Alva Review-Courier -

Alva Public Schools Superintendent Tim Argo announced Monday that Alva High School football and track coach Mike Shklar has submitted his resignation. “We appreciate Mike’s contribution these last few years and wish him the best,” said Argo.

Reporting to the Alva Board of Education, Argo also said longtime Lincoln Elementary School custodian Richard Anderson will retire effective June 1. He expressed appreciation for Anderson’s work over the years.

The board later approved a revised list of extra duty assignments removing Shklar. Argo said once AHS Principal Cory Smith returns, an interim track coach will be selected to finish the season.

This is school board recognition month, and Supt. Argo told the board members how much their service means to the school and the community. They were presented certificates following the meeting.

Demolition work is going on at the art room, located south of the agriculture facility. A city meeting Monday evening would determine if a variance could be granted temporarily to clear the way for the remaining demolition work.

Argo said he believes in the next few weeks, the school will be receiving a second round of CARES federal funding which is allocated through the Title 1 funding formula. “We anticipate we will have a good allocation from the federal government,” he said. Administrators will meet to decide how the money can be spent within the guidelines.

Terri Owen in the district office is tasked with completing the reports for the CARES funding and making sure the money is collected. “Mrs. Owen does a fantastic job,” said Argo. “You have to have someone who is really good at her job.”

After consultation with a committee of teachers and parents through two Google Meets, three school calendar schedules were proposed for the next school year. School staff then voted on the three. The chosen calendar will begin on Aug. 12 and end on May 18. Argo said it will include 172 days of classes with eight professional development days for a total of 180 contracted days, the same total days as in previous years. The board officially approved the calendar.

Board members attending the Monday meeting were President Jane McDermott, Tiffany Slater, Karen Koehn and Larry Parker. Shane Hansen was absent.

Financials

Supt. Argo provided the board members with a chart showing how the school stands on collections compared to the estimate of needs. Six months into the year, 42 percent of ad valorem taxes, 31 percent of interest earnings, 21 percent of gross production and 43 percent of motor vehicle taxes have been collected.

“Our collections are lower than what they need to be for our estimate of needs,” said Argo. However, CARES funding and federal funding have improved the financial picture by reimbursing a number of expenses. Total collections are 64% with that funding included.

Argo said REA and land earning are up although gross production has been down for some time. He was encouraged that January gross production was higher than it has been in the past several months.

He praised the staff and administrators who “are doing a fantastic job of keeping those expenses low.”

There wasn’t anything to report in the activity fund. Argo did point out that the usual income from athletic gate receipts and concert tickets is down because attendance is limited to about 25 percent of capacity. Some of that money is shared with other activities but there won’t be as much this year. While that income is down, expenses will be about the same which will affect activity account balances.

Argo provided a report on participation in the child nutrition program with more students enjoying breakfast and lunch at the schools. He said the federal government is making an adjustment on their reimbursement rate on school meals for 2021 which will benefit the school and the child nutrition fund. A letter was sent out to parents reminding them that both breakfast and lunch are free to all students through the remainder of the school year.

The superintendent pointed out some purchase orders of interest to the board. In the general fund, $7,990 was being spent on materials for the aeronautics class which will be reimbursed through a federal grant. Family Zone is an offsite content filtering service that will track student searches online for $4,900. The results of this tracking will be available to counselors and administrators.

At the band director’s request, the school spent $1,100 for bell covers to mitigate Covid spread when band instruments are used indoors. The school is using CARES money to purchase water bottle filling stations to encourage students to use those instead of the water fountains. Repairs to the activity bus cost $2,065.

Some larger building fund purchase orders included plumbing repairs for restrooms in various buildings and installation of the water bottle filling stations (three at AMS and three at Lincoln.

From the child nutrition fund, a washing machine was purchased to replace one for the AMS kitchen that could not be repaired.