ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board made quick work of the old and new business on its agenda at its most recent meeting Monday evening.
Before the meeting’s new business, however, the district recognized recipients of the district’s new Five C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Caring, Conviction, College & Career) honor. The recipients honored at Monday’s meeting were Alejandra Moreno, Matthew McIntyre, Jamie Downs, Tasha Ebeling, Sheila Medina, Paul Fisher, Pedro Arellano, Rusty Tuman, and Joel Plummer.
“It was well worth the time visiting these teachers and letting them know they had been honored with this,” Superintendent Stephen Linkous said after a special video shown to the board. “Seeing the looks on their faces was just absolutely amazing. I remember Jamie [Downs] had actually thought we’d left, and as we were walking out, she was telling her staff what had happened, and they all let out a big cheer and were clapping and everything. I’m very glad we were able to give recognition to people from all parts of the district. We’re all one team, and if a part of the team isn’t functioning properly, the rest of the team won’t do well. I want to thank all of the USD 480 staff, we’ve got a lot of great people doing a lot of great work. I’d love to see even more people nominated next month, so if anyone wants to nominate someone from USD 480 for this, the form is available online at usd480.net to be filled out.”
After hearing some administrator reports, the board then revisited discussion of streaming Board of Education meetings in the future.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion, and we’ve requested information regarding some of the logistical details, so is there anything else that needs to be covered?” Board President Alan Brown asked. “Or, are there any other questions from anyone before we officially make any further moves on this?”
Ultimately, after no extra questions were posed, Board Vice President Brad Carr made a motion to approve the streaming of Board of Education meetings.
“I don’t really have a firm timeline yet, because there are still a couple things I’m working on, but I can give the board a report at the next meeting,” Director of Technology Rusty Tuman said. “There’s also some of the equipment I’m still looking into, and that will be included in that report. We’ve got the first draft of everything ready, but there are a few things that need to be firmed up.”
“I will say, my vote is going to be ‘no,’” Brown said. “And it’s not because I’m against us streaming the meetings. I definitely want to be more transparent with the community, and there aren’t any secrets we’re hiding, but I feel like our efforts should be more toward being proactive and sharing more information ahead of time either through a podcast or one of the other ways we talked about at the last meeting.”
Ultimately, Carr’s motion was approved 4-3, with board members Mike Brack and Nick Hatcher voting ‘no’ along with Brown.
“And we can certainly put together a board policy in regard to the students whose parents haven’t given permission for them to be included in USD 480 media, and a few other details,” Tuman said. “That will be included in the report we’ll bring to the board at the next meeting, that will be no problem.”
In new business, the board unanimously approved a bid from Luminous Neon out of Dodge city in the amount of $19,526.48 to furnish and install a new sign on the east exterior wall of Maskus Auditorium at Liberal High School in conjunction with the rainscreen project. The board also approved a payment application to Hellas in the amount of $67,599 for the LHS East Campus field conversion and payment of Pay Application No. 5 from French Construction in the amount of $77,479.86 for the LHS parking lot replacement project. To conclude the meeting’s new business, approved a two-year quote for the district’s use of YouScience in the middle schools and LHS in the amount of $23,500.
