a concealed carry gun permit.  Cindy Caldwell, incoming board member, asked if there was any specialized training required for school district employees who carry weapons in regard to school shootings.  Board member Monty Weston said he felt that people who have weapons in the school should be held to a higher training than simply concealed carry training.  Under a stressful situation with a school shooter, training will be important.