School board member Mike Mancebo remembers listening to Marci Carruth on candidate’s night two years ago. He liked what he heard. The voters chose Sherry Knight to fill Seat E, but Knight resigned for personal reasons last month.
On Monday, Jun. 20, the board appointed Carruth. Cindy Plummer asked her why she wanted to be on the school board. Carruth explained that she has four children. “I think it’s important for parents to be involved,” she said.
Appointed years do not count against term limits,” Superintendent Russell Fecht said in an email. “She will be eligible to run in 2024, 2028 and 2032 if she so chooses and is re-elected.”
Retired teacher Amanda Burrows spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. After retirement, she returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher. Substitutes are in short supply in school districts across the country.
Burrows says substitutes should get a pay hike, especially those with decades of teaching experience. “And I’m not talking ten bucks. You should bump it up another hundred.”
Pershing County substitutes make $110 dollars a day, regardless of prior teaching experience. Long term subs earn $125 a day.
Burrows said that “about 75 percent of the time,” she did not have a key to her classroom door when subbing. When she was on recess duty she had no outside door key. She sees this as a security issue.
Other district news
There are 19 youthful offenders at Lovelock Correctional Center, instructed by a rotating schedule of teachers. Principal Neil Gallagher plans to assign Kristen Page to teach them on a regular basis.
Kayla Woods, Steven Romero and Alan Kalt came from the Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool. They said there would be a 7 percent rate increase for the district. The board voted to accept their renewal proposal.
The school board voted to designate several job openings as critical need positions. Critical need status lets retirees return to the classroom and collect a paycheck and benefits without jeopardizing their PERS pension.
Districts can designate critical needs status for two years, with the hope of recruiting long-term teachers by that time. The board designated the following positions as critical needs: school psychologist, ESL (English as a Second Language), middle school and multiple elementary school openings.
Kelly Lusardi and Shea Murphy gave each trustee a copy of their MAP data. MAP (the measure of academic progress) measures progress in K-12 math, reading, language usage and science.
The trustees agreed to take the matter up in August after they’ve examined the data more closely. Plummer says she’ll have questions about interventions.
As requested, Shelly Nee gave the board a presentation about her broadcasting class. They attended a national conference in Arizona last month.
She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke about them. Several came from other countries including Italy, Spain, Brazil and France.
This fall, Lovelock Elementary School will participate in CEP, the USDA’s community eligibility provision. School districts can serve breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students at no cost to their families. The middle and high school do not qualify for the program.
The State will use money from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to cover the rest of the students. The superintendent asks all parents to fill out free and reduced price lunch applications since they impact funding. “We need those forms,” he said.
The board voted to augment the 2021-2022 budget by moving money into capital funds. Otherwise, under the new funding formula, school districts have to return their ending fund balances to the State.
Fecht attended the 2022 Superintendent’s Academy at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe last week.
Former superintendent Dan Fox also attended the event. He retired from the district in 2015 after serving for 22 years. He and Fecht have something in common. Fox was named Superintendent of the Year in 2002, 20 years before Fecht. Both smiled as they stood by their plaques.
