West Plains R-7 school board members voted on Jan. 16 to continue with early-release Fridays for the foreseeable future after weighing the pros and cons, including bringing the district's calendar more in line with surrounding rural K-8 schools and the likelihood of teachers would losing lesson planning and collaboration time if early-release Fridays were eliminated.
Concerns were voiced that, even with the elimination of early-release Fridays, the district calendar still wouldn't be in sync with rural school calendars, which can dismiss for the school year as many as two weeks earlier than West Plains R-7 schools. In presenting the idea to the board, Human Resources Director Matt Orchard noted as an example that Glenwood School would still end its school year about a week ahead of West Plains R-7 in 2025, even if the R-7 district did drop early-release days.
School board members agreed with Davis that teachers should be given the opportunity to have the planning time afforded by those days, with the ongoing goal of improving outcomes, particularly in literacy, where there have been gains over the last couple of years.
The vote, all in favor, was followed by the adoption of the 2024-2025 school calendar with early release Fridays intact. The 2024-2025 school year will start Aug. 19 and run through May 15, 2025, for most students. High school graduation will be held May 9 and eighth grade promotion will be held May 12.
Other topics discussed were the addition of a student representative to the school board, and Superintendent Dr. Wes Davis commented there has been interest and a couple of students have applied. The purpose of having a representative, he said, is to motivate students to take an interest in how the school board functions, and give them a voice in decisions and an opportunity to take a leadership role.
Another action taken was the renewal of the district's food service contract with OPAA, after presentation of competing bids and a unanimous vote in favor of retaining OPAA. Board members also approved tuition rate increases for kindergarten through eighth grade schools that send their students to West Plains High School, and for students attending Southern Missouri Technical Institute (SoMo Tech).
The rate for high school tuition per student will go from $9,062.60 to $9,307.80, an increase of 2.7056%. Davis commented it has been about 13 years since the tuition was last increased and he'd crunched some numbers with SoMo Tech Director Dr. Josh Cotter. The same percent increase was recommended for SoMo Tech tuition, which will go from $1,975 to $2,028.44. Davis added Cotter has been in contact with the districts that send high school students to the facility’s vocational classes and had not heard any concerns about the increase, noting the price is in line with most other comparable programs.
Before a vote was taken to finalize the increase board member, Christena Silvey Coleman suggested the proposal be amended so that the same percentage of high school tuition change would also be applied to SoMo Tech tuition changes in the future, and the rest of the board members agreed.
Davis, in his monthly administrative update to board members, talked about a new "tip line" that connects concerned district patrons directly to him by email. The tip line may be found on the district's home page, zizzers.org, at the top and far right of the menu bar.
During closed session, new hires, transfers, and resignations were approved. New hires for certified positions were Hannah Collins, high school and middle school English; Bryan Lester, SoMo Tech practical nursing instructor; and Jaime Pendergrass high school art teacher. Noncertified new hires were Derrick Hensley, Zachary Dailey and Mike Davis as custodians, Heidi Schneider, head girls tennis coach; Tim Smith, middle school head football coach; and Jarrod Girdley, middle school assistant football coach II.
Transfers approved: Michelle Henderson, high school special education teacher to Special Education Process Coordinator; Stacy Kerley, West Plains Elementary paraprofessional to middle school nurse; Jason Holladay, high school special education teacher to elementary special education teacher; Abby Hensley, West Plains Elementary second grade teacher to South Fork Elementary second grade teacher III.
Resignations were accepted from Jennifer Tidwell, middle school nurse, effective Dec. 20; Charlotte Johnson, social worker/homeless liaison, effective Jan. 12; Kara Brown, middle school assistant volleyball coach; Cassandra Cressman, sixth grade teacher and assistant theater coach, effective at the end of the year; Stephanie Huddleston, high school girls tennis coach; and Hannah Joice, middle school cross country coach V.
There was no needed board action this month regarding retirements, terminations or volunteer approvals. During a second closed session following the regular open session, board members voted to extend Davis' contract until June 30, 2027.
The next monthly meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in the high school library.
