Board approves budget, bids and SB-128 applications
The Hancock County Board of Education held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting in the Commons Area of Hancock County High School last Thursday, May 27. The meeting started at 5:30 p.m., and a light agenda greeted members of the board. The main items included approving a tentative $14,237,000 budget for school year 2021-2022, a couple of bid items and applications for SB-128 that allows students to voluntarily retake a year of school.
SB-128 allows all students except outgoing seniors to redo the school year just completed to improve their grade transcripts for college. The bill allows seniors to redo the just completed school year, but the classes do not count toward their grade transcripts for college.
“They may gain a little bit more knowledge to increase their ACT scores,” Superintendent Kyle Estes said. “But it does not help as far as their high school transcript is concerned.”
If a senior does opt to retake his or her senior year, the bill allows the senior to play sports provided the student meets all other eligibility requirements. Thirteen students applied to redo the just completed school year.
The law also stipulates the board give an up or down vote on all the applications, not just a few. Either the board approves all or none. The board approved all of the applications.
The board also renewed the Virtual Learning Academy for the upcoming school year with changes. Last year the district allowed all students that wanted to attend school virtually to enroll in the VLA, this year the student needs a valid reason to attend it.
“It would only apply for those (students) that have a medical exemption or a medical statement stating the reason for attending virtually,” Superintendent Estes said.
The board also approved several bids at the meeting: The board awarded the gas bid to James Rivers Solutions at a rate of 10-cents per gallon above the rack price. Valor Oil received the diesel bid. Estes said Valor tendered a rate of almost three cents per gallon above the rack price. Also, Republic tendered the only bid for the district’s waste removal, so the company received the bid. The company tendered a unit price of $796.72 per pickup for waste removal at all of the district’s facilities. This is a lump sum price for all the facilities, not for each individual one.
The board also approved the construction of a 20 by 30 greenhouse for the Agricultural program at the school for horticulture. The district plans to construct it adjacent to the athletic building by the high school. Board also approved repairing the portion of the roof at the high school not reworked during the recent construction program. Estes said the repair costs approximately $500,000.
The board also approved two BG5 closeout forms, #1330 and #854. Estes said the Kentucky Department of Education allows monies left over from construction projects to be moved over to a district’s General Fund. Estes said the amount to be moved was approximately $10,000 to $15,000.
By Ralph Dickerson
