The Twin Rivers R-X School Board held its monthly meeting Tuesday and selected the board president, vice president, secretary and treasurer for the coming year.
Jeff Arnold was elected new board president and outgoing president Billy Watson was chosen as vice-president.
Arnold’s new role is actually not so new.
“I was actually board president two years ago. I was off a year, came back on the board and I’m looking forward to being board president again,” he said.
Arnold was happy with the work the board has done in the past year and had this to say about future needs, “Financially, we’ve had a lot of needs, but we’ve righted the ship now and hopefully we can start to loosen up some shoestrings on a lot of things that are needed around here. We’ve got some busses that need replaced, there’s always building work that needs to be done, things of that nature.”
Tonya Jones will continue as board secretary and treasurer.
One of the items on the agenda was the approval of a new auditor.
The district’s previous auditor, Dwayne Clark of Dwayne Clark P.C., stepped down as auditor and two bids were submitted to the board.
The firm of Beussink, Hey, Roe & Stroder L.L.C out of Cape Girardeau submitted a bid of $16,500 for the first year of their proposal, increasing to $16,800 and $17,100 respectively in the second and third year.
The board approved the bid of the firm of Catlett & Associates C.P.A from St. Charles, Missouri. Their winning bid was for $10,000 for the first year, increasing to $10,500 in the second year and $11,025 in year three.
In other business, the updated substitute list was approved, and the district’s professional development plan was submitted for approval. Superintendent Dr. Ben Johnson spoke of the plan’s mission.
“It’s kind of a living document, meaning it wasn’t just created from the ground floor this year,” he said. “It’s something that was started several years ago. It’s something that the state department of education requires school districts to do. It’s all about accountability and that way they know what you are doing as a school, and what are some of your short- and long-term goals, as far as professional development and how you are providing resources for your teachers to get better at teaching.”
Johnson was also pleased to announce that for the first time this school year, no one in the district was currently positive for COVID-19 or in quarantine. Board members said they were pleased to hear this news after what has certainly been a tough year for all school districts statewide. “We’re ecstatic. I hope that trend continues, and I’ve really been happy with how we have tackled COVID from the start of the school year,” Johnson said. “We put together a plan at the start of the school year, the procedures, the cleaning, the investment that went into it.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our staff and our students and really our parents who have been so supportive during this and said to us, you’ve got this Twin Rivers, we’re going to send our students to school because we trust what’s going on. All of that together has made for such a positive outcome.”
With the school year winding down, the board is also excited to be able to celebrate the high school’s graduation ceremony Sunday, May 2, at 3 p.m., at the Black River Coliseum. They say they look forward to starting the next school year, with the hope the challenges of the past year are behind them.
The next school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 20.
Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect updated costs for audit bids.