During the Monday night school board meeting, many tiny voices gave thanks to the Jessamine County School Board in a video made by Red Oak Elementary School for Board Appreciation Month. The board also received cards from various other students.
“You all do so much for Jessamine County,” Superintendent Kathy Fields said.
“We just appreciate you so very much.”
In the work session before the meeting, Heather Labarbara, president of the Central District Education Association — a part of the Kentucky Education Association — formally invited the school board to lobby on behalf of education at A Day of Learning in Frankfort on Feb. 7.
“No matter which side you are on politically, I think we can all be on the same side of education,” Labarbara said.
The board also discussed the potential policies and procedures related to Narcan being kept inside the schools, and more will be discussed on the matter at the Feb. 13 work session.
The board was given an update on the construction on the current bus garage and future diesel mechanics location. The construction was broken up into three phases. Phase one will consist of cleaning out and constructing the new pump station beginning in April and running through the end of the school year. Phase two will occur during the months of June and July. It will consist of site-based work, utilities and new parking zones. Phase three entails the new building and paving being completed in April 2018.
Wilmore Elementary received the attendance flag for last month, and West Jessamine Middle School was the most improved.
The board elected new officers for the Jessamine County School District Finance Cooperation. Amy Day was selected as a director and President, Howard Downing, the board’s attorney, was selected as vice president, Kathy Fields was elected as secretary and Jason U’Wren, Director of Finance, was elected as treasurer. Robert Welch, Deborah Hood, John Branscum and Hallie Bandy were all selected to be directors.
The establishment of a two-year appointed minority representative for the Jessamine County Athletic Advisory Council was approved.
The board also approved to reconvene a Local Planning Committee and appointed Hallie Bandy as the new Board of Education Representative. Once the Local Planning Committee consisting of teachers, community members, parents and central office staff is formed, the committee will revise the current District Facilities Plan. Many of the proposed changes — such as expanding the Career and Technical Education programs on the high school properties and developing three academies, JCTC, WJHS, and EJHS — were discussed at the school board meeting on Jan. 9.
Construction documents, including a BG-1 and BG- 5 for the cooling tower replacement at West Jessamine High School and a BG-3 for the Diesel Mechanics Program and renovation of the bus garage, were approved.
The board gave Fields and U’Wren permission to complete a Capital Funds request form that will take residual funds from a previous construction project at Red Oak Elementary and use them to pay for a portion of the cooling tower project, in turn saving money in the General Fund.
The board also approved the draft budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018.
The next board meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13.