North schools enhance benefits

North Montgomery teachers and classified staff members will receive some additional help on their health insurance premiums.

On Monday, the school board voted to increase the corporation's contribution to employees by 3%.

The board also agreed to allow all staff members the opportunity to participate in the corporation's 403B retirement plan. Staff members who work 200 days per year will be allowed to participate in the match benefit.

"We hope this will help our employees with their retirement savings," Business Administrator Jim McBee said. "We think this change will be good for our staff who work nearly all year long."

Teachers, who already have public employee retirement plans can also elect to have the 403b savings plan.

Before the business meeting, board members took a tour of the high school locker room renovation project. McBee took the board through the construction area. The goal is to have the girls' varsity locker room and the physical education locker rooms completed before school starts. The boys' varsity and pool locker rooms will be completed in the fall.

The board approved the purchase of three school buses in the amount of $458,427. The diesel buses should be delivered in time for the start of the 2024-25 school year. McBee said it was best to purchase the buses now to avoid price increases said to be coming in July.

The board accepted the resignation of middle school math teacher Kandora Hargis.

The board approved the hiring of Evan Utterback (grade 3, Sugar Creek), Julie Simpkins (music, Sugar Creek), Merrill Gourley (language arts, middle school), Sejal Patel (special services, middle school) and Scott Dimmick (language arts/social studies, middle school).

In other business, the board:

Approved food and supply purchase bids.

Approved the School Resource Officer bids.

Approved title change from middle school dean to assistant principal.

Approved the July meeting date change to July 31.