Board Extends Spears’ Contract

LINCOLN — Lincoln School Board last week unanimously voted to extend the threeyear contract for Superintendent Mary Ann Spears another year, so it now is effective through the 202425 school year.

The board voted on Spears’ contract following an executive session on her annual evaluation at the Feb. 28 meeting. Spears is in her 16th year in Lincoln and her ninth year as superintendent of Lincoln schools.

In all, she has 29 years in education and said her plans are to finish her career at Lincoln and retire in about four years.

“I love it here,” Spears said after the meeting, noting she still wants to work, possibly part-time in the education realm, when she retires. Another plan, she said, is to “chill and hang out with the grandbabies.”

She said she appreciated the “vote of confidence” from the board in extending her contract.

“That’s always a plus,” Spears said. “They had some good words to say.”

Board president Oleta Danforth said the board believes Spears has done a very good job with the district’s finances and navigating through the covid “maze” the past two years.

“She has handled that as best as anyone could,” Danforth said.

Lincoln Police Chief Kenneth Albright, who is board vice president, also praised Spears for her leadership through the covid pandemic.

“I have the utmost confidence in her,” Albright said. “I want to commend her for guiding our school district through the pandemic and all the heartache it’s caused.”

The regular meeting itself was fairly routine. The board approved the minutes of its Jan. 17 meeting, approved the financial report and food service report for January and approved a request for a student in the Prairie Grove School District to transfer to Lincoln.

Spears told board members the district has exhausted its 10 alternative method of instruction (AMI) days and if it has to close school any more days, whether it’s due to covid or the weather, the school will have to use makeup days at the end of the regular school calendar. The district has five “snow” days built into the calendar.

“We were led to believe if we exhausted our 10 (AMI) days, we’d be able to apply for more days,” Spears said.

However, she said she learned during a recent superintendents’ meeting that districts would not be able to apply for more AMI days.

The district is still waiting for SWEPCO to approve a site for a second solar array, Spears told board members. She said the company apparently has a backlog of sites to consider and Lincoln’s proposal is still in the “review” stack.

Lincoln Consolidated School District, in September 2020, approved agreements with Today’s Power, Ozarks Electric and SWEPCO for solar services.

Lincoln’s first array with Ozarks Electric is finished and is part of a 2.7-megawatt, multi-industry solar park located on 25 acres near Lincoln off Wedington Blacktop Road.

Spears