Neelyville superintendent to retire in July

Neelyville schools have a special place in Debra Parish’s heart and life, but the Neelyville R-IV Board of Education will be searching for a new superintendent since they accepted Parish’s resignation effective July 1, 2022.

She graduated from Neelyville High School in 1977.

“I graduated from ASU (Arkansas State University) in 1987 after taking 10 years to get my bachelor’s degree,” said the school district’s superintendent. “During those years, I worked full time until I began my student teaching and paid for my own education.

“When I graduated, there were very few teaching jobs in the area so I applied all over Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. I was hired on the spot at Parkin Elementary in Parkin, Arkansas.”

Parkin is a small town about 15 miles east of Wynne and 35 miles northwest of Marion.

“I taught there for three years,” she said. “While only 120 miles from home and a farming community, it was different from Neelyville. I missed home very much and each year hoped for an opportunity to return.”

Parish said she applied to Neelyville Elementary School after her own third grade teacher retired and was ecstatic to be accepted.

“I taught third grade from 1990 to 1998 and then became the elementary counselor,” she said.

The next year in 1999-2000, “I was recruited to high school when my own high school counselor retired,” Parish said. “In 2014, I became the first (that I know of) assistant principal on the Hillview campus. Then, in 2019, I became the first (I am pretty sure) alumni and the first female to be the Neelyville R-IV superintendent.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed and been so rewarded at every position I have had in education. I would not trade my career for anything except retirement,” Parish joked.

The board voted to hire Tim Hager to conduct a superintendent search.

The service options and costs included Hager, independent consultant: $4,000, MARE (Missouri Association of Rural Education): $4,000: MSBA (Missouri School Boards Association): $6,500; and EGL (Education/Governance/Leadership): Cost unknown.

Other resignations approved Thursday, Nov. 18, included Lora Butler-Schneider’s effective immediately, and Emily Eaker’s effective May 13.

Butler-Schneider was a para-professional at Hillview Elementary. Eaker teaches seventh-12th grade business and is the newspaper and FBLA sponsor.

High school principal Justin Dobbins was approved as the fifth and sixth grades basketball coach.

Brandon Sisco was approved to be a volunteer assistant coach for junior high baseball and to be a substitute bus driver for the junior high baseball bus. Sisco has been employed at the school and is returning to volunteer.

Shelby McElhaney was hired as an early childhood special education paraprofessional.

No one had applied for the bus mechanic position, the board learned.

School board elections

The first day to file for the school board election will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 7. Weekday filings will be from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. Dec. 8 - Dec, 17 and from 8 a.m., - 5 p.m. Dec. 28.

Jill McGruder and Jack Stull are up for re-election April 5.

The Missouri School Boards Association notified MSBA members the MSBA withdrew from the National Boards Association due to recent actions including the letter to the White House containing inflammatory terms.

Other business

A student presented a petition with approximately 105 signatures asking for students to be allowed to wear hats in school buildings. After consideration the board voted to keep the current policy.

In the monthly financial report for October, 2021, the Oct. 1 balance was $2,199,372.76, revenues were $411,164.05, expenses were $540,896.11. The balance Oct. 31 was $2,069,640.70.

This was compared to the Oct. 2, 2020 balance of $2,058,124.92, revenues $376,388.38, expenses of $597,578.25 with a balance of Oct. 31, 2020 of $1,836,935.05.

In the COVID-19 update, currently three are on quarantine from home exposure.

Cumulative for this year include total positive students, 26; total positive staff, 1; quarantine from school exposure, 24 (16 of those were able to do in-school quarantine); and a total of 33 staff/students were able to avoid quarantine completely due to mask and/or vaccination status.

The Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan (which is on the website) is scheduled to be internally reviewed at 1 p.m. Dec. 3. Anyone wanting to participate may contact Parish.

On the Veteran’s Day program, Parish reported, ”we honored 46 veterans and it was a spectacular program. We had two seniors signing (to join the Army) and honored two alumni who had been killed in the line of duty.”

The Neelyville Elementary School roof has had a leak in a classroom for some time, and according to Parish “it has been fixed many times. We now have a new leak between the restrooms. There are some rusting spots on the roof. We are going to ask an outside contractor to check the roof to see if it needs to be replaced.”

The trip bus driver pay has been revised to meet the minimum wage of 11.15 per hour which begins in January. The board reviewed the liability insurance invoice with the renewal assessment $94,688. The school received a membership credit of 10% which brought the cost to $85,219.

Heather Black presented the Professional Development Plan for 2021-2022 which the board approved.

DESE approved the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) III Budget to include adding air to the Neelyville Multipurpose Room. The air ducts will need to enter/exit the building through the existing exhaust fan slots. It has been suggested storage be added to the north side of the building and to house the units on top so there will not be as much duct work involved. The board asked for specific information as to the plans and the cost of the project. The issue was tabled until December where the requested information will be reviewed.

The board approved four requests for early graduation at the end of first semester.

The board agreed to retain the current job description for the Nurse Aide for the 2021-2022 school year. They did express an intent to explore the possibility of revising the job description to require LPN or above training for 2022-2023.

A thank you card from Chanda Pogue and family was presented to the board thanking the District for the generous donation of books in memory of Chanda’s brother, Roger Jarrell.

The December board meeting will be held Monday, Dec. 13. The meeting was moved from Dec. 16 due to conflicts.

Board members Shane Eaker and Jack Stull were absent.