After roughly seven months, the Webster Parish School Board will consider the proposed final draft of the School Resource Officer contract Monday.
After months of legal and technical revisions, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dan Rawls says it should be agreeable to all parties by the time it comes before the board Monday. During a recent meeting, representatives from the school board, the Minden Police Department, the City of Springhill and attorneys met to discuss the final revisions of the contract.
“They ironed out all the particulars and it will go before the board at the next meeting for approval,” he said. “We went over all the fine particulars and how we’re going to be billed to make sure we didn’t get into something the auditors didn’t like. We got it all straight and everybody’s happy.”
Rawls said previously the hold up on the contract for the last six and a half months was due to technical language in the contract that both parties can agree with. The intergovernmental agreement between the school board and Minden and Springhill was halted, he said, when their internal auditors looked at it to make sure that all rules and regulations were being followed.
Minden Police Chief Steve Cropper pulled Officer Tina Douglas from Webster Junior High School when he learned the school board was only paying the long agreed upon amount of $1,500 per month for one SRO.
Rawls says the contract will pay for two SROs for Minden and one for Springhill and the North Webster schools.
In other business, the school board will consider:
- Approval for use and agreement for the old Union Elementary property by the Village of Doyline and the school board.
- A copy of the standard form with Yeager, Watson and Associates Inc.
- Approval of the use agreement for the continued use of the old Webster Parish Vocational College facility and a third party prospective occupant.
- Approval of Overhead Door Co. of Shreveport to install a galvanized steel door at the Minden High School Industrial Arts building for $895, using District 6 half-cent sales tax fund.
- Approval for Mechanical Cooling Services to remove and replace package unit with a new Trane five-ton gas pack at E.S. Richardson Elementary School for $7,000, using District 2 half-cent sales tax fund.
- Approval of Lakeside High School to purchase a Lazer Z X-series 801 lawn tractor at $9,315 from Hol-Mont Sales and Rental using Consolidated District No. 3 funds.
- Approve LHS to purchase a pole vault from MF Athletic that meets all NFHS rules at $14,894 using Consolidated District No. 3 funds.
- Approved field trips: North Webster Upper Elementary – all grades – to attend a performance of the Shreveport Symphony Jan. 22; WJHS students to participate in the Regional Studies Fair at LSU in Shreveport Jan. 28; two classes from J.E. Harper Elementary School to attend Sci-Port in Shreveport Feb. 10; North Webster Junior High School’s softball team to travel to Magnolia, Arkansas on March 8 for game at Columbia Christian Academy; MHS baseball team to travel to Natchitoches for tournament games at Central March 17 and 18; Richardson’s fourth and fifth grade honors to travel to New Orleans March 22 and 23; Richardson fifth grade classes to travel to NASA Space Center in Houston May 11 and 12; and North Webster High School FFA to travel to Louisiana Tech University to tour the agriculture campus in Monroe.
- Personnel report.
The school board will also discuss an address by Col. Samuel Mims on Reading is Fundamental.
District 6 School Board Member John Madden has requested discussion on an item in December 2015 regarding a football game at North Webster High School. He has also requested discussion to form a disciplinary committee made up of board members, concerned parents and others to review the current handbook policies and bring them up to date. Madden also wishes to address the board on opening dialogue with employees about unfreezing pay, what it would cost, who would participate, ramifications and affordability.
District 5 School Board Member Ronnie Rhymes wishes to address the board on student school assignments.
The board will meet at 6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 1, at Central Office, located at 1442 Sheppard Street.