Culver School Board Accepts Safety Grant, Adopts Updated JESSE Agreement

Culver Community School CorporationThe Culver School Board voted Monday to formally accept a Secured School Safety matching grant awarded by the state.

Outgoing superintendent Vicki McGuire says the school corporation has enough money for its share, now that its bond refunding process is complete, “It’s going to be about $27,000 on our behalf because it’s a matching grant, but we had talked about that during our previous meeting, and that money will most likely come from the bond refunding because we want to take care of the safety first.” The corporation plans to use that grant to make the entrances to the Middle/High School Building more secure.

Also during Monday’s meeting, the school board voted to adopt the updated JESSE Agreement. McGuire had estimated that the new agreement would raise the Culver Community Schools Corporation’s costs by nearly $5,000. However, she pointed out during Monday’s meeting that the corporation has little choice but to remain in the JESSE Cooperative. “We just received something in the mail about a week ago that said we were in full compliance, and that compliance is so important,” McGuire said. “And that’s where JESSE kind of comes in and keeps the schools compliant with the laws.”

The Culver School Board also continued its efforts to balance some negative funds in its budget. They voted to transfer $36,318.25 from the Rainy Day Fund to the Carl Perkins Grant Fund and $273 from the Rainy Day Fund to the Pension Debt Service Fund. Board members also took steps to help replenish the Rainy Day Fund, approving the transfer of $250,000 from the Transportation Fund, after nearly half of that money went unused in 2015.

Additionally, Tom Kearns was reappointed to the Culver Park Board.