The Oregon-Davis School Board member Christopher Lawrence took the oath of office at the beginning of last night’s school board meeting as he was elected for another term to the board in the November election. After that was complete, the board reorganized. Lawrence respectfully stated that he thought it was time for someone else to lead the board and took his name out of consideration for board president. Kurt Hayes was elected president of the board with a unanimous vote. Andrea McIntosh was elected vice president while Shirley Budka will serve as board secretary. Those board positions were also approved by a unanimous vote.
The school board voted to retain their regular meeting schedule on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. CT. They may call special meetings or work sessions as necessary. The measure passed by majority vote of 4 to 1. Lee Nagai abstained from the vote.
The board members held a lengthy discussion concerning compensation. By state statute, they can be paid up to $2,000 per year plus $112 for regular meetings and up to $62 for other meetings. Superintendent Greg Briles said the salary last year that the board approved was a stipend of $1,000 per year with $50 per meeting paid upon attendance. He added that other school board members in neighboring school corporations have larger stipends. Briles said there is money available to increase the board stipend to the maximum allowable by state statute. Briles commented that with the amount of responsibility undertaken by the board members the increase was fair and earned.
The compensation for board members had decreased years ago, which was a board decision, and it was recently increased to the current stipend.
Lee Nagai suggested that they not raise the stipend as he feels the school should keep being fiscally responsible. Christopher Lawrence suggested their compensation should be equal to that of neighboring corporations. He said if the board members wanted to donate some of that money back to school organizations they had that option. Shirley Budka agreed with Lawrence.
The board voted by majority to continue with the stipend of $1,000 with $50 paid per meeting based upon attendance. Kurt Hayes, Andrea McIntosh and Lee Nagai were in favor of the motion while Christopher Lawrence and Shirley Budka abstained from the vote.
