The New Bloomfield Proposition KIDS (Keep Improving District Schools) election committee will meet for the first time on Monday. The committee will work to inform the community about the $2 million no-tax-increase bond issue, which the school board voted to put on April's ballot to fund facility repairs in the district.
The Board of Education, superintendent and school administration discussed potentially using a bond issue to fund facility repairs all school year. The board voted to place a bond issue on the April ballot at its January meeting.
If approved by voters, the bond issue will fund the replacement of HVAC units and major parking lot repairs and, depending on project costs, it could fund some additional facility repairs in the district should money allow.
Superintendent David Tramel and the district's Director of Special Services Sarah Wisdom have done some preliminary work for the election committee, which they shared with the Board of Education at its regular meeting Thursday night. They started to put together information about the bond issue and what it would fund for the committee to use on marketing materials such as flyers, brochures and a Facebook page.
Tramel reminded the board Thursday night that, per ethical guidelines, school money and resources will not be used to advertise for the bond issue. He also reminded board members that a maximum of three of them may serve on the election committee. If four or more board members join the committee, the meetings would count as a board of education meeting.
Tramel said anyone interested in volunteering their time to assist with advertising for the bond issue in order to help educate the community about the repairs is welcome to join the committee.
The election committee will meet at 4 p.m. Monday in the district's central building. At that meeting, they will select committee officers and assign tasks to volunteers.
In other news, Tramel shared some preliminary budget details with the school board. While he cannot yet fill out a complete budget for next school year, Tramel told the board that he wanted to begin filling in what pieces he could.
"There are some big swings we can see in the budget," Tramel told the board Thursday night.
He said state funding is something that can always change and won't be final until the legislative session wraps up. He said that insurance rates for district employees can also affect the budget in the next couple months, although, Tramel added that he was not expecting insurance rates to increase this year.
One potentially new item in Tramel's preliminary budget is an employee who teaches part time and acts as an instructional technology coach the rest of the time. Tramel said he wanted to discuss that possibility with the board. The designation of a teacher to serve as an instructional technology coach is something New Bloomfield school administrators have advocated for at past school board meetings.
The position would aid teachers in better integrating technology into class instruction and curriculum as well as troubleshooting technology issues. The South Callaway R-II School District in Callaway implemented a similar position, which they call instructional coaches, this school year.
Klista Rader, founder of 21 Vision Education Consulting, has worked with South Callaway's instructional coaches on training and techniques. Rader previously told the Fulton Sun that while technology-integration teachers or instructional coaches are not new in school districts, she has noticed schools adding the role to be a growing trend.
Tramel said he planned to discuss that potential change with the school board. He added that in the coming months he would have a more complete budget for the board.