The board discussed with the Board’s Attorney, Gary Grady, the legal issues surrounding allowing the Paul R. Brown Academy to have the gymnasium and old Extended Hope building. Grady explained that, by law, school property has to be first offered to the county to buy and then has to be sold at a fair market price. Since the Paul R. Brown Academy is a charter school, however, there may be ways around it having to be sold at market value, but they will have to look into it further.
Dale Smith from the auditing firm of Anderson, Smith, and Wike gave an overview of their annual audit’s findings. Smith explained that the audit looked good in terms of proper procedures being followed, but the fund balance is starting to become very low due to various cutbacks; He would like to see it come up to around 8% of the budget if possible. The board later discussed the budget in more depth with Sharon Penny, Finance Director, and approved three budget amendments.
Personnel lists were approved as recommended by Patricia Faulk, Personnel Director, and the Superintendent’s contract was postponed until next month’s meeting. Three Tar Heel fundraiser requests were approved. An overnight field trip for Bladenboro Middle’s Junior Beta Club to attend the state convention was approved. There was concern due to Bladenboro being the only middle school to turn in the overnight field trip request in time since the middle schools will need to travel before the board meets again.
Exceptional Children Contracts were approved as well as a Differentiated Pay Proposal (contingent on funding from the state). A Revised Student Wellness Policy was approved, and voting on a new Injury and Loss Prevention Policy was postponed until the next meeting. Lastly, due to new members being added to the board recently, their committees were adjusted accordingly, and the superintendent briefly commented of various notes of interest.
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