School To Add Another Officer

BOARD APPROVES FUNDING INCREASE

LINCOLN — Lincoln School Board gave the OK last week to increase funding to pay for a second school resource officer to be assigned to the high school campus.

The board approved a memorandum of understanding with the city of Lincoln and agreed to increase its SRO funding from $26,000 to $56,000 for the 2019-20 school year. Board member Kenneth Albright, who also is Lincoln police chief, abstained from the vote.

After the meeting, Albright said he plans to create a new SRO position that will be filled on a parttime basis by rotating certified police officers from outside the department. The cost will not be as much, he said, because the position will not be full time and the school will not have to pay fringe benefits.

William Redfern, assistant police chief, will serve as the school resource officer for the middle school and elementary school.

Albright said he hopes to have the new position ready to go in a few weeks.

“That’s a very important position we need to have,” Albright said. “I’m glad to see the city and school can have that relationship.”

The school district and city each pay 50 percent of the salary for the full-time SRO position.

In other action, the school board voted to move ahead with a proposal to upgrade and/or replace existing lights at the high school campus with LED lights

for $161,860.

Superintendent Mary Ann Spears said the high school pays about $11,000 per month to Ozark Electric for electrical power. She recommended upgrading to LED lights and using existing money from the district’s building fund to pay for the project.

Colton Churchill, vice president of sales with Excel Energy Group, said the high school will have about $22,500 in annual energy savings by using LED lights, which have a life expectancy of about 20 years, compared to 8-10 years for the existing light fixtures. The project will pay for itself in 7.2 years, Churchill said.

He added that the company guarantees the savings.

His proposal shows that 1,300 lighting fixtures and associated lamps and ballasts will be upgraded and/or replaced. It will take Excel Energy about six days to complete the work.

Churchill said all interior and exterior lights would be replaced and/or upgraded, except the football stadium lights. He estimated it would cost about $250,000 to replace the stadium lights.

Lincoln used this same company in 2016 to upgrade to LED lights for the elementary and middle school buildings, administration and auxiliary gyms. That project cost about $200,000, and the district used a five-year loan from Arvest Bank to pay for the new lights.

Spears handed out a proposed school budget for 2019-20 but board members decided to wait and vote on the budget at the September meeting. Spears is proposing a $13.4 million budget, which includes a transfer of $468,438 to the district’s building fund, for a total of $12.1 million. The district’s budget for 201819 was $13.1 million with actual expenditures coming in under budget by about $83,000.

The new budget includes a $1,000 bonus for all school employees that was handed out the first day back. The board approved the bonus at its July meeting but wanted it to be a surprise for everyone. The bonuses cost the district $182,000.

The agenda included personnel actions. The board accepted resignations from Carrie Scates, high school business teacher, and Paul Crouch, elementary PE teacher. New hires for the year are Caleb Uhl as choir teacher, Elzie Fields for high school English and Trevor (Jordan) Watson for high school business.