ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The USD 480 school board made relatively quick work of its agenda at its most recent meeting Monday evening.
The meeting began with hearings regarding the Revenue Neutral Rate and the budget, and local citizen Rick Madden spoke to the board to share his thoughts.
“What I want to talk about is for myself and other elderly members of the community,” Madden said. “To start, USD 480 has a summer lunch program, correct, that provides food to people in the community? I’m curious as to whether that makes money or loses money for the district. If it’s losing money, there are a lot of elderly people in this community who go without lunch as well who aren’t entitled to that even though their taxpayer dollars are being used to fund it, which I think is totally wrong. Another problem I see, and one I’m trying to get at, is why the district is wanting $1.5 million more from taxpayers this year. Another thing is the vehicles – I drove by the bus barn where all of those are, and it’s like a used car lot over there. I don’t know if you all have ever sat down and figured out how many are actually needed and/or not needed and what the insurance costs are with all of that, which is being funded by the taxpayers. I know you’ll probably say ‘We’re not raising the mill levy,’ but that doesn’t matter to a lot of older people since their property has been appraised higher than ever, so you’re still gaining that money even though the mill levy isn’t going up.”
Madden also expressed concerns over academic performance.
“I also know for a lot of you on the board, you want to do what’s best for the students, but I’ve got a real problem when, in the newspaper and other media, we’re near the bottom again,” Madden said. “Each and every one of you on the board say you’re here for the students and trying to promote it, but it’s pretty bad when you go into a store in town, and the high schooler behind the cash register can’t count change back,. I don’t know what’s being taught, but I could do simple math like that when I was in junior high. I don’t know if it’s because you’re trying to cover your tracks with these new programs that look good on paper, but they’re not working. The average Grade Point Average (GPA) is down and has been going down for quite some time. Another question I have is, if you’re supposed to be teaching these students – and I know I’ll probably get a lot of flack on this – is on activities. How many activities are available for the boys and girls – it’s ungodly. There weren’t that many activities when I was growing up, and it didn’t hurt anyone in terms of you either made the team or you didn’t. There are programs I’m not even sure why they’re there, like bowling and swimming, neither of which there are school facilities available for. I’m disappointed with the rates going up and people in the community not really seeing any return.”
Also on the board’s agenda was the 2025-26 school calendar.
“This is a 181-day calendar approved by the Calendar Committee recently. This was the overwhelming choice picked by the buildings out of the two choices offered,” Technology Director Rusty Tuman said. “One option was to give a professional development day on Easter Monday since students would be out of school anyway. The other option was to have Easter Monday off, end the school year May 15, and then come back that next Monday for professional development. The option before the board was the overwhelming choice by the buildings, and that is the one they’d like to see.”
“Is everything fully set with the Negotiated Agreement?” board member Nick Hatcher asked. “Would approving this actually be okay? We need to have direction from that.”
“If there are any changes that need made, we could have a special meeting to take care of that,” Tuman said. “We would need to go through that part of the process again.”
“I think we need to vote on this and make everything solid or keep waiting, one or the other,” board member Alan Brown said. “I agree it’s hard to finalize this when there are things that haven’t come through, but we need to have something in place.”
After some more discussion, the board ultimately voted to approve the calendar by a margin of 6-0, with Hatcher abstaining from the vote.
In other new business, the board unanimously approved the renewal of Aruba support in the amount of $16,721.69 and the hiring of an additional paraeducator for USD 480. The board also voted unanimously to accept a quote from Keating Tractor in the amount of $14,606.67 for the purchase of a new mower as well as the Local Option Budget Resolution 9-08-2025. To conclude the meeting, the board unanimously voted to approve the budget for the 2025-26 school year.
