Building and grounds updates, along with a vote on tax rates, were the primary focus of Thursday night’s board of education meeting.
Superintendent Jason Faulkner made a recommendation to the board to levy a tax rate of 57.3 cents per $100 assessment on all real and tangible property and watercraft.
The topic was previously discussed at a special called meeting. A public hearing was held earlier that day with no one in attendance to make public comments. There was no discussion on the matter during Thursday night’s meeting, and the board voted unanimously to approve the rate.
Steven Mason, project manager with Codell Construction, gave an update on the construction of the new middle school. The gym foundations are in. Dry wall, ceiling grids, and some finish coat painting will be worked on next week. The road will be going in with rock in the next two weeks with final blacktopping after the construction is complete.
Controlled air will be turned on Oct. 14 in the building. All windows and any remaining large openings will be barricaded off to hold air in.
“Everything is still on track to have the school ready in the spring and the gym will follow immediately after that. The gym will be complete in the summer and ready for the fall school year,” said Mason.
Faulkner said that lateral drains are being placed on the new football field. They hit rock on the left side of the field and had to bring in extra equipment to handle that.
“It’s looking like it maybe in another two to three weeks you will start to see the turf go down. Then I got notified that the scoreboard would be here sometime between Monday and Wednesday next week,” said Faulkner. “We are hoping by week five of football season, that will be our third home game, but our first technical home game, we will be able to have it right here. We are excited about that,” he said.
Troy Grider asked for an update from Faulkner about his “big beautiful flag and flagpole,” a project Faulkner has proudly led.
The 65 ft. flagpole with a 30 ft. wide by 20 ft. tall American flag will stand at the end of the football field near the Veterans Memorial Bypass.
“We have our electrician that will come in and run wires to the new lights, the scoreboard, the play box, and then he will run wiring out there [to flagpole] to that so it will be lit at night,” Faulkner said.
In other business, the board approved the salary for all emergency certified employees to have their pay rate set at the same rate as a new teacher. The emergency certified and rank III teachers are essentially the same.
The Community Voice also presented Readers Choice awards to school district employees: best principal, Anthony Darnell; best teacher, Whitney Coe; best teacher’s aid, Gola Burton; best school district employee, Robbie Harmon; best custodian, Jeremy Grider; best secretary/receptionist, Kim Turner; best bus driver, Leslie Bennett, best coach, Michelle Neat; and best club/organization, Adair County High School FBLA.
By Amy Pike
amy@adairvoice.com
