Mountain View School Board Makes Personnel Changes

Mountain View School Board made a few personnel changes July 28 and took care of other business in preparation for the upcoming school year.

 Heather Goins was hired as kindergarten secretary, Leslie Forte for a middle school special ed position, and Jill Brewer as 12-month custodian, as well as approving pay for Jonathan Masters for mowing.

The resignations of Valerie Steele as kindergarten secretary and Jessie Bemies as elementary paraprofessional were accepted, and the board voted to advertise a three-day middle school literacy coach position.

Finance/Facilities Coordinator Cindy Smith reported on the solar installation.
In the beginning, the solar field was guaranteed to produce a certain amount for a certain number of days, and it did.

When a hailstorm damaged the panels, and it was shut down for more than six months. After it was rebuilt, it had a bad breaker and was working off and on up until last month.

Smith said the district had trouble obtaining another guarantee on the performance, even though it is essentially a new solar field. Eventually, she said, they spoke directly to the owner and presented evidence about the loss of production, and he looked into it and has offered $90,000 compensation for what was lost because of the bad breaker.

Smith also said it has been a very difficult process getting the bills split like they need to be, but she had just got this done and would be working on a more detailed financial report on it.

The board approved the regular monthly financial report from Smith, along with four requests for student transfers to Timbo.

She also announced that she had applied for a grant from Casey’s and received $25,000, which is being used for new ceiling tiles and new ozone-filtered water fountains. The new fountains will replace some non-working ones.

Also during the meeting, Assistant Supt. Brent Howard commended the cheer and dance sponsors for their hard work this summer, and he said they have moved some things around to create a new dressing space for them.

He also announced that the district is fully accredited through last year and mentioned that the detachment of Rural Special and Timbo districts is now complete.

In other business, the board:

• accepted a fuel bid from Petroleum Resources of Morrilton, which was the only bidder, and Anderson’s Propane of Bergman for propane. Anderson is the current provider and submitted the lower of two bids at $1.37.

• approved above-contract amounts at the same rates as last year for duties such as after-school tutoring, gate keeping, etc., as well as for substitute teachers.

• appointed the superintendent ex officio secretary and Sue Freeman district treasurer.

• approved recommended personnel policy changes that were presented at the June meeting, including restructuring of the personnel policy committee and the schedule of professional development days.