MV District 'Made Whole' By State

Mountain View School District has received enough money from the state to replace fully what the district had to pay Rural Special and Timbo after the detachment, Finance/Facilities Coordinator Cindy Smith said.

After paying $3 million to Rural Special and Timbo in June, Mountain View received consolidation funds of $1,313,618 in June and declining enrollment funds of $1,692,070 in July.

“Those funds were to reimburse Mountain View for the amounts paid to Rural Special and Timbo in the detachment law,” Smith explained.

“So now we have been made whole,” she told the board during the Sept. 28 meeting.

The discussion was part of a review of the 2025-26 financial report and projected budget for 2026-27.

The projected budget includes just over $5.9 million for teacher salaries and a little over $6.1 million in expenditures from the operating fund. Smith also presented the monthly financial report, noting that child nutrition was only $485 in the negative after paying bonuses, so this was a good improvement.

The board also reviewed a report on the solar program, indicating an estimated cost savings of $14,700 for the period of July 27-Aug. 26.

Smith noted that Bryan Duncan had prepared the report, and as it is updated monthly it will provide a clear cost comparison showing the savings over time.

She said the school received a settlement recently because of the earlier malfunctions of the solar installation, and that money will cover most of this year’s payment on the project.

Also during the meeting, the board authorized administrators to purchase three used buses, pending inspection.
Supt. Dusty Mitchell said the last time they bought new buses, they got three, but two went to Rural Special and Timbo. So the fleet will need to be supplemented, and he is concerned about waiting too long and needing several at once.

There are two full-size buses available through a local company, as well as one eight-passenger wheelchair-accessible bus that does not require a CDL. They are only slightly used and are priced very low compared with new buses of the same model.

Board member Matt Butler questioned why they are so inexpensive, mentioning that one has only 1,500 miles on it and is priced less than half what a new one would cost. Mitchell explained that they were bought new by a private school in Mississippi that later closed, and the state had to store them unused for five years because they were bought with grant money.

The board expressed that the vehicles should be thoroughly vetted for any damage caused by prolonged disuse, and they authorized Mitchell to purchase them, pending those inspections.

In other business, the board:

• set the 2027 graduation date for May 15 at 9:30 a.m.

• approved a few personnel changes, including hiring Sandy Head as part-time middle school reading interventionist, Crystal McCool as Music Roots coordinator, and Felicia Hallock and Cindy Sartin as elementary special ed paraprofessionals. They accepted the resignation of Belle Gregory as a paraprofessional, Joey Martin and Jim Hilborn as elementary night custodians, Erika Adkins as fourth grade teacher, and Kristy Verser as high school computer science teacher.

• discussed plans to swap the bus garage with the baseball/wrestling building located across Killian Street. This will relieve some of the vehicle congestion on the campus and allow sports and dance teams and cheerleaders to use the closer building for practice.

• heard a report from Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Howard on the recently released school letter-grades that are based on last spring’s ATLAS testing. Howard explained how scores are calculated, based on achievement, growth of the whole class, and growth of the lowest scoring 25 percent. She noted that growth is tricky because it’s hard to show growth in the achievement areas that are already above the state average. Overall they were very pleased with the elementary and middle school scores of B. High school is not where they want it, with a C, but Howard said fluctuations in the scores are expected. She noted they were very proud of Mountain View’s 98.63 percent graduation rate, which is also included in the report. (A separate article on the report cards of county schools was published last week.)

• discussed the option of joining a class action lawsuit against Meta regarding negative effects of social media on students. Mitchell said most of the schools in our co-op are joining the nationwide suit. He agreed to proceed with caution and to back out if he perceives any risk to the school.

• tabled discussion of a district boundary issue and agreed to seek more information. Mitchell said a small part of the Mountain View district extends into Baxter County, including a few thousand acres of national forest but only one voter. This will be a problem when conducting elections because of the expense to the school and difficultly protecting voter anonymity, while the tax revenue for the school is minimal. It was suggested that Mountain View transfer that area to the Timbo School District, which already has territory in Baxter County. However, the board decided to wait for now and do more research on their options.

• reviewed the monthly enrollment report, with a total of 1,042 students in K-12, plus 60 in pre-K.

• approved a few Act 1599 resolutions for services including sno-cones, t-shirts, and light and sound. These resolutions are required each year for the district to spend money with any business that is affiliated with a district employee.

• approved the adult meal prices, which are unchanged this year at $3 for breakfast and $5.10 for lunch.

• authorized staff to remove from inventory a list of fixed assets that were transferred to Rural Special and Timbo.

• agreed to move the October board meeting to the 19th at 6 p.m., so members can view a live board training scheduled for the 12th.