Mt. Vernon R-5 sees enrollment rise, COVID drop

By: 
Kaleena Ricketts

Mt. Vernon School District’s newly constructed Early Learning Center adds some 82 students to the district’s overall growth, a number expected to increase. (Photo by Ryan Squibb)

Despite a rocky start to the school year, impacts of COVID lessen as end of first quarter nears
 
Much like last year, no one knew exactly what to expect when the school year began in August, in regards to COVID. With a mask mandate no longer in place, school officials with the Mt. Vernon School District, hoped for the best but prepared for the worst.
Knowing that an influx of positive cases could be a possibility, the district took most every precaution they could—except masks.
In fact, most of local districts took the same route and fortunately, most seem to be faring fairly well.
In the first month of school, from Aug. 25 to Sept. 23, the school has seen 14 positive cases, three of those staff and 11 students, and 85 Lawrence County Health Department quarantines.
Vaccination information is readily available for students and their families, if they choose to receive a vaccine.

Enrollment up
Each school year, typically after Labor Day, the district compares year-to-year enrollment numbers. This year, officials were delighted to see enrollment numbers had increased from the previous year’s numbers, for the first time since 2017. Overall, there are 1,419 students enrolled in the district, up 23 from last year. Also, there are 82 students enrolled in the brand new Early Childhood Program, a number that will more than likely increase throughout the school year.

District-wide improvement project mostly complete
During the previous school year, Prop MVS was passed and subsequently multiple repair, remodel, renew and build anew projects began to take shape throughout each campus of the district.
Jeremy Shivers of the CTS Group, was on hand to report that all projects related to the passing of Prop MVS, have reached substantial completion. Along with this, the ground source system renovation at the high school is also nearly complete. That project was made possible by ESSER II funding.

Board approves budget
While the majority of the work and planning that goes into the budget for each school year is done in the summer months, the adoption of the official budget is required by September.
Several items were considered while planning the budget for the 2021-22 school year.
The district had an increase of $6,434,840, a 5.42 percent jump, in Assessed Valuation. School officials call this an ‘extremely positive’ growth and was due to 2021 being a reassessment year in Lawrence County.
In planning the budget this year, officials also believe the positives outweigh the negatives.
The district has been allocated more than $4 million through ESSER II and III, although technically the funds coming from ESSER III, have not yet been officially approved by DESE.
There were also some extenuating circumstances that needed to be considered for this fiscal year, as well as in the near future. Factors that allowed for a budget that included furthering education for staff, an increase in salary for professional staff, as well as custodial and support staff. It was also planned that funds from ESSER funding will go to more renovations throughout the district, as well as providing support to address student learning loss caused by long-term school closures in the spring of 2020 due to COVID.

In closed executive session:
The board hired the following personnel:
- Lisa Wilson as a one-on-one Special Education Paraprofessional at the Elementary School;
- Chance Cornell as a paraprofessional at the high school supervising In-School, Suspension and serving as Attendance Official;
- Madison Gurley as a middle school softball coach;
- Jessie Buttram as middle school boys track coach.
The district is also able to return Parents As Teachers position to a full-time position due to an increase in funding. Lisa Barnes has been serving in a part-time capacity and will now be working full-time for the district as the Parents As Teachers liaison.
The next regular meeting for the school board will be 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 21, in the District Office Board Room.
 

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Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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