Sedalia 200 School Board Approves Amendments and ‘Grow Your Own’ Program

The Sedalia 200 School Board met at Whittier High School on Monday night and approved budget amendments and the Grow Your Own program.

Dr. Harriet Wolfe presented the board with information related to the 2017-2018 district budget.

According to material presented in the board packet, the projected Revenues are $52,165,187.71 and the projected Expenditures are $52,981,732.68. It was noted that the original budget was balanced when previously presented.

The Revenue differences are related to several adjustments, including actual county receipts, actual state formula funding, and actual approved Federal budgets.

The Expenditure differences are due to outgoing grant expenditures, payroll changes and real estate purchase amounts, in addition to proposed maintenance building construction which came after the preliminary budget was approved. The final amendment of the 2017-18 budget will be presented at the June 25 board meeting.

The school board also approved several evaluations and assessments, including for Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS). A new addition to the FACS program will be Pro-Start, which is describes as way to help educate students who want to go to culinary school after graduation. Pro-Start will be a part of the FACS curriculum beginning in Autumn 2018.

Other evaluations and assessments that were approved Monday night include counseling, business and marketing, and engineering.

A decision item entitled, Grow Your Own, that was tabled during the January meeting, was again brought before the board and approved. Grow Your Own is a program that is being used in several other districts which provides incentive for current students to return to the district after college graduation, in order to work in the educational field.

Board member Dr. Nancy Scott, indicated the Grow Your Own program would include 1 - 3 students a semester. The board voted to offer $2,000 per semester to students who are interested in pursuing a teaching degree. The program would require students to return to Sedalia 200 after college graduation and teach in the district.

Several board members emphasized the importance of local students returning home to teach, since they are familiar with the area and already know the needs of local students.

In other action, the board also discussed a request of hiring additional staff. Board President, Dr. Jeffrey Sharp indicated there are approximately 700 more students in the district than 10 years ago.

Part of the additional staffing request included possibly hiring 3 new special-ed teachers, as Smith-Cotton may gain about 39 special education students next year. No decision was made at Monday's meeting regarding the hiring of new staff. The issue will be discussed again at the March 26 meeting.