By REVIS BLAYLOCK
NEA Town Courier
Manila superintendent Jason Evers and school board members welcomed newly elected member, Jackie Hill, at the May 18 meeting. Hill won the May school board election and will fill the position of Danny Robbins who decided not to seek re-election.
Hill, Manila Chief of Police, is familiar with the duties and responsibilities of a school board member as he is a former school board member.
Following the approval of the minutes and review of the financials, board members voted unanimously in favor of allowing all board officers to serve in the same positions for the upcoming year. Jeremy Jackson will continue as president with Tracey Reinhart, vice president, and Monte Middleton, secretary.
Other board members include Hill, Brooke Chipman, Dennis Crosskno and Casey Wells.
Superintendent Evers presented the teacher recruitment and retention plan for 2023-2024. He explained it is a three year action plan provided to the state and must be submitted each year. After review, the board members approved the plan. They then approved the Federal Program Assurances for the 2023-2024 school year which deals with the guidelines for the use of federal funds.
Evers then presented the School Choice Students with 29 incoming with a 16 net increase which was approved.
Evers said the kindergarten coming in, as of now, is near 70, which is a little less than some years. He went on to say that kindergarten numbers sometimes increase just before each school year. Seventy-six seniors graduated this year.
The board then approved the special education budget. Evers said most of the budget goes to salaries. The budget is very similar to last year.
Following an executive session, the board voted unanimously to move Laura Clark to a certified teaching position and Heather Orr from custodian to paraprofessional.
The board then voted to give a stipend to Brian Hollis and Will Despain for their time helping coach the trap shoot team.
Kim Tomblin resigned as pre-kindergarten director but will remain as a pre-kindergarten teacher. The board then voted to hire Brady Brewer as teacher and assistant boys basketball coach.
The board agreed to change the wording for reimbursement for meals for staff and students to include 12 hours or more in a day. It presently calls for meal reimbursements for overnight stays.
The board discussed lunchroom debits and credits. Evers said the debts follow the students through graduation. The money is moved out of operating to pay the debts. The credits stay forever if a refund is not requested. He suggested if the debts are not requested after 20 days at the end of the school year, it be transferred back to the food service to help pay the debts. There was no objection.
Evers asked the board for their opinions on what to do with the team banners in the gymnasium.
“We are about to run out of space,” Evers said. “We don’t have space to place the new ones. We have about seven or eight new ones this year.”
Teams have to earn conference, district, regional or state honors to get a banner.
Evers shared a thought of taking the old ones down and auctioning them off by silent auction. They won’t be good just stored away.
Jackson suggested replacing the oldest ones with the newest ones.
Middleton said the athletes earned the banners and they like to come back and see them hanging but room has to be made for the new ones. Some of the players may want the banners.
Evers asked the board to think about what they want to do. Placing the new banners will be a summer project.
The school board meets at 6:30 p.m. the third Thursday of each month.