BY DEBBIE PAGE
The Mooresville Graded School District Board of Education on Tuesday voted to raise the rates for the district’s Before and After School Program (BASP) to keep up with increasing operating costs.
The meeting was delayed from January 14 because of board three board members’ illness.
Morning care will increase from $125 to $150 monthly. Afternoon care will rise from $250 to $275, while the cost of enrolling in both morning and afternoon care goes up from $300 to $350 monthly. Summer care will increase from $170 to $200 per week.
This new rate structure goes into effect at the end of this school year.
Chief Operations Officer Scott Smith noted that the district has not increased fees since 2021.
Scott Gardner said the costs are still very affordable, noting that employees are charged half price for the BASP services for their children.
DISPLAY BOARD PURCHASE
The district also approved the purchase of classroom display boards to broaden instructional opportunities for teachers. Chief Financial Officer Angie Davis asked the board to purchase the display boards as part of the district’s phased plan to replace the many aging projectors in district classrooms.
MGSD was recently awarded an Emergency Connectivity Funding (ECF) reimbursement, which the district will utilize to accelerate the display board purchase process. This will impact all grade 3-12 schools with the exception of new Selma Burke Middle School, which already has up-to-date equipment.
In December, the district put out an request for proposals to purchase display boards for all classrooms that do not presently have one in place. The lowest responsive, responsible bid was from Camcor Inc. of Burlington for the purchase of 260 ViewSonic 75-inch LCD displays.
This purchase will cover all classrooms at Mooresville High, NF Woods, Mooresville Middle, East Mooresville Intermediate, and Mooresville Intermediate Schools that do not currently have a display board installed.
The total cost of the LCD displays for the all instructional classrooms is $380,052.40, plus tax. This purchase will be funded by the ECF funds.
The board also continued the classroom technology refresh plan by approving the purchase of 40 additional interactive boards.
These 40 additional interactive boards for the remaining specialized classrooms will bring this K- 2 refresh project to competition.
These 40 boards will include cover STARS Pre-K, NC Pre-K, Art, Music, Media, and other specialized classrooms. The Promethean boards will be purchased through Bridgetek as part of a cooperative purchasing agreement. The total cost of the 40 boards is $130,077.31, for which the district will use ECF funds.
Once this purchase is complete, all K-2 classrooms in MGSD will be equipped with this state of the art technology to enhance students’ learning experiences.
Smith hopes all are installed in classrooms by the end of spring break.
MGSD Superintendent Dr. Jason Gardner said the district was lucky to receive the ECF funds. During a recent meeting he attended, 80 out of 102 districts feared they would be unable to sustain their technology programs without the federal ESSER funds available during the COVID lockdowns.
BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Davis also presented a number of budget amendments to the 2024-25 MGSD budget, including an increase of $1,049,643 in instructional services (from Emergency Connectivity Fund funding) and $208,080 in systemwide support services funds from an additional state allocation.
The system also reported a decrease of $55,296 in federal funds, a capital outlay appropriation of $582,516, and $1,621,194 in a local appropriation. School nutrition revenue also increased by $37,000.
OTHER BUSINESS
The board additionally approved Anderson, Smith & Wike PLLC to conduct the next state-required annual financial audit beginning in the spring of 2025, with pre-audit compliance work to continue over the summer and a final audit report back to the board in the fall of 2025.
Chief Communications Officer Tanae McLean also presented NCSBA-recommended policy revisions, first reviewed by the board in December, for approval. Policies about parent involvement, remote participation in board meetings, tobacco products, and bullying and harassment are among those policies getting small revisions.
The board unanimously approved these revisions, while expressing concern about one revision requiring each K-12 student to get one hour of physical activity each week. This revision is posing some challenges at the high school level since no PE classes are required after the freshman year.
Superintendent Gardner said that a webinar was scheduled in the near future to help districts come up with ideas to meet this unfunded requirement.