Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet board has final meeting

Emmet's school board held its final meeting as an independent entity to wrap end-of-the-year things up before July 1.

The July 1 date was important for the former Emmet School District as this is when it officially became part of the Blevins School District.

The board met in special session Monday, June 28, with two members physically present and one communicating via speaker phone. Board President Jon Saladin was unable to attend the meeting due to recent surgery.

The meeting began with Dr. Gene Ross, superintendent, telling the board the district had $1,129,638, though part of this money is federal funds which can only be used for specific programs and items. The operating fund, he said, has $1 million, with $600,000 invested in certificates of deposit.

Emmet Elementary School Principal Floyd Pollock said the summer program was over. It ran 20 days with a total of 27 children attending. There were seven in the ABC program, 11 in the K-3 session, and nine in the 4-6 group. All students, he said, made progress.

School will begin Thursday, Aug. 19.

The faculty, he said, is now required to have 60 in-service hours per year under the new state laws. Most have been working toward this by attending workshops during the summer.

Frank Henson, Emmet High School principal, said there were six students in the ACT workshop the district held. These students will be juniors and seniors for the 2004-2005 school year.

In the superintendent's report, Ross said the school spent almost $9,000 on a new fence for the baseball field. Most of the fence will be residential quality, with the backstop being commercial quality.

Overall, $52,500 has been spent on getting the baseball field ready for play, and bleachers are still needed. The board discussed the possibility of buying portable bleachers, but made no decision on the issue.

Ross said it has cost less than expected, and will look into the expense of portable bleachers.

He also informed the board the floor of the gymnasium will be ready for the cheerleader camp in early August. Earlier in the year there were some concerns as to whether the floor would be ready for the camp after being refinished.

Members of the Blevins School Board, Ross said, asked Emmet's board to discuss what to do in employee insurance. The Emmet district paid $165 per month on medical insurance and $12 for the dental policy. Blevins, on the other hand, pays $124 for medical and $21 for dental as its part. The difference will have to be worked out at the July meeting of the interim board.

According to Ross, Blevins may not have enough money to pay what Emmet had been paying, and the district's portion may be reduced.

Two Emmet students, he said, were accepted by the Prescott School District under the school choice law. A letter was sent from Prescott to Emmet to notify the district of the change.

Following an executive session, the board agreed to allow Ross and his wife, Frances, to become half-time employees and hire Louise Henson as a half-time secretary/bookkeeper.