Ash Grove Board of Education reorganizes at April meeting

The Ash Grove Board of Education held a short reorganizational meeting prior to their normal meeting the evening of April 15.
Sworn in during the meeting were Mike Gray, who has previously served on the board, and incumbent member Jeana Scroggins who was also re-elected during the April 2 election. Former member Bob Compton did not run for re-election and was not present at the meeting.
Following the members’ official swearing in by board secretary Linlley Belker, new positions were decided. Bill Duncan was re-elected as board president, Jeremy Willmon was elected board vice president, Belker will remain board secretary, Scroggins was elected treasurer, Matthew Hancock was elected a delegate and Caleb Smith is an alternate delegate.
During official regular session business it was announced by Superintendent Dr. Aaron Gerla that the district will continue to pay for 100 percent of employee health insurance, even following the slight uptick in premium cost. As the district is a consortium member with 15 other districts, rates did increase, but only moderately, at seven percent. The cost will go from $450 per year to $481.50 per year per employee.
It was also announced by Gerla that the Bois D’Arc Elementary School playground is still not finished, thanks to a second round of poor installation and troubleshooting from a subcontractor. The subcontractor was eventually let go from the project, and the last remaining repair should be completed in the short term. The project was originally expected to be completed in September 2018.
Also regarding Bois D’Arc Elementary, Gerla announced that he had contacted MoDOT to see if the highway corner on the southeast side of the school needed a guard rail. After some research by a MoDOT engineer it was determined that the corner, in fact, didn’t need a guard rail, however, better signage will be placed more prominently.