EATON —The Eaton Community Schools Board of Education elected Lisa Noble to remain president of the board during an annual organization meeting on Monday, Jan. 11.
Terry Parks nominated Noble for the position, and the board elected her unanimously after no other nominations for the position were made.
Board member Keith Sheppard then nominated Parks to be Noble’s vice president and he was also selected as a unanimous choice by the board.
The board set the following dates for regularly scheduled meetings in in 2016. All regularly scheduled meetings will be held on the second Monday of each month starting at 6 p.m. The dates are as follows: Feb. 8, March 14, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 11, Aug. 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 3, Nov. 7, and Dec. 12.
The board immediately held the first meeting of 2016 following the 2016 organizational meeting and approved the purchase of a new 84-passenger, handicap accessible bus.
The bus cost $94,505 along with the trade-in of Bus 9, a 1997 72 passenger bus which had a cash value of $2,200.
The board also approved a contract with Walsworth Publishing Company for the printing of the Eaton High School yearbook for 2017 through 2019 for $15,270 per year.
New treasurer Rachel Tait participated in her first meeting as treasurer and advised the board of the transfer of $31,000 from the General Fund to the Capital Field Improvements Fund, and the transfer of $12,500 from the General Fund to the Capital Track Improvement Funds.
The transfers were approved by the board and Tait said both transfers are done annually to set money aside for the track and football field repairs.
The board also discussed two calendar options for the 2016-17 school year. Dr. Barbara Curry stated the administration preferred an early start of Aug. 8 but noted concerns of the proximity of the start date to the end of the Preble County Fair. Curry stated the administration preferred the earlier start to date to give students more test preparation time.
Newly elected board member Brian Pool and Parks both stated they preferred the later start date. Pool said he didn’t want to be “constantly chasing testing.” The board will vote on the matter on a later date.
The board approved three minor contracts, one with 2016 Battelle for Kids Data to provide teacher value-added reports for grades 1-3 at a cost of $5.50 per student. Also contracts with FSDirect for facility scheduling at a cost of $2,174.01 and for $2,686 for MaintenanceDirect Pro for submitting and tracking work orders were approved by the board.
The next Eaton Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. at Hollingsworth-East Elementary.
