Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

McGough Now Heads School Board

BY AUTUMN LEAMONS

Prescott School District has a new school board president as of Tuesday night, October 20. Rick McGough was elected president at the board's regular meeting. He takes over the position that was held by Jim Franks.

Franks says that he has enjoyed being president, but it was time to re-organize the board. This is a process that takes place each year. The officers elected at Tuesday nights meeting will remain the same until the official election time rolls around next September.

Franks is very enthusiastic about children and education, he said in his remarks. He is very concerned that education is not taken seriously and when many realize its importance that it is too late.

"Some people fuss about the price of education," he said, "but the price of ignorance is higher than the price of a good education."

Starting at next month's meeting McGough will be serving as president. George Odom is serving as the vice president and Kay Hendrix will be the board's secretary.

Superintendent Ron Wright asked the board last week if they had ever considered hiring a construction manager. He was wanting to suggest looking into doing it.

A construction manager would be an individual who would be in charge of watching over all the construction and repairs made to the district's property. This person would have to have a contractor's license and would still be able to put in a bid if he/she chose to.

Wright said that he had been checking into schools which have construction managers and that they are doing really great and in the long run they are saving money while getting a better quality of work.

He said that it sounded interesting, but that they would like to receive more information on the subject before making a decision.

The board was enlightened by the Prescott schools special education teachers at the meeting. These teachers are very important, not only to the school, but especially to their students. They all seemed to be very compassionate about the job that they do and they are very involved in each student's life.

Regina Weinart was the groups spokeswoman and gave the board information on how they have excelled past other special education programs and why it is so important to them. Weinart told the board that they believe in teaching their children ways to have a great attitude and how to work well with others. When the children reach high school ages they are taught how to fill out a job application, how to go to job interviews, how to take care of their banking needs, and how to fill out tax forms.

Weinart closed the presentation by saying her favorite quote, "A good teacher is one good at explaining to one not very good at understanding; and good at understanding one not very good at explaining."

The school board looked over the Future Business Leaders of America's (FBLA) news letter. They were pleased to see that Prescott students are very involved.

Jarrod Yates from Prescott is the state president and Liz Thompson is the district reporter. She also produces the FBLA news letter. Abby Morman of PHS serves the district as parliamentarian.

FBLA is a program for the students to learn responsibility in the business world and how to carry themselves as professional business leaders.

Wright said he was proud to report to the board that the district's home page would finally be updated in the Internet. Wright said that he had talked to two students who were capable and willing to work on the page and they would teach other students to do so. Wright feels that this is a great opportunity for all the students to get involved and be proud of themselves.