David Calhoun addresses the Shelby County Board of Education during the March 16 meeting. Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle
A memorandum of agreement between the Shelby County Board of Education and the city of Chelsea was approved at the March 16 SCBOE meeting, detailing the payment arrangements for the gymnasium that will be built as part of a capital project at Chelsea Park Elementary.
The project includes classroom additions, which will be funded by the county, along with a gymnasium, which will be funded by the city of Chelsea at a cost of around $4.2 million. The agreement outlines the payment schedule for the city of Chelsea and how they will repay that money. That $4.2 million. The city will pay the board six payments of $714,861 spread out over three years, with the last payment to be completed on Dec. 1, 2025.
Superintendent Lewis Brooks mentioned during his report that the district recently completed its annual bus inspection and of the 359 buses, only 0.6% (two buses) were found to have major deficiencies.
“This is great news and I want to offer congratulations to Rick Vines and his [transportation] team and all our bus drivers who serve our kids every day,” Brooks said. “This is a great report for our school district and it just speaks to a variety of things that our transportation department is doing to make sure our kids get kids to school in your home safely.”
The Child Nutrition Program (CNP) also recently had its annual inspection from the state department and also scored well from that audit with just one local school finding.
“Considering that we operate over 30 local school breakfast and lunch programs serving students every day, this is an outstanding support report,” Brooks said. So special recognition goes to Nathan Hayes, the coordinator of nutrition, along with his staff and our local CNP staff for the great job that they do serving our kids every day.”
Brooks also mentioned the Parent Voice Advisory Meetings that were recently held where parents from all the communities came together to share things they feel are being done well in the schools and also things that they felt could be improved.
“It was a really, really good meeting with lots of great information,” Brooks said. “We want to make sure our parents' voices are heard in regards to things going on in our system. The most important thing that came from it was that it was recognized that our parents really appreciate all the work our teachers do.”
The board approved the following items:
- Adoption of supplemental instructional resources
- An out of town field trip for OMHS robotics team camp
- Amendment one for the FY23 budget
- A bid for serving lines for CTEC and Shelby Elementary to Bresco for $102,463.
- A bid for CNP equipment for several different schools
- A bid for paint services to PCI of Chelsea for $25,521
- A dish machine for Helena Elem School to Mobile Fixture for $169,805.
- Approving renewal of principal contracts, personnel actions and bus subs and aides
- Renewal of bid for leasing on portable classrooms to Metro Trailer Leasing
“We are very proud of the fact that when we complete this current capital building program that we have going, we will reduce the number of our portable classrooms by over 70%,” said David Calhoun, Assistant Superintendent of Operations.
- Renewal of bid for electric lighting and supplies to Mayer Electric Supply Company
- Renewal of bid for electronic fixture maintenance services to Superior Services
- Renewal of bid for tree cutting services to Turfworx, LLC
- Renewal of bid for fire extinguishers and service to Safeguard Corporation $30,725.85
- A bid for re-roofing at various schools to Standard Roofing
