North Callaway R-I School District Board of Education approved new elementary school furniture and a new school bus at its Oct. 16 meeting.

The total purchase of furniture is $351,219.84 as well as kidney tables priced at $17,605. The new school opens next school year. The board approved up to $155,000 for a bus purchase. The bus purchase was triggered by two separate crashes of buses in early October. Both buses were totaled, and their loss required replacement of at least one bus.

Also at the meeting, the board approved the district accepting quotes for a wood floor for the middle school and an EPDM roof system for the middle school. The school was damaged during a September storm.

Niki Buschmann, district assistant superintendent, said in an email that Navigate Building Solutions estimates the cost to the district of the floor, after insurance claims, will be around $23,300 and that there will be no additional cost to the district for the roof after the insurance claim is complete.

“Other work that needs to be done, and should be covered by our insurance, includes lighting repairs, speaker replacement, classroom flooring, scoreboard, and HVAC,” she said.

Once Navigate completes the scope of work documents, those projects will be available for quotes.

Also at the meeting, in the superintendent’s report, Superintendent Kenya Thompson said, during a discussion of district goals, that regarding attendance, the district is "significantly ahead” in almost every building over where the district was at this time last year.

On facilities, among other items, her report said the water heater went out in the Ag Shop and the district has ordered repair parts, and a stove went out on the Ag Shop kitchen and the district has ordered a replacement.

On a legislative update, regarding the re-writing of the Foundation Formula, she said subgroups are currently organized to make recommendations to the following areas:
The Funding Target group is focused on defining and potentially re-structuring the SAT and the thresholds that determine additional weighting for students in poverty, with disabilities and who are English learners.
The Student Count group is focused on how to appropriately count enrollment for state aid. Missouri is one of five states that uses ADA (average daily attendance), while the 45 other states use raw membership numbers.
Local Effort and Performance Incentive group is focused on what percentage of funding should come from the local level. There are significant discrepancies in tax levies state wide.

“This is something I am following extremely closely because it absolutely will dictate how we operate as public schools in the state of Missouri,” Thompson told the board about the situation regarding the Foundation Formula changes.

In her Mission Moments portion of her report, in which Thompson monthly lauds efforts of specific district or campus employees, Thompson gave a shout-out to State Rep. Kent Haden, whom she called a “tremendous ambassador for public ed, in a time where it’s not popular to be an ambassador for public education in our state Capitol.” She said she and Haden “probably talk once a week right now related to education,” and he shows an interest in how issues can affect North Callaway. He doesn’t vote according to party lines in some ways and votes what’s best for his community, she said.

“And so we’re very grateful for his service,” Thompson said.