We hope all of our families are having a great summer!! The Board of Education met on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, for the purpose of regular business. This was the District's regular budget meeting where we closed one fiscal year and opened another.
During the meeting the following items were discussed and actions taken:
Phase III: An update on the Phase III building project was given. An early August complete date is still on target. The critical item for progress is the windows, allowing the project to be “in the dry.”
2023-24 Budget amendments were presented and approved to the Board for the 23-24 school year. The items amended are a regular process of cleaning up the line items for the final approval and audit.
2024-25 Budget: The 2024-25 (FY 25) budget was presented to the Board of Education and approved as presented. The Budget is projected to have a strong financial finish for June 2025. This allowed both the certified employees and support staff to receive increases to their salaries. The District is participating in the Teacher Baseline Salary Grant that establishes all certified employees to have a starting salary of $40,000.
Board of Education policies were approved. Policies 5550 and 6180 were amended policies and can be found on our website.
Bleachers: The initial vendor chosen will not be able to provide bleachers on the given timeline nor provide a seat that is larger as initially thought. The Board voted to move forward with Carroll Seating. The project is still within the proposed project budget . We are still working with two school districts with hopes of selling our current bleachers.
Debt Service Depository: The Board of Education was presented with interest rates of local banks for the Debt Service account. The Board voted to move the funds to MOCAAT at the current interest rate of 5.18%.
Literacy Plan: The District’s Literacy Plan was presented and approved. The plan can be found on the district website after July 1.
Principal's Report: Mrs. Lands presented the following for the Principal’s Report: the District’s professional learning plans for the upcoming school year, the Women in Leadership Conference she attended, Back to School events, and plans for the District’s SOAR team next year. Stay tuned- we will be sharing more about the SOAR team soon!
Superintendent's Report: I presented the following for the Superintendent's Report: an update on the CSIP goals, state revenue report, a brief legislative update, a discussion of bond election committee and strategies, and District investments.
Preschool Grant: A MO-PKQ grant was submitted on behalf of the District by Mrs. Bentley. This would provide FREE tuition for 4 year olds that are residents of the District. This would include those students that are currently enrolled residents. For the District to be able to participate, the student to teacher ratio is 1:10. We currently have 11 students. If awarded we would be looking at a minimum of 3 additional students that would pay for an aid in the classroom and stay within the ratio. Our hope is that we can return to a full program. The award date is July 3rd. After that we will start advertising for the program. If this is something that would interest your family, claim your potential spot by emailing me (Dr. Burger) at kburger8@kelsoc-7.k12.mo.us. If the District receives the grant, we will reach out to families after that.
Get the Lead out of School Drinking Water: The District completed the required testing with no findings, therefore, no remediation was needed. The results of the testing can be found on the District’ s website under District Information.
At this point, the District will not have a July meeting. There is a tentative date just in case something comes up: July 17, 2024. August 7, 2024 will be the tax hearing (5:45pm ) and regular meeting (6:00 pm).
For our Falcon family, if you ever have questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out. It is important to us that our community is a part of what we do and has an active voice. We are so grateful for each of you!
Have a great 4th of July Falcon Family!!
Kim Burger