A financially flush Fayette R-III School District finished the 2023-24 fiscal year with a resounding unrestricted fund balance of 62.13%, according to the annual Secretary of the Board Report presented at the Board of Education’s regular meeting on Wednesday, August 21. Board members then proceeded to approve expenditures, which included new windows for the high school gym, new Chromebooks, new basketball goals, and a commitment of $18,000 for some athletic games to have livestream radio-like broadcasts.

The fund balance is far higher than the board’s minimum guideline of 25%, largely thanks to reasonable financial planning when the federal government was handing out cash to school districts across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of those free funds went toward a districtwide HVAC project, which, at least early on, is showing far better than expected reductions in energy use across the campus.

“I think we’ve done well,” said board president Skip Vandelicht regarding the high fund balance. “Kudos to our administrators for being responsible and respectful and Mr. Doolin for being conservative.”

Additionally, property valuation assessments were far higher than predicted, rising by 4.06% instead of the estimated 2.05%.

The board approved the annual tax rate of $4.9962 per $100 of assessed valuation. The rate remains unchanged from a year ago, but $0.22 will be moved from the incidental, or operating, fund to the capital fund.

“By moving $0.22 of the $4.22 levy to Fund 4, this will put tax-generated revenue directly into Fund 4, allowing us to accomplish more capital improvement projects,” Superintendent Brent Doolin explained to this newspaper. He cited the recent purchase of a new school bus as an expense from the capital fund.

A new capital improvement was approved by the BOE during Wednesday’s meeting to replace windows on either side of the high school gym. A bid from Wil-Bond, LLC, for $207,800, was given unanimous approval. However, the district only budgeted $122,000 for the project.

“We also transferred 7% at the end of the year. So, there’s more in Fund 4 to cover this project,” Doolin said. “I just have to adjust those numbers.”

The project does not include the windows behind the stage. Those will be removed and bricked over at an additional expense.

“That’s…our last bunch of windows that we haven’t done yet,” Vandelicht said. “They’re still the original windows from when they built the school.”

The board also gave unanimous approval to purchase 150 new Hewlett-Packard Chromebooks from CDW at a cost of $37,125. The expense is included in the district’s current budget, and will allow for 50 new Chromebooks to be allotted per the district’s three buildings.

While many of the district’s Chromebooks are still operational, they cannot be updated to more current operating systems, which is needed for the testing platforms. 

“That is Google marketing at its finest right there,” Doolin said. “It doesn’t mean the Chromebook’s useless. It just means the testing platform won’t run on it. You can still use the Chromebook to do other things.”

Students in second through 12th grades Chromebooks. Kindergarten and first-grade students use iPads.

The first of two large expenditures for athletics was given board-wide approval. Five basketball goals in the high school gym and four in the middle school will be replaced for $39,025. The middle school goals will also include electric motors to raise and lower the heights to accommodate different age groups. Running electricity to the motors will be an additional expense.

The winning bid came from Whamco, out of Memphis, Mo. The district hopes all equipment will replaced before the start of basketball season.

The other significant expense approved is a three-year contract worth $18,000 to have athletic games live-streamed in a radio-style format. The pitch came about from a new company, NEMO Press Box, comprised of former radio broadcasters who were laid off in May when parent company Alpha Media dismissed its entire on-air team at its five-station cluster in Moberly.

The new company would broadcast eight games a year in radio format at a cost of $6,000 per year. That would come to $750 per game to have a live stream audio broadcast over the internet. Previously, any games covered were broadcast for free. Games covered could include softball, basketball, baseball, or football. NEMO Press Box will decide which games to cover.

“I realized the dollars are going directly to support a kind of pseudo new business. But the benefactor is our students to get coverage and recognition and the opportunity to have what we’ve always had for free,” Superintendent Doolin said. He recommended not only joining but doing so at the premium level of $18,000 over three years.

“There’s a lot of northeast districts that are joining it to make this happen so that, you know, activities are still covered in a media format,” Doolin said. 

The commitment comes with one interview a month and can include a recap of school board meetings, special event highlights, or recognition of top students or educators, according to the company’s sales pitch. Although every game, not just eight a year over four sports, is covered nearly entirely by this newspaper, as well as school board meetings, awards ceremonies, and monthly student highlights at zero charge to the district.

Nearby district Harrisburg has also committed. And should this new venture cover a game between Harrisburg and Fayette, it would count as one game from the eight-game schedule for each team.

“Eight across all sports isn’t very much. So, it would be nice that they didn’t take off from both,” commented board member Shauna Young.

Regardless, all board members voted to enter into the three-year commitment.

In other business, the board unanimously approved recommendations from Transportation/Maintenance Director Gary Beeler regarding annual bids for tires, fuel, and oil. Bids from local companies, such as Home Oil for automotive and light truck tires and Wright’s Oil for fuel, were approved. Board member Aaron Bentley abstained from the vote regarding Wright’s Oil due to a conflict with a family member who works for the company. A bid from Jireh, Inc., a regional tire wholesaler from Barry, Ill., for bus tires was also approved.

The board also set a tuition rate of $10,300 for the new school year for any student who attends from an outside district.

The school board meets on the third Wednesday of every month except for July at 6:30 p.m. in the high school library. Meetings are open, agendas are published in advance, and the public is invited.