Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada Schools To Keep Accreditation

Teams from North Central Accreditation visited the Nevada School District last month to examine the district's plans and programs.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee, at the regular monthly meeting of the Nevada School Board Thursday, Feb. 15, said the visits went well.

On the elementary side, Prescott Superintendent Ron Wright was one of the representatives. Wright, McAfee said, was complimentary of the district's programs.

In fact, three of five members of the team examining the elementary school asked for copies of the programs so they could try them in their own districts.

The recommendation, McAfee said, will be for Nevada Elementary to maintain its accreditation.

Nevada is one of the few schools in the state accredited K-12.

Carlos Price, superintendent of the Hope School District, led the team checking Nevada High School.

According to McAfee, Price was amazed to see the number and quality of computers being used by the students.

In 1997 the district had all classrooms networked with the computers run from a master server. Later the computers were hooked into the Internet.

NHS was also recommended to retain its accreditation.

Changing topics, McAfee said the district's Future Business Leaders of America club for the past seven years has had the largest number of participation by percentage.

The FBLA will soon be competing in the state contest.

The auditors have completed their report, suggesting the district segregate duties when it comes to handling money. The report suggests that persons writing receipts, paying bills, making up a deposit and taking the money to the bank should not be the same one.

McAfee said this is nothing new as the auditors want different several people handling money, writing receipts and paying bills.

The auditors would also prefer it if the district went to the bank daily, but, he said, it's a 40-mile round trip and the deposits would be small if done on a daily basis.

Otherwise, there was no findings and the audit should be clean.

The district received good news from the state's court system. The suit on teachers being underpaid was settled out of court by the state.

The suit had been going on for 10 years. Nevada's involvement was based on the academic years 1991-1994, with the district, McAfee said, being responsible for $35,923 plus 18 percent for matching funds.

The state, though, will be paying half of this with the district's portion being right around $25,000, he said. When it was learned the district would have to pay a portion of the salaries under the suit, about $30,000 was placed in the budget for it. This, McAfee said, is a one-time payment and will not affect the district's salary schedule.

The board approved advertising for bids on four or five older school buses. These buses are no longer in service and are the last the district had with gasoline engines. Currently all buses have diesel engines.

The district purchased a new bus in November, and decided to apply for a loan under the state's revolving loan program. However, McAfee said, the Bank of Prescott offered the district a deal at 3/10 percent below the revolving loan program's interest rate.

The loan from the Bank of Prescott would have an interest rate of 5.5 percent for three years. This money, as the board approved the loan, will be placed in the district's operating fund to replace the money used to pay for the new bus.

This will work to the district's advantage and save it money, McAfee said. The loan will be for $45,000.

A house owned by the district for use by the superintendent was heavily damaged in the recent ice storm. McAfee said the insurance company has assessed the damage at $15,000, but with the district making the repairs, the actual costs will be $13,000 or $14,000.

Instead of going back with an asphalt shingle roof, a metal roof was put on the house. It will also be sided with vinyl siding to help keep maintenance at a minimum.

There was also some interior damage done to the leaking roof; this is being repaired by the district as well. McAfee said the district's investment in the house will increase without the district having to spend a dime from the operating fund.