Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada Board Extends McAfee's Contract; Audit Approved

In an unusual occurrence, the Nevada School Board held a personnel discussion during open meeting.

Davis Benton, acting as president for the ailing Beverly Curtis, said the board needed to review the contract of superintendent Rick McAfee. "I see no need for an executive session," Benton told the board.

McAfee had two years remaining on his contract prior to the meeting. Benton said the normal procedure for a board planning on keeping the superintendent is to extend the contract by a year, giving him three years.

The board agreed and unanimously voted to extend McAfee's contract another year.

Benton said the district is fortunate to have a man such as McAfee who is concerned about the children's welfare as well as their education. Benton lauded the administrative staff for their efforts in making Nevada Schools one of the most positively recognized in the state, and nation.

McAfee thanked the board for the extension and returned the plaudits. "It feels good to have the support of the board," he said.

"It understands we try and do the right thing, and we face problems together. It's been a pleasure serving you these last seven years and I look forward to the next three.

"The way I feel, I enjoy coming to work each day and if it (the contract) were 20 years, I wouldn't complain."

McAfee said he considers the school, teachers and students part of his family and feels protective toward them.

He also said he has the best office staff a superintendent could hope for.

In other business, the board denied the transfer of two students to the Prescott district.

The mother of the children, in the fifth and sixth grade at Nevada, said she has a job in Prescott and doesn't get off work until 5 or 5:30 each day.

This means the children are at home alone until she arrives. Her husband works at Hudson Foods in Hope and doesn't get home until after 7 p.m.

She said it would be easier on her if the children were in Prescott schools as they could come to her place of employment until she leaves for the day.

McAfee said according to state law transfers need the vote of the attending district and the acceptance of the district where the students intend to transfer.

He said normally it takes extenuating circumstances before a district will allow a transfer, as student population is the basis for school funding.

Under school policy, he told the board, his recommendation was to deny the transfer.

Benton said it was difficult for him not to honor the request, but said this could be a precedent setting situation. It could also, he said, mean an exodus of students from the district.

Board member Nelwyn Almand agreed saying the majority of people in Rosston work somewhere else unless they work at the school.

At this, the board denied the transfer.

Elementary principal Natalie Sherwood said a survey showed people of the area are not interested in the school offering child care services.

However, she said, the school is working on a grant for tutoring. Should it be approved, the tutoring sessions will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from the time school ends until 5 p.m. This, she continued, would help alleviate some of the child care problems, and help students at the same time.

She informed the board the annual report for school failure date from Nevada was used nationwide. This shows what the school is doing to be effective with students.

Also during her report, Sherwood said an award ceremony was held Friday. She said it is possible for each child to receive a ribbon for their efforts.

This, she continued, encourages all children to excel.

Jim Cross told the board he anticipates an exodus of bus drivers, primarily because of forced retirement by the state. Because of this, he's looking for drivers already.

However, he said, most drivers are coming from the ranks of teachers. In fact, one elementary school teacher is studying for a commercial driver's license (CDL).

Cross said a 1986 model bus has been retired from the fleet and is being cannibalized to keep other buses going. He said delivery of the new bus has been promised for March.

McAfee, in his report, gave the board some bad news. He said Nevada was not awarded the bid for the regional and state playoffs this year. The regional basketball tourney will be in Bearden, while Class A State will be in Caddo Hills.

McAfee said Caddo Hills will be neutral site for most teams in the state event.

He said the 1995 audit was completed with the school being in excellent shape overall.

McAfee said the auditors would like to see more people working on the district's accounting, but understand the school can't afford it.

There will be a weather training program at the school March 7, with Lee Harrison the instructor. Harrison is in charge of the weather service in Shreveport, La.

Instruction will be given on preparedness and drills, along with weather alerts and storm spotting.

In closing the superintendent's report, McAfee said the North Central Association will be sending a team down to examine the school. He said they will do an evaluation, report and hold an exit conference.

One thing, McAfee said, the district will have to do for sure is put a five year plan of action together for student progress.

He said the district is over budget in some areas, but, overall, is running close to projections.

By law, he said, the computers in the school's lab are required to have Windows. They are also installing WordPerfect 6.0 and Lotus into the school's system.

The school must buy a license for each computer the Window's program. The problem, he said, is the licenses come in bundles of 10 and there are 25 computers.

McAfee told the board there could be some real headaches in trying to plan a budget for the 1996-97 school year.

This is because a suit may be filed saying the way the school's in the state are funded is inequitable.

"If this goes to court and the court supports it," he said, "we'll have no funding formula."

This, he said, will require the state legislature to assemble in special session and come up with a new funding formula. The session would also have to be held prior to July 1, which is the start date for the school's fiscal year.

"This is why we have a reserve fund," he said. "It will allow us to continue, but I'm concerned about next year. We don't know what the formula will be."

The board approved a trip to Phoenix, Ariz. for McAfee

He had been selected to represent the district and the Southwest Arkansas Cooperative in a conference on studying the effectiveness of schools and how to make them better.

This is one of the most prestigious conferences in the nation.