Mountain View School District Moves Funds To Cover Detachment Payments

Mountain View School Board approved a transfer of $1 million from the building fund to the operating account this week, to cover upcoming payments to the new Rural Special and Timbo districts.

While school officials anticipate being reimbursed for these payments by the state, Finance/Facilities Coordinator Cindy Smith said they needed to move the money so they will be prepared to make the final payments as soon as the other districts are fully operational. They might also have to take money from CDs eventually if they do not receive the reimbursement funds before payroll is due.
Documents were expected to arrive any day informing the board that Rural Special was ready to be operational, with Timbo expected to follow soon after.

Mountain View has made the first payments of $375,737 to Rural Special and approximately $350,000 to Timbo, and the remaining 75 percent is due when they become operational.

Also during the meeting, board members made several personnel changes:

They hired Jamie Anderson and Kelly Cook as kindergarten teachers, Melissa Bonds for 6th grade math, Shannon Jacobes as high school special ed aide, Rob Backstrom as MVHS ALE coordinator, Shawntel Bowman as pre-K teacher, Jessie Bemies as pre-K paraprofessional, Lorrie Sadler as district LEA, Tristan Crouch as 7th and 8th grade paraprofessional, and Grace Chandler, Haley Amico, and Belle Gregory as special ed paraprofessionals. They also approved a $5,000 stipend for Melissa Fredrick for LEA training under Sadler.

They accepted the resignations of district LEA Ashley Avey, kindergarten teacher Jennifer Cook, ALE coordinator Kim Cruce, English teacher Sarah Fikes, elementary teacher Stephanie Kendrick, middle school special ed teacher Rebecca Lewis, Stephanie Breeding as color guard sponsor, Timbo teacher Kari Bearden, and Timbo/Rural Special tech coordinator Owen Carpenter.

In other business, the board:

• approved all School Choice request forms submitted for 2026-27. Assistant Supt. Brent Howard said they have received a lot of forms, many of which are for students wishing to stay at Mountain View or whichever school they were already attending. They have been seeking guidance about whether these forms are necessary but have not received clarification. Howard also said they will not know for sure what the enrollment count will be until school starts.

• approved a few student handbook changes, including establishing a new tiered system for honor graduates, in which students with GPAs of 4.0 and above will be designated summa cum laude, followed by magna cum laude, and cum laude. Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Howard said this will be a more similar system to what they used for many years in the past and is being recommended by the state. Other changes include allowing cell phone use during some special activities, as well as for two-factor authentication needed for concurrent classes. Board member Paula Gammill asked about a rule that students who drop a college class can’t take another one the following semester. Mrs. Howard said that can be clarified to allow drops within the first few days for schedule changes.

• discussed plans for how to restructure the board after the Rural Special and Timbo members leave, as of July 1. Mr. Howard said he is consulting with the Arkansas School Boards Association about options, which they believe will include returning to a five-member board or staying with the five current zones and adding two at-large members to keep a total of seven. If they drop back to five members, they would have to rezone the district, he said. Supt. Dusty Mitchell said he favored keeping a seven-member board because re-zoning would be expensive and time-consuming.

• voted to pay $1,400 for a van rental for Timbo FBLA students to attend national convention in San Antonio.

• discussed a couple of issues raised by Shelia Mitchell, including former staff being allowed to retrieve items from their personnel files and whether or not Rural Special and Timbo teachers could transfer part of their sick leave bank days to their new districts. Howard said there is no problem with teachers getting copies of the items in their files. The sick leave bank days usually do not leave the district, even when someone moves to another district, but Mrs. Mitchell said this might be a unique situation, and they agreed to check the policy and the legality of splitting up the days.

• discussed some Timbo cafeteria items that Timbo staff said are missing, according to board member Sue Fletcher. Tobby Wetmore, director of dining services for Chartwells, said there were some pans that were taken by mistake because they were stored with some of Chartwells’ equipment, and those have been returned. He said Chartwells ordered equipment to the Mountain View School District and then used it as needed across the district but didn’t keep records of what was sent to each campus because they did not anticipate the detachment. He said they left some pizza pans and other items at Timbo that were not needed at Mountain View, but they are keeping items that are proprietary to Chartwells. Mr. Howard indicated there will be no problem sorting out the items as needed, and Mr. Mitchell noted that the situation is complicated by having a third party (Chartwells) owning and managing some of the equipment.

• accepted the consent agenda, including the monthly financial report. Gammill noted that the food service budget was showing a deficit between $70,000 and $80,000. Smith said that may improve as they still have money coming in and won’t know for about another month. Gammill also thanked Smith for including a report on the solar project, which was showing a year-to-year savings of about $5,000 for May. Smith said that will increase to where it’s eventually covering payments, as they are now producing at maximum capacity after having a faulty breaker replaced.

• approved continuing to make the same $25 monthly payment to employees who do not have school insurance.

• approved moving the July meeting from the 13th to the 16th. Supt. Mitchell said he will be gone in July but wanted to be present at the June meeting to recognize Rachelle Stewart and Sue Fletcher for their service to the board over the years.