WP school policy update includes background checks

The West Plains Schools Board of Education discussed background checks, the tax rate, the updated ballpark, surplus property, and the first week of school during its August 26 meeting. 

 

The biggest change coming to the district will be the introduction of criminal background checks for adult students. This comes from Missouri SB 40, a bill sponsored by Senator Holly Thompson Rehder in 2023. The bill says that “a criminal history background check is to be conducted on any person who is 18 years old or older who is not counted in the school district's average daily attendance when such person requests enrollment in a course that will take place on school propert. The list of crimes includes dangerous felonies, murder, sexual assaults of various kinds, and abuse or endangerment of a child, among others. A full list of the crimes can be found on the school’s website.

 

The school board agreed to raise the tax rate for the year. The tax rate last year was 3.746%, or $0.03746 per $100 of assessed valuation. This year, the school had an assessed valuation of $197,118,625, down roughly $4 million from the previous year, according to Superintendent Dr. Wes Davis during the meeting. “We are allowed by the state auditor to go to 3.7723,” said Davis. From this, 90 cents will be designated into the school's Fund 4 and 2.8723 in the common fund. The motion passed with unanimous approval.

 

The building reports had good news for the first week of school. The term “honeymoon period” was often used to describe how well the first week of school went. Even Dr. Davis noted that there were hardly any students in the halls between classes and everyone in the high school and middle school seemed to be able to find their classes easily. High School Principal Ryan Smith complimented his counselors during the first week. He said that the four counselors had performed a lot of schedule changes. “Just last week, there were 421 students that had at least 2 schedule changes. That's 37 1/2% of the student body,” said Smith. “Our counselors had made 1,411 changes to student schedules. It's a lot of work.”

 

Dr. Davis made mention of the newly renovated Zizzer Ballpark and the celebration for its opening on September 17. Davis asked that the school board meeting scheduled for that night to be postponed until 6 pm.  This will allow the board to be present for the ribbon cutting at 4:15 pm and game against Rogersville beginning at 4:30 pm. The board also approved a 10-year advertising contract for West Plains Walmart at the ballpark. This was the only proposal that the school had received for the contract and, according to Davis, will bring in a total of $10,500 to the school over a three-year period. The school encourages the community to come out to see what has changed at the park and cheer at the game. 

 

In other action, the board declared four working vehicles as surplus property during the meeting. Each of these four vehicles run and have mileage between 179,817 and 248,955. The vehicles are a 1998 Chevy Silverado, 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan, 2004 Chevy Venture, and 2006 Chevy Express Van. The school also approved multiple items from the woodworking program as surplus property, mostly dust collectors and a drum & flap sander.