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Read comments (1)"My thoughts were we did want to increase it at some point," said Superintendent Melissa Vesser at the board's Thursday, June 12, meeting.
The average cost of educating a child in the Malta Bend district is $4,500, well above the tuition price of $3,225. Vesser feels a tuition hike is necessary to compensate for the discrepancy in these figures, but she also wants to keep the price at a reasonable rate.
"I do think you need to keep it under everybody else," she said.
A student's previous school (students coming from Orearville, Miami, etc.) covers all tuition expenses, leaving parents free of financial burden. Students in districts without a high school have their choice of the secondary schools in Saline County. For this reason, Vesser feels raising tuition is a non-issue.
"It's the parents (who) are going to decide," she said. "They're not going to pay attention to tuition."
The board voted in favor of bumping the tuition to $3,500.
Board members also voted unanimously to add a door phone outside the school, as a part of increased security measures being taken by the district for the 2008-2009 school year. The building will be locked down during school hours; all visitors will be required call the office, via the door phone, in order to enter.
"I do think we need to lock this place down," Vesser said. "We have no idea who is going in and out of here."
The board opted to purchase new equipment ($1,570) rather than purchasing previously used supplies ($1,140). The price for both used and unused supplies includes: station card, fiber card, door phone, cables and labor for instillation.
Unlike the refurbished equipment, the new phone materials come with a two-year warranty.
The door phone will be provided through BHS Inc.
Contact Travis Watts at marshallreporter@socket.net
Any wonder why it costs so much to educate a child in Malta Bend?
How many dollars were spent on legal fees when Larry Schupp was put on leave for alleged inappropriate contact with a female student three years ago?
How many dollars have they had to spend on legal fees to represent them against Carla Dankenbring in her >$50,000 rip-offs of the school?
Whatever happened to that up and coming little band? Raised a lot of money for that big trip and a couple of board members ran that guy out of town.
Same board members ran off the superintendent who was getting things moving in the positive direction on test results. Now what do they have? Struggling to keep from losing accreditation all in the short time that the new gal has been in charge...
Math, English, Social Studies, and Science teachers all leaving (again)...Again, teachers actually trying to TEACH something...
Now they're actually going to spend a lot of money to bus a few boys over to Sweet Springs to play football, too? How much per child will that work out to with equipment, transportation 5 days a week plus games, etc.???
The girls don't get a fall sports and you can bet that SOMEBODY is gonna figure that out sooner or later and sue you to have equity in sports and then you'll spend another buttload of bucks on your attorney and have to add volleyball or something for the girls (of course, they'll probably have as good a record as the girls basketball team did this past year!).
MAYBE that $1570 on the door phone and all of those legal fees might be better spent on educating and motivating the students!!!
Of course, cost shouldn't EVER be an issue in educating children!
Is that $250 per out-of-district child REALLY going to solve anything at Malta Bend? How many kids could that possibly include???
Wake up and smell the coffee, folks! You've got bigger problems than worrying about $250 for some kid who chooses to attend from Miami or Orearville! Best tend to the business of educating the few students you still have and hope their parents don't finally yank 'em out and take 'em to Marshall, Sweet Springs, or Santa Fe!!!