Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada School Board Denies Transfer Request

A tie vote resulted in a transfer request being denied by the Nevada School Board.

A parent had requested a transfer from the Nevada district to the Spring Hill district because she has recently opened a business in Hope and her husband works at SMI Joist there.

Both of her parents, she said, work at Spring Hill and could care for the two children after school, making sure homework was done and they'd be somewhere safe until she got off work.

She said the family currently lives between Bodcaw and Willisville on Highway 32, and the children were home schooled last year.

The home schooling, she told the board, can't continue because of the new business opening up.

Board member Beverly Curtis excused herself from the vote, saying this family is a customer. Had she remained in the room and not voted, it would have been considered a negative ballot.

Superintendent Rick McAfee told the board his obligation is to follow policy and recommend no transfer be allowed, but encouraged the panel to make the decision based on the individual instance and its conscience.

It wound up in a 2-2 tie, with the transfer denied for lack of a majority vote.

Transportation director Jim Cross said everything was on track for starting school on Aug. 21. The majority of projects have been completed with a few needing some touch up work.

On the bus situation, Cross said everything is ready and no drivers resigned during the summer.

Don Callicott asked if Cross had a chart to plot the maintenance history of each bus against its route.

He was informed the maintenance history of each bus is documented, with Cross adding if the district is able to keep the same drivers it helps the buses last longer.

Each bus, he said, averaged 10,000 miles a year, with the exception of trip buses for athletics and special activities.

During basketball season, Cross said, two buses are used to transport players for away games, with three buses kept in rotation for this purpose.

Dr. Barney Kizer, he continued, took out a revolving loan and bought four diesel buses at one time. Because of this the district has four buses with more than 100,000 miles on them now.

However, Cross said, the buses are staggered so all of them don't have the mileage pile up at the same time, requiring the district to replace them all at once.

Callicott asked why one of the three spare buses aren't used on a route, with Cross saying it's not a good idea to have the spares on a lengthy route.

In other business, McAfee told the panel food services had to be bailed out to the tune of $23,000 at the end of the year.

State nutrition people will be visiting the district in August, he said, and will look at making personnel changes which should reduce labor costs.

All meals cooked and eaten are monitored per state and federal regulation. All federal food subsidies, McAfee said, must be accounted for under a strict inventory control.

In addition, the district, he said, needs every child eligible for the free and reduced lunch program to sign up for it so the district can get more grant money.

Those schools with less than 70 percent participation in the free and reduced lunch program, he said, have problems getting grants because the state and federal agencies involved don't think those districts need the money.

Last year, McAfee said, was a difficult one for food services at Nevada. This was because the equipment is 12 years old and was breaking down, with several pieces having to be replaced. This ran up the cost of operating the lunchroom.

Other expenses occurred during the year causing the district to operate in the red and have to dip into its reserve funds. Salaries, McAfee said, were raised by $180,000, while the district had to install a new telephone system and intercom.

The end result was a negative cash flow, but, he added, the district is in better shape than it could have been.