Dexter R-XI bond measure heads to voters

A motion to place a $15 million bond measure on the April 2 ballot was passed easily Tuesday by the Dexter Board of Education. A second decision to drop about 26 hours of instructional time from the 2019-2020 school year in order to accommodate construction schedules faced some debate before it was ultimately approved, 5-1.

“If we’re not shining, we don’t need to be cutting instructional time,” said board member Nancy Mayer, who cast the sole ‘no’ vote against the reduction in instruction time.

Several board members suggested the calendar change did not need to be permanent and could revert the following year.

“I reached out to other administrators and overwhelmingly the response I got was that they didn’t think it was going to be a negative impact,” said board president Kevin Bishop.

The calendar changes accommodate construction that is expected to touch every campus before Aug. 28, the start of the new school year, if voters approve an approximately 20-year extension of the current .80-cent debt service levy to pay for improvements districtwide. The total cost of the work would be about $17.5 million, including new roofs for multiple buildings, classroom additions at several campuses and extensive work to Charles Bland Stadium, the high school football field and track.

Board members have not determined which method will be used to cover the additional $2.5 million in project costs, but that is expected in coming weeks.

A lease purchase may provide the best route, Superintendent C.A. Counts told the board. This was one of four options presented to the board Jan. 3.

Under this proposal, the district would use lease purchase debt to cover the additional costs. Payments of $100,000 per year would be made until 2024 from operating cash. Another debt service levy extension could be put before voters in 2024 to generate about $7 million, which would then repay the lease purchase and cover additional projects.

In order to provide as many work days as possible for construction, Counts proposed a new calendar that lengthens the instructional day by 2 minutes, but cuts the overall number of hours in the classroom.

The district will have about 1,090 hours of instruction this year and drop to 1,064 hours next year, under the calendar approved by the board. The state requires 1,044 hours of instruction.

Board member Nancy Mayer voted against the calendar changes, saying she was opposed to reducing instructional days. Board member Herman Morse was absent.

The new calendar reduces instructional days from 174 to 168.

“It’s a 3.4 percent loss of instructional time when you cut six days from the calendar. We haven’t seen this year’s test scores. Are we above state average?” Mayer asked.

While the current year’s test scores were not addressed during this discussion, Counts said the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has created allowances for districts to reduce the number of days. DESE has said it would remove the allowances if it saw any detriment, he continued.

The number of schools making changes to their school year calendars has gone up, he said, including at Warrenton County School District near St. Louis, which recently approved a four-day week.

“The majority of schools are in 165-169 range,” Counts said. “We’re not doing something that is obsolete. This is the norm. It’s a necessity this year.”

School would start Aug. 28 and end before Memorial Day. The majority of construction would be complete by the start of school, with the exception of a multipurpose classroom at Central and an addition at Southwest, according to the discussion.

The calendar options were presented to employees prior to the meeting.

Mayer said she felt this was an attempt to “back door” the longer school day, which has been a topic of discussion before for the board.

The district has also increased technology at its campuses, administrators said. Prior to the increase, state testing had to start earlier to allow enough time for every student to be tested, Counts said. Students can now test at the same time, which allows testing to occur late in the year. This provides more instructional time prior to testing, according to the discussion.

Mayer said she did not believe staff would want to change calendars once the longer instructional day became effective.

Summer school will also start earlier to allow for construction, beginning May 20. It will run 19 days, the same as the past summer.

In other business, the board received reports from instructional coaches regarding the implementation of new technology and concerning an effort by a coalition of districts to make changes to state assessment procedures.

In closed session, the board approved Kendra Noyes as a substitute teacher and accepted a resignation effective Jan. 15 from special education instructional aide Shelly Fisher-Dille.