Superintendent's Update:

Evacuation Update 1/16/19

The Fairfax R-III School District wants you to know that above all else, we value the safety and health of our children and work consistently to ensure they are safe within our care.

We want to take this opportunity to inform you of an incident that occurred today that required us to evacuate our school building. Fairfax R-III experienced an electrical fire which originated in our business classroom with one of our laptops. All students, K-12, were evacuated and the fire was put out by a staff-member using a hand-held fire extinguisher. Emergency personnel were notified, came on site, and offered assistance where needed. When the fire department had given the all clear, we allowed elementary students to return to class, but kept high school students in the Vocational Building so that neither groups of students would be exposed to the fumes from the smoke and fire extinguisher.

Because all students were safe, we kept students at school until our normal dismissal time.

We thank you for being such great supporters of our district and for allowing us the opportunity to help care for your students. 

Board Meeting Summary 11/15/18

Good afternoon! What follows is my summary of the Board Meeting from 11/15/18. Our next meeting will be on 12/20/18 with a work session prior to the regular session. Times will be posted on the Draft Agenda, prior to the meeting, on the door to the Elementary School Entrance.

Financial Report:

Our district’s current fund balance is $888,601.39. This is up from last year due to the leftover insurance payment from our roof work. When that work is done this spring, the district will pay out the remainder of that money. Expenses this month were $100,391.35, an increase over last year of $8000. This is primarily due to the purchase of a floor scrubber for the building, but there has also been a slight increase in payroll and more repairs on our heating system than last year.

There is currently a situation at the County and State level regarding the funding provided by windmill developments. To summarize the situation and give a simple explanation, wind farms currently pay property taxes as a private industry. The next development is considering selling to Ameren and if this is done, because Ameren is a public utility, they will not be taxed the same. As a private company and after tax abatement, the new wind farm would have brought us approximately $250,000 per year of new revenue. If it is purchased by Ameren it would provide us very little. Because Ameren is a public utility, state statute dictates that they are taxed at a different, lower rate than private industry. Allen Andrews and representatives from the County Commission are working to get this statute changed so that wind farms are held separate and taxed as a private industry regardless of ownership.

Our lease purchase funds have $411,589.00 remaining of the $450,000. This is after payments to the architect have been made. Our first payment to our contractor was approved by the Board and will be made this week.

Construction Update:

The bricklayers are almost done with tuck pointing and the work around our gym windows. Braces for our beams will go in next week, and the electrician is nearly done in the locker rooms. Thank you for working with us while we continue to try to get work done.

Transportation Update:

We need certified bus drivers. We are looking at ways to streamline the practice transportation so that we don’t have multiple vehicles running multiple trips in different directions. If you get a chance please thank Melissa Comstock, Chris Easley, and Jeremy Palmer for driving our buses. Bus drivers are few and far between these days and we couldn’t have school without their help.

Also, if you get a chance, thank a winter coach. It is likely that they are transporting kids to and from practice in order to make our EA Wolves COOP work. We love the COOP and so we are thankful that they are doing the transportation.

Wellness:

We met with teachers the week of 11/12/18 to discuss the tracking and incentive system for elementary and secondary student wellness programs. We feel we have ironed out some of the kinks and that when the wellness committee meets again we will be able to finalize the plan for presentation to the staff in January. Roll-out of the program will be in February, so get ready to help students track their healthy choices.

Selection of an Auditor:

The district has decided to partner with Conrad and Higgins for school auditing services for the next three years. Conrad and Higgins come recommended by NW Missouri superintendents and book keepers and they were also the lowest bid.

EA Wolves COOP Meeting Report:

The COOP Board met October 30^th. At this meeting we discussed the handling of finances related to the COOP including the payment of coaches and the sharing of the cost of single-site facilities. We also discussed the difficulty of after-practice transportation and the potential to cancel district transportation for students after practices are finished each day. Though there was general agreement that the issues discussed were valid, at this time the Board has made no indication that Fairfax R-3 will work to modify the current financial agreement and as of 11/19/18 we are still working with Tarkio to plan transportation before and after practice.

We work with Tarkio under two EA Wolves agreements. The first is the original COOP agreement that grew from our partnership in football, and the second is an administrative agreement which defines details for supervision, coaching, purchasing, etc. I have reached out to Mrs. Coleman, the superintendent in Tarkio, so that we could work together to combine these two documents into a single COOP agreement which can then serve as a guide for our decision making moving forward.  Our current agreement with Tarkio for EA Wolves is valid for another school year.

Work Session in December:

It is the time of year to begin looking at next year’s budget, calendar, facility needs, and salary schedule. I have completed collecting information for a salary study and am in the process of summarizing data for presentation to the board during our December work session. We will also look at facility priorities and hopefully be able to present a first draft of next year’s calendar. Once we have completed the work session I will solicit input from the staff to discuss recommendations for next year’s salary schedule and calendar. We are still working from the recommendations given by the Facilities Committee in 2017-2018 to guide our discussion on facilities.

It’s my goal to have a calendar that is best for all stakeholders, a salary schedule that is as competitive as possible, and continue to upgrade/care for our facility in the best way possible.

Board Meeting Update 10/15/18

Evacuation Update 10/3/18

Special thanks to Jeff Jobs for making the necessary repairs to our kitchen oven to properly vent Carbon Monoxide out of our kitchen. Mr. Jobs made these repairs on 10/2/18 in order to have us ready for school on 10/3/18. Mr. Jobs is one of many community members who gives time to our school and we deeply appreciate his work.

At this time, all issues cited by our Empire Gas inspector for repair have been remedied. At no time did the inspector detect any gas leak within the building.

Evacuation 10/2/18

9/21/18

We are getting closer to creating a student wellness program! Our connected contact at 4H, Mrs. Sam O'Riley has filed a grant that we hope will help fund our program. Keep your fingers crossed!

Homecoming was a success! Not only did we dominate the football game (which should have ended at half-time) but the 5th quarter was fun for all. Thank you to all of the community members and staff who helped make that happen.

On 9/20/18 the Fairfax R-3 School Board met for Regular and Executive session meetings.

When the meeting began, Kay Rosenbaum presented a concern regarding the lack of lighting on the South side of the football field. She presented a petition citing safety concerns signed by multiple community members. KCPL has been contacted to install area lights to address this concern. Their personnel have inspected the site and the facility is scheduled for the installation of two area lights. These lights should properly illuminate the field and should cost the district $52.58 per month.

Our roofs on the Elementary, High School, and Cafeteria have been replaced with a cost of $575,632.00. Total replacement, including the gym, will be $855,157.00. The roof replacement is completely funded by insurance except for our $1000.00 deductible. The roofers also presented a check to the District in the amount of $2000.00 to cover damaged items from a leak that occurred when the elementary roof was being replaced.

The Board approved the construction contract with The Wilson Group for the 2018 Construction Project. Currently, the project involves repairs to the gym infrastructure, and upgrades to windows, bathrooms, and locker rooms. Additionally, repairs to the High School Science room and updates to the High School bathrooms will be performed. The projected completion date for this work is January 4, 2019.

The District is exploring the possibility of a grant for the purchase of a new bus. While it is in our Seven Year Budget Blueprint to purchase a bus in 2019, the grant deadline is Fall 2018. More information and a Board decision regarding the purchase of a bus will be discussed at the October Board Meeting.

During the principal’s report Mr. Barnes cited that our 2017-2018 test scores will be released October 29^th.

As mentioned, the Board approved the first item of New Business, the construction contract.

The second item, Board Policy additions and changes, were discussed and approved. The new/updated policies are listed below. Please feel free to review them on our District Website:

The Board approved travel costs for our FCCLA Cluster trip in excess of $2000.00. This trip is paid for by student fund-raising but requires Board approval for costs in excess of $1000.00.

The Board approved the cost for rubber crumbles for our playground surface at $1540.00.

The Board accepted and approved the 2018 Annual Audit. We will amend the current budget after we received our actual, local taxes and again at the end of the year. This is necessary to ensure our money is assigned to areas where it can be  properly utilized and that we budget based on actual revenue.

We can welcome Kriston Wheeler onto our staff again as our permanent Votec driver and kitchen help! She has worked as a sub driver and sub kitchen help while we have transitioned our custodian and maintenance positions out of those responsibilities. Mrs. Wheeler will drive the Votec route daily, perform food pickups from Hy-Vee twice per week, and assist in the Kitchen one hour each day.

Kerry Baker was approved to transition to a full time schedule. She will have an additional hour in the morning and afternoon. This additional time will be utilized to help us achieve a District goal of a well-maintained facility. 

The Board also approved the purchase of a floor scrubber! This machine will be used to clean hallways, cafeteria, gyms, and classrooms. We know from testing them last year that they make a huge difference in the cleanliness of our building and Kerry can’t wait to get started using it.

Our next Regular Session Board Meeting will be October 15th at 6:30 p.m. in the school library.