Burlington BOE hires principal

The Burlington Board of Education met at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 31, for a special called meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 7:34 p.m. with Terry Graham, Robert Hill, April Kisling and Aaron Smith present.

The first item of business was approving the agenda as part of the minutes.

At 7:42 p.m., the board convened into executive session to discuss the employment of a principal, certified teacher and head girls’ basketball coach.

They returned to open session and read the executive session minutes compliance announcement.

The board then voted to employ Gerrett Spears as junior high and high school principal and Rachael Spears as certified teacher.

No action was taken on employing a head girls’ basketball coach.

The final item of business was a discussion on purchasing real property.

Graham presented an overview of existing real property owned by the school. The board discussed possible need to purchase additional real property and potential possible acquisitions. Discussion was tabled to a future meeting pending further information.

The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

March 25

The Burlington Board of Education met at 8 p.m., Thursday, March 25, for their regular scheduled meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 8:03 p.m. with Graham, Hill and Smith present. Kisling and T.J. Rockenbach were absent. Rockenbach arrived at 8:18 p.m. and then left at 10:33 p.m.

The first item of business was the presentation of the 2019-2020 fiscal year audit by Carroll Auditing Firm.

Pat Carroll presented the audit for the fiscal year 2019/2020 via Zoom teleconference. He went over revenues and expenditures for each fund, also presenting information on the activity in various funds.

It was noted that checks that have been outstanding for several years in the activity fund should be voided and the funds applied back to the appropriate sub-accounts. 

He discussed the additional federal funding schools are receiving through the various COVID relief bills and the need to be diligent in ensuring the funds are spent per the guidelines.

There were three findings:  1)  Employee contract that had been overpaid and one that had been underpaid–neither of any substantive amount. 2)  Bid approved for new bus but not requested as prescribed.  3)  Capital project(s) paid out of the general fund that should have been paid out of the building or bond funds. 

Implementation for correct procedures for the criteria on employee contracts, required bids and capital projects have been addressed for the current year. The presentation concluded at 8:45 p.m.

Next, the audit was accepted with the corrective action.

The consent agenda was approved as follows:

• Agenda as part of the minutes.

• Minutes of the Feb. 15 meeting.

• Minutes of the March 4 special meeting.

• Minutes of the March 9 special meeting.

• Continued use of the TLE model for the teacher evaluation process for the 2021-2022 school year.

Two items were removed from the consent agenda to be discussed more.

The first was new policies and revised OSSBA policies. Superintendent Stacey Croft reviewed the policy changes l and discussion regarding the need for these policies occurred.  These policy changes included adding new policies as well as revising existing policies.

The second was approving a policy manual. This included the items approved just before.

Also discussed were the OSRMT insurance increases for property and liability insurance coverage from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

On the insurance, Superintendent Croft discussed with the board an additional invoice received for payment as well as the potential for a future invoice from OSRMT for the current fiscal year.  Board requested further information and discussion prior to voting on renewal of policy for the new fiscal year. Discussion was tabled to be resumed at a future meeting.

The board approved encumbrances, change orders, warrants and activity fund report.

At 9:29 p.m., the board convened into executive session to discuss the employment of a principal, head girls’ basketball coach and certified and non-certified personnel.

Once the board returned to open session and the executive session minutes compliance announcement was made, no action was taken on the hiring of a principal or girls’ basketball coach.

Dr. Croft gave her report:

• The FFA Labor Auction will be held Monday, March 29, 2021 at the Burlington Fire Station. 

• The Annual OSSBA/CCOSA Education Leadership Conference for the 2021-2022 SY will be held August 26-29.  Dr. Croft noted that board members had been registered for the conference and their rooms had been booked. 

• The Burlington Educational Foundation meeting will also occur this spring.

Tim Bart gave his report:

• Spring sports had started.  There are four girls and two boys competing in track this season and there is one participant in golf.

Stan Pederson gave his report:

• State testing is coming up in April for third through sixth grade. 

• The elementary track meet will be held May 4 at Cherokee. 

• Possible spring events, including an AR party at the Purple Park as well as possible year-end field trips for grade school are being discussed but nothing definitive has been decided.

• The elementary classes held an online fundraiser that raised almost $4,600 for use by elementary teachers for supplies for their classrooms.

After hearing no new business, the meeting adjourned at 10:36 p.m.