Broken Bow School Board recap: March 20

BROKEN BOW – The Broken Bow School Board held its first meeting of spring on the first day of spring: Monday, March 20 in the high school board room at 6 p.m. Treasurer J.B. Atkins was absent and excused by the board.

In his stead, board president Tom Osmond delivered the monthly treasurer’s report; both expenses and revenue are up from last year, and three months into 2023, the district’s operations appear as though they will remain under budget.

Superintendent Tobey and the school board lauded the many achievements of the student body as the winter activity season concluded; 9 Broken Bow high schoolers were named to the NSAA Academic All-State teams for a wide range of activities including basketball, wrestling, and speech. In order to qualify for the honor, a student must not only excel in the activity but keep a grade point average of 3.5 or greater. The Broken Bow speech team finished 3rd in the state speech contest, and 2 girls’ basketball players were named to the all-conference team.

Broken Bow’s HOSA students had extra reason to celebrate: 17 will be competing at the national competition in Dallas, Texas this coming June.

The board approved the upcoming year’s academic calendar; the coming year should prove to be similar to 2022-2023. Additionally, the board approved three new hires and accepted one resignation.

Alice Behrens, McKayla Bacon, and Haley Furrow will all join the school district, and Keaton Kleespies will be stepping down from his role as social studies teacher. This will create 2 openings within the district, as the school continues to search for an English teacher to replace the outgoing Mrs. Troxel. Superintendent Tobey did mention in his administrative comments, however, that an interview with a potential candidate for the English position would take place in the coming week.

The teacher contracts were approved unanimously after several months of negotiations; base pay for teachers will go up $1,000 in the coming year. The purchase of a new school van was approved as well. The 35-and-a-half thousand dollar purchase would go against the depreciation fund and replace the $26,000 van totaled in last summer’s hailstorm.

Finally, the board moved and approved to accept bids for the all-important HVAC project; with the deadline set for April 6, 2023. The board will open the proposals at its next meeting, which is scheduled for April 17 at 6 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m.

 

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