Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada Board Meets In Rosston

It's been a hectic last two weeks for the Nevada School District as the academic year winds down.

Superintendent Rick McAffee said the school lost 60 good students to graduation Friday night, but this was the last graduation which will be held in the gymnasium without air conditioning.

The district recently received a grant for more than $30,000 to purchase air conditioners for the gym.

One problem was addressed at the regular monthly board meeting Thursday, May 16. The transit bus, with a scant 6,200 miles on it, blew its engine in Little Rock.

McAffee said the bus is under warrantee, and is currently in the shop.

Transportation director Jim Cross said Steve Ward, with Ward Bus Co., is seeing the repairs are properly done personally. In fact, Cross said, Ward sent a wrecker to have the bus towed.

Natalie Shaffer, Nevada Elementary principal, said teachers are being trained and the curriculum for 1996-97 is being worked on. She said the department is working on developing a Spanish curriculum for the students.

This, she said, is more in-depth than conversational Spanish offered by other schools.

Pilots with the USAF spoke to elementary students, telling them how math and geography are used in the military and by pilots. This, Shaffer said, has helped the students understand the importance of these two subjects.

Additionally, 44 kindergarten students graduated Thursday night.

McAffee offered more good news to the board. He said Dick Leffler, with the attendance office in Little Rock, was down to examine the district's attendance records. His report was short and concise: "good audit."

According to McAffee, it is rare when an attendance audit has such as short report, but it shows how well the district is doing.

Nevada, he said, is a pilot in the state having all attendance records on computer. This made it easy for Leffler to find the information he needed. He also found the district keeps a set of records on hard copy as a backup.

But, he said, as school nears its last day of the year, May 24, the district is examining its successes and failures. McAffee said it will evaluate where it's been and where it's going with students.

There was even more good news. McAffee said the revenue for the year exceeded expectations. However, the new funding formula for next year is still uncertain, he informed the board.

This, too, will be evaluated and, hopefully, more information will be available for the June meeting.

Unfortunately, there was some bad news as well. The budget for substitute teachers was exceeded for the year.

For three months, there were substitute teachers daily. One instructor missed three months with maternity leave, while another was out for two months because of ailing parents.

However, McAffee said this shouldn't cause the district any financial problems.

Nevada has moved into the High Schools That Work program, and is one of 16 schools in the state to be involved in it.

McAffee said testing for the program is expensive, but is worth it. "It's money well spent," he said.

Two dozen computers were also added to the business lab over the course of the school year.

There were two requests for out of state travel. Through the Dawson Cooperative, McAffee said, there is money available for teacher in-service work with the High Schools That Work program. This conference, he said, will be held in Louisville, KY in July.

The other request was to send an FBLA student to Washington, D.C. for national competition, after the student won at the state level. McAffee said four other FBLA students are working to raise money to go with their fellow student, and, this, too, can be funded through the cooperative.

The board agreed and approved both trips.

All classified, maintenance, transportation, food service, teachers aides and computer technicians were hired for the coming school year.