By Jamie Miller
The annual financial audit report for fiscal year 2012 was presented to the Bryant School Board[more] Monday night. The independent accounting firm of Hudson Cisne & Co., LLP conducted the required audit and found no indications of problems, issues or material findings of any kind with District financial and accounting operations for the 2011-2012 year.
The Bryant Parks Department has partnered with the Bryant School District and applied for a grant for a Joint Use Agreement to use Hurricane Creek Elementary School's gym and Bryant Middle School's gyms for the city's basketball league. The decision on the grant is expected in mid-January but the Parks Department asked to use the facility prior to the decision of the grant to help with the high number of children that are participating in the basketball league. The board asked Bryant Superintendent Randy Rutherford to look into a lease agreement with the Parks Department to possibly use the gyms at the beginning of January. No definitive decision was made.
A topic of conversation has been bounced around the district for a while regarding class scheduling for the 9th through 12th grades. The Bryant High School Leadership team has researched class schedules and has suggested that the 9th grade academy stay on a seven-period day and that grades 10 through 12 change to an A/B block schedule for the 2013-2014 school year. The board approved the action item.
With the approval of the new block scheduling, the Leadership team is proposing changing the graduation requirements for high school students for the 2013-2014 school year. Students are currently required to have 26 credits for graduation. The proposal changes the requirement to 23 credits and to 25 credits for honor graduates. The change was approved.
Mike Lee, Bryant athletic director, presented a tiered corporate donor fundraising idea to the board that the department is beginning to implement. This program is designed to "amp up fundraising," according to Lee.
The program is similar to university and college fundraising programs and it tends to be more aggressive in the fundraising options that it offers. The athletic program currently operates off of gate fees to function. The district strictly covers salary and travel expenditures due to legislation that only allows eight percent of the school’s budget to be designated for the athletic department.
The Bryant High School Honeybees kicked off the meeting by singing one of their holiday songs which they performed the first weekend of December on the Showboat Branson Belle. The Honeybees were invited to perform at both the Branson Belle and The Haygoods in Branson.
The Lady Hornet volleyball team won their first ever 7A/6A-South Conference championship title after their coach Beth Solomon was named the conference’s Coach of the Year. All members of the team were recognized for their achievements.
