Pending contract approval, Bob Sari will oversee Burns, Hines schools

By Lauren Brown
Burns Times-Herald

The Harney County District No. 3 School Board announced Bob Sari would be the new district superintendent at the June 9 meeting.

Pending contract approval, Sari will start work as current superintendent, David Courtney, leaves at the end of June after eight years in the position.

Sari has previously worked as the interim superintendent for the Crane school district. “I’m very pleased,” Sari said of the job offer. “This is a real challenge for me. I’m really proud to have this job.”

The board started searching for a superintendent earlier in the year when Courtney announced his intent to resign at the end of the school year. A hiring committee composed of board members, teachers, students and community members helped in the initial selection process. The cost of the superintendent search, which took place over three months, was $9,691.

Board Chairman Gordon Mallon thanked Courtney for his years of service. “Thank you Dave for the work you’ve done for us. You’ve brought us through some tough times in pretty good shape,” Mallon said.
In other business:

• Chairman Mallon opened the budget hearing. Tim Colahan asked when a decision would be made on whether or not the district would continue with the Silvies River Web Academy. Mallon said that decision would be made by the Silvies River Web Academy Board sometime in July.

This year’s budget was constructed to include revenue from the Web academy. If the Silvies River board decides to close the Web academy, the district may have to cut up to $200,000 from the budget.

After the budget hearing closed, the board adopted the 2009-2010 budget and approved the necessary appropriations and taxes to be levied;

• during the board comments portion of the meeting, Chairman Mallon dropped the bombshell that he and his family will likely be moving over the summer, so he will probably be leaving the board after the first meeting of the fiscal year in August.

Mallon, an attorney, stated that he will be specializing in death penalty defense cases and the move will allow him to stay closer to his family. Mallon said that as a parting gift, he would be donating money to the student Washington, D.C. trip being organized by Burns High School teacher Eric Nichols. “Thank you for allowing me to serve,” he said.

• teacher Nichols told the board a little more about the Washington, D.C. trip, which is being planned for next October. They plan to take about 20 people, will leave on a Thursday and return on a Monday and will be fund-raising to pay for the trip. It will cost about $1,400 per person;

• Board members Randy Parks and Jackie Shipp (though Shipp was not present at the meeting) were both presented with certificates honoring them for their years of service to the district. Both Parks and Shipp have served for eight years and will step down at the end of this month. At the August board meeting Ralph Dickenson and Dave Calkins, who won their respective seats in the May election, will take their places on the board;

• the board elected Dennis Townsend as the new chairman and Steve Bull as the new vice chair. Meetings will be held the second Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the district office building;

• Business Manager Petrina White stated that she would be asking the board to transfer money into both the food service and athletic funds so that they would balance at the end of the year. She noted that both funds were holding their own but were borderline and with another half a month to go, she wanted to make sure they would balance.

White also said that the district’s profit from the Web academy totaled about $70,000 at the end of the school year. That was in addition to the software (about $5,000 worth) and laptops ($15,000) that the Web academy gave to the district;

• Superintendent Courtney said that the student population had dropped off at the end of the year, which is common. There were 970 students at the beginning of the year and 928 at the end.

Courtney also said that the district newsletter cost $385 to print and $230 to insert into the newspaper for a total cost of $615, not including the labor to put it together;

• the board approved a motion to allow sixth-graders to play on the seventh grade basketball team in the event that there aren’t enough seventh-graders to field two competitive teams. The traveling squad was limited to 14 players, so that teams would only require a mini-bus rather than a more expensive long bus for travelling to away games;

• Burns High School principal Ron Wassom stated that because the freshmen-only first day worked so well this last year, they would like to do that again for the 2009-2010 school year. He received the board’s approval to do so;

• Parks noted that the high school’s new paint job looked great. “Quite an improvement,” he said. The BHS leadership class painted the building a brick red with brown trim. Parr Lumber donated the paint and several community members volunteered labor;

• during the public comment portion of the meeting district transportation director Scott Franklin commented that he was proud this district didn’t have to cut days this year, as many other districts in the state have. He also noted that he felt the Silvies River Web Academy was a good resource for home-schooled children and commended Superintendent Courtney for finding a unique way to build revenue for the district;

• Bond project manager Bill Renwick stated that the contractor has almost finished work on the Hines gym and the district has received the necessary mechanical permits to begin work on the new boiler at the high school.

Board member Parks asked about the high school’s windows, which were another bond project that was supposed to be completed, however, when the Hines gym roof project unexpectedly came up, the windows were put on hold.

Renwick said that he wasn’t sure if there would be enough money for the window project, however, he thought their might be some stimulus money from the Department of Energy that the district could use for that project;

• the board tabled a decision that would have made an addendum to the Silvies River Web Academy contract regarding the amount sent back to the Web academy students’ home districts. Board member Parks said that the decision should be tabled so that  the new board members, who will be seated at the next meeting, can be included in the process;

• the board acknowledged the retirement of Curtis Eggleston from his position as a custodian.

The next Harney District No. 3 School Board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Lincoln administrative building.