The Poplar Bluff R-I School Board approved a plan Thursday night to use federal ESSER COVID-19 relief funds to expand afterschool programs for district students with the local Boys & Girls Club and Americorps.
The three-year plan is designed to address loss-of-learning among students due to the COVID pandemic. R-I Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill said the program would benefit students throughout the district.
“Our kids are going to be advantaged instead of disadvantaged,” Dill said.
When asked by the board about the possibility of extending expanded services after ESSER funds expire,Dill said, “If it’s going well, we will re-evaluate to see if it can continue.”
ESSER stands for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief and is part of the American Rescue Plan in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the beginning of the meeting, R-I Board president John Scott highlighted a recent report from U.S. News and World Report that ranked the best K-8 schools in Missouri. Eugene Field and Oak Grove elementary schools were ranked 8 and 9, respectively, while Lake Road Elementary came in at No. 14.
District IT Director Aaron Badgley presented a proposal from Synovia-Cal/Amp for a school bus GPS tracking and student ridership system. The technology will enable the district to track buses in real time, and a phone app can tell parents which bus their child is on, and where that bus is located.
Dill said this system was “long overdue” and a “transitional piece” of equipment for the district designed to make lives easier for both parents and district transportation staff.
The five-year proposal will cost the district $45 per bus and $24 for smaller vans and will use ESSER funds for the initial period of the expense.
Some of the board members expressed concerns about the reliability of a real-time GPS tracking system. In response, Dill recommended the board table the proposal until next month.
In the meantime, Badgley will contact other school districts in Missouri who already use this technology to rate their satisfaction with its performance. The board expects to reconsider the proposal at their next meeting in November.
The board did approve another bus-related technology proposal to install upgraded camera systems on 25 of the district’s buses. Those current cameras in use are using out-of-date software that makes it more difficult to review the camera recordings.
Dill reported that the school district’s graduation rate improved to 94.5 percent, up two-tenths of a percent from the previous year.
“Poplar Bluff continues to prove we can keep our doors open and move ahead successfully,” Dill said.
“Graduation starts in early childhood,” he added. “This is a cumulative win for the Poplar Bluff school district.”
Dill also presented the Extracurricular Activities/Athletics report on behalf of athletic director Kent Keith, who was with the Mules softball team Thursday evening (see page 8). The report listed 926 active student-athletes with an average GPA of B-plus.
Some of the identified needs in the report included an assistant athletic director to help with Junior High activities, a new scoreboard at the high school stadium, and new restrooms, concessions, and storage on the visitors’ side of the stadium.
Dill stated that the Mules Booster Club would provide the new scoreboard, while the district would provide funding for expanded facilities at the stadium.
The board accepted a $25,400 bid from Business Information Services, LLC, for a new demographic and enrollment study in the district, which will be used for long-range planning to better predict future enrollment trends.
“This helps us make informed decisions about future facility needs,” Dill said. The last such plan was done in 2012; the new research is expected to be completed in January 2022.
The board also approved a $3.6 million budget amendment, most of which involved ESSER relief funds that had not been appropriated during the budget process earlier this year.
R-I assistant superintendent Dr. Amy Jackson reported that $3.5 million of the amended budget comes directly from ESSER funds, and only $57,000 of the remaining amendment reflects new spending that is not already offset by incoming revenue.
In response to district personnel who have exhausted their sick leave time due to COVID-19 issues, the board approved an additional seven days of leave to those affected by such situations.
During the superintendent’s report, Dill expressed his concern for the fatigue level for teachers and other personnel throughout the district after 18 months of working through the national pandemic.
He said he and his staff would be visiting all area schools to talk to teachers and staff about how the district can help relieve their concerns and help return everyone back to a sense of security, safety and normalcy.
In his Return to Learn report, Dill said active COVID-19 cases stood at 13, with 96 quarantines, but that these numbers were both trending downward.
“The main thing is that our schools are open, and open safely,” he said.