Moberly school board approves financial enhancements for district employees

Apr. 15—Thanks to a pair of April 6 ballot questions approved by voters coupled with the Moberly Public School District's strong financial standing, the school board unanimously supported a 5.5% increase in wages for all of its district employees at its Tuesday business meeting and the board agreed to pay their health insurance premiums at 100%.

"I am very thankful for our voters. Because of their support, our school district is able to improve everyone's salaries, their healthcare premium and have additional funds available to do more for the school district and it did not cause anyone to pay more taxes," Moberly Board of Education President Bobby Riley said. " I am very grateful for our community support, and I'm excited for the people in our school district as this will help everyone, including our students, in different ways. All of this is made possible because of the passage of our bond issue and question, both of which did not raise anyone's taxes."

Moberly Interim Superintendent Dustin Fanning and Ryan Eidson, business office manager for the school district, informed attendees the school district will also reap other financial benefits because of the election outcome.

As administrators continue to work on its FY22 Budget there would be extra funds available to accommodate some non-allocated requests from district personnel. A proposed request list of items that totaled about $282,000 was presented to the school board.

Among the non-allocated requests being considered are; adding a full-time teacher for autism students ($63,995), spending $2,500 for weight room supplies and paying $9,100 for weight room supervision salaries, and adding $2,000 toward the JROTC program's operations.

Riley encouraged district personnel to take a more serious look at some item on their "wish list" that have been too expensive to purchase or some large-scale maintenance issues that have not been warranted in previous years because funds were not available.

"Now is the best time for our school district to look to buy and address items that has been on a wish list," Riley said. "I also suggest for our district to look at some future short-term or long-range purchase needs and consider making some purchases of it now."

Items such as addressing HVAC maintenance needs in different school buildings, intercom and communication enhancements, replacing or adding carpeting on certain buildings' floors were examples mentioned.

Because of the strong financial position the Moberly school district rests today, Riley suggested such materials could be temporarily stored for future use, or to move forward and schedule such work to be activated sooner than anticipated.

The school board is scheduled to receive a preliminary FY22 budget report for review in early May and the budget will officially be approved in June. The 2021-22 school year begins July 1.

School Board Reorganizes

Dan Wilcox was re-elected April 6 to serve another 3-year term and Susanna Freeman is the newcomer replacing Amy Hager's seat. Hager chose not to run for re-election.

Riley was chosen to serve another year as school board president and Heather Cleavinger is vice president. Wilcox returns to serve as treasurer and the MSBA representative position remains with Debbie Young. Moberly Public School District Superintendent Assistant Secretary Trudie Barnett continues to be the school board's secretary as well.

Scott Head and Brett Soendker are the other two board members.

Salary Comparison

During an open discussion segment, Soendker asked Eidson how Moberly educators compare in salary to that of other schools within the North Central Missouri Conference.

Eidson said while school districts continue to work through their respective fiscal year budgets for the FY22 term, he believed Moberly's base salary and average teacher salary is in good standing, about the middle tier of the group of six schools.

According to a report shared about this same subject during a March school board meeting, Moberly's certified salary average is fourth within the NCMC at $43,266. Hannibal is tops at $45,678 and Fulton's average is sixth at $41,085.

This report indicated that service personnel salary average of $40,274 at Moberly ranks third in the conference. By comparison, Kirksville's average salary in this category is highest at $40,810 and Marshall's is last at $37,648 for example.

Parent/Teacher Report

A Moberly School District report concerning parents attending the parent/teacher conferences held in March indicated that both South Park and North Park Elementary Schools had high participation at 98% and 93% respectively, as well as 100 of the 105 parents (95%) having children enrolled at the Early Childhood Learning Center were contacted.

Only a total of 34% of Middle School parents chose to participate, and just 9.2% of the 579 students' parents enrolled at Moberly Area Technical Center made contact with its educators. However, the MATC also attracts high school students from about 10 other schools that arrive by bus for a few hours at a time during the day.

Gratz Brown Elementary School (grades 3-5) had a 78% attendance rate, and the high school had 12.50% of its 664 students' parents made contact with educators.

Monthly Attendance

The school district's monthly attendance report for March of 2021 indicated a total enrollment of 1,921 students which is 40 more than the previous month.

Cumulative attendance district wide averaged 93% for students that are in-seat only. There are 227 students participating in virtual, online instruction.

Retirement Recognition

The school board recognized nine employees of the Moberly Public School District who are retiring by the end of this school term. Receptions are being planned and scheduled at their respective buildings, but this will not be open to the general public reported Laura Hurt, the school district's personnel & benefits coordinator.

Hurt shared the following names and information on those retiring.

—Jeff Vestal with the maintenance department serving as the district's mail courier for more than 31 years.

—Leah Stein who recently has served as a career resource coordinator at Moberly Area Technical Center and spent 25 years as a Moberly educator.

—Lonnie Oliver has been employed 23 years and was a collision repair instructor at Moberly Area Technical Center.

—Elizabeth Crutcher has spent 23 years as Moberly educator. She recently has served as the Title I Reading Teacher at South Park Elementary School.

—Elaine Craft has been employed 20 years and is retiring as a 7th grade math teacher at the Middle School.

—Doug Heimann has been employed at Moberly a total of 19 years and recently has served as a Middle School Special Services Teacher.

—Amy Niece is a South Park School secretary retiring after more than eight years of employment.

—Kathie Lynn is a 7-year veteran in the Moberly school district and she is secretary at the district's maintenance department.

—Reba Halterman has been a Middle School secretary for more than six years.

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