By Louie Graves
Leader staff
All Mineral Springs School District personnel will share in a High Priority Bonus totaling almost $200,000.
MS School Board voted unanimously for a distribution plan during Monday night’s regular meeting for May. The money will be distributed in different “tiers.” The purpose is to help priority districts recruit and retain teachers, and is a near 50-50 mix of state and local funds.
One board member, Dorothy Vaughn, reminded administrators and fellow board members that she had said last year that she would not be in favor of future bonuses unless improvements were shown in student testing. She said she had witnessed proof of improvement, and she made the motion for the bonus proposal.
The board also approved of two new hires: Josh Kessler, now a principal at Des Arc, as new MS High School principal; and Hannah Toper as new elementary school teacher.
The school will negotiate to buy a nearby one acre lot for builders of the new school to store materials and equipment. The upside, Supt. Curtis Turner, Jr., told the board, is that the builders will leave the property cleared and graveled, and the school can use it for a school bus parking lot. Eventually, a bus garage can be put on the property. The purchase price is expected to be about $10,000 not including closing costs which the school will bear.
L&W Salvage of Nashville submitted the only two bids for removal of the existing bus garage and the Head Start building. The structures will be removed to make way for the new school. The bids were $525 to remove the Head Start building, and $1,050 to remove the garage which is welded pipe and metal.
Principals Stephanie Rowe, high school, and Stacy Gauldin, elementary, gave building reports and said their enrollments were 182 and 229, respectively.
While the meeting was in session, the Mineral Springs Lions Club was hosting a reception for honor grads three blocks away in the Methodist Church.
Board president William Dixon presided. The whole board was present, including Sheila Jackson, Jamie Jackson, Mike Erwin, Zemeria Newton, Ray Hawkins and Vaughn.
