Advance Board of Education sets tax rate at promised level

Friday, August 14, 2015
MADELINEDEJOURNETTadvancensc@sbcglobal.net Advance High School Principal Shana Kight introduces new math teacher Hallie Conrad, during the tour of the building.

The Advance School Board met at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, 2015 for the annual tax rate hearing, as required by RSMo.67.110 and 164.011. Though state law would have allowed a higher tax rate, Superintendent Stan Seiler reminded the board that a $3.0000 rate for the operating level was promised to voters in the recent election. Therefore, the tax rate for the 2015-2016 school year will be $3.0000 for operating levy and $.5474 for debt service.

Board members arrived at 5 p.m. to tour both the new preschool facility in the Industrial Park campus and the high school and elementary campuses. New teacher Misty Clark and her assistant Jennifer McLeary met board members at the preschool building, and new teachers Erin Hoffman and Hallie Conrad were on hand to meet board members in the main campus. Hoffman is the new social studies/volleyball coach, and Conrad replaces retired math teacher Cindy Gilliland. Conrad will also sponsor junior high cheerleading. Each teacher will be assigned a mentor, except for Hoffman, who has 17 years of experience.

In the superintendent's report, Seiler gave the financial report and told the board that the bonds for the new safe room have been sold.

The summer school report from MSIP has been received. The district had elementary classes and two weeks of high school credit recovery. All school districts are reporting lower enrollment for summer school, but Seiler indicated that the lower enrollment in Advance is actually a good thing. More students are in after-school tutoring, so fewer students are failing their regular courses.

"The lower summer school numbers are a function of success," Seiler said.

Board members went through the list of district bills, voting to pay them.

Principals Shana Kight and James Hamlin reported on their respective buildings. New teacher orientation took place last week, and Monday, Aug. 10 was a professional development day for staff. The Hal Bowman "Teach like a Rock Star" program was paid for out of Professional Development funds, which are required by the state to be one percent of district appropriations. The $10,500 fee will be shared by all the schools whose teachers attended the program at Advance. This included St. Vincent in Kelso, Meadow Heights, and Oak Ridge, among others.

Elementary principal James Hamlin reported that there are 27 kindergarteners enrolled for this year.

High school Principal Shana Kight reported that 75 students in grades 7-12 will be out of school on Friday for an attendance reward trip which they earned last year. These students maintained a 97.5 percent or better attendance record for the entire year.

"We were amazed!" said Kight. "We had no idea that many would qualify for the trip! And the good thing is, by scheduling the trip Friday, the students won't be missing tests, as they would have last year."

Hamlin said that the attendance reward trip for grades 4-6 will be on Tuesday, Aug. 18. They will go to the water park in Poplar Bluff. Lower grades will be scheduled later.

In new business, board members accepted revisions to a significant number of policies required by state and federal law. Board members received the stack of papers at the last meeting and were required to read them before the current meeting. Seiler gave them another stack to read for the September meeting.

At press time Tuesday, the school staff was preparing for Open House, which took place from 5 p.m to 7 p.m Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015.

Yearbooks were also distributed at the meeting.

Superintendent Seiler gave an informal update on the progress of the safe room, continuing to project a possible ground-breaking sometime in October.

"I just don't know how fast these governmental agencies like FEMA will move on things, but we have several contractors ready to bid for the work," Seiler said.

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