School Board leaves vacant seat open until next election

The Webb City R-7 School Board on Tuesday opted to leave the open seat on on the board vacant until the April 2025 election.

Jeanne Newby, a 34-year member of the board, submitted her resignation during the board’s June meeting, citing health reasons.

Superintendent Brenten Byrd told board members he had consulted with an attorney who advised the board is not obliged by policy to fill the open seat.

Jason Woodmansee, board president, said he would rather let the public pick Newby’s successor.

Board member Dave Collard said, “There will be a lot of people who will want to be on the board, and we don’t want to disadvantage anyone.”

So there will be three open seats in April 2025, including the one-year unexpired term and two regular three-year terms. Stephen Crane and Dan McGrew will be up for reelection, if they choose to run.

Salary for speech therapists is going up

Board members told Byrd they want to offer a competitive salary in order to retain and attract speech-language pathologists.

Currently, SLPs are paid the teacher base pay of $45,000 plus $2,500.

Byrd recommended a “significant” salary increase, in the $61,000 range. He noted that it would still be $6,000 below what Joplin now pays SLPs and $2,000 below what Carthage pays.

There are seven SLP positions in the district. Byrd said three left this year, with one of the three going to a higher-paying district.

When he called the remaining SLPs to inform them of his higher-pay recommendation, he said one admitted to have been “looking” at higher salaried positions in the area.

The board told Byrd his recommendation isn’t high enough.

Collard asked him to get closer to Joplin’s pay – at least even with Carthage.

Byrd explained:

• An advanced degree is required to become a speech-language pathologist.
• There aren’t that many available.
• It costs $100,000 to go through a contract service, which isn’t as good as having a full-time therapist on staff.

The board did vote to offer an SLP contract to Demi Waggoner. That leaves the district with one vacant position to fill before school starts.

Salary recommendations for the rest of the employees will come before the board during its September meeting.

Bus barn renovation contract approved

The board accepted the bid of $234,500 from American Construction for the planned upgrade of the bus barn.

Improvements will all be inside the existing building. An office for the transportation director and secretary will be built in the old auto body section. There will also be a breakroom and handicap accessible restrooms.

Josh Flora, assistant superintendent for business operations, also informed the board that the track storage building at the north end of Cardinal Stadium will be extended. Labor and materials will be donated by Oscar Antillon, the father of a former track athlete.

A big complaint now that the baseball field has been improved is that you can’t see what the score is. Flora said he’s found out it would cost $16,000 just to replace the lights, compared to $20,000 for a whole new scoreboard.

The board voted to buy a new baseball scoreboard.

In other action, the board:

• Accepted the resignation of Jonathan Wengert as principal of the middle school.
• Promoted Keith Robertson, an assistant to Wengert, to succeed him. Byrd pointed out that Robertson has previous administrative experience at Cassville and Liberal.
• Made Nathan Dingman a full-time assistant principal at the middle school instead of a dual half-time assistant principal at the middle school and Webster Primary Center.
• Approved changes to the employee handbook, some of which were requested by the faculty’s salary and welfare committee.
• Increased the tuition for out-of-district students from $9,200 to $10,100. Byrd says increase is based on rising expenses.