By Jamie Miller
The Bryant School Board met under threatening tornadic conditions Monday night. With sirens[more] blaring and winds howling, the board attempted to quickly move through the agenda. The night kicked off at 5 p.m., with a reception for the School Resource Officers and, at the beginning of the regular school board meeting, Randy Rutherford, Bryant Superintendant, recognized Mayor Jill Dabbs, the Bryant City Council and the committee members that made the SRO program possible again.
After being called on to speak, Mayor Dabbs called up Mark Kizer and announced that he is officially the permanent Police Chief of Bryant.
“I am really happy and proud of him and I look forward to working with him this term,” Mayor Dabbs said.
Chief Kizer was also given much recognition and credit for setting forth his agenda on the SRO program.
Davis Elementary teacher, Lisa Clanton, was recognized last night for her accomplishment of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher. Also, Bryant High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club competed in a competition that was held in Little Rock recently and had several members place.
Despite all of the rain that has recently blanketed Saline County, Brooks Jackson of Jackson, Brown, and King Architects, gave a clean building progress report to the board. The “muddy mess” has not slowed the progress down and the construction is still on schedule.
Springhill and Salem Elementary Schools will be undergoing some construction in the near future, as well, with the board approving the contract with Jackson, Brown and King Architects last night.
Due to the pending severe weather, many of the agenda items were either moved or postponed to future meetings. Including a school update from Bryant Middle School, a technology update from Mark McDougal and Tait Shrum, and a concurrent credit update from Dr. Deborah Bruick, Assistant Superintendent.
With the summer months approaching, clean up and maintenance is being scheduled for all campuses within the Bryant district. The administration has identified four projects in the category of “summer maintenance”: Repair and clean out storm drainage detention ponds, paving the parking and curb areas along building one and the east side of the stadium, the repair or replacement of washed out and damaged curb and gutter area at Collegeville Elementary. These repairs need the help of a civil engineer and the board approved to get the engineering information at the cost of $11,950.
Director of Communications, Jessica Bollen, addressed the board at the conclusion of the meeting to inform them that the current notification system that the district runs off of, NotifyMe, no longer meets the district’s needs. The system has been outgrown and cannot hold the information that needs to be sent out to parents any longer. Bollen received bids on an information system from SchoolMessenger, ParentLink, AlretNow, and SchoolReach. ParentLink came back with the lowest bid and the board approved starting a contract with the new system, which will be able to record voice messages for all parents and produce automated library or lunch overdue messages. It can reach the entire district through calling, emailing or text messaging in under 10 minutes.
