County school board OKs budget; includes plans for school security upgrades
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Friday, May 24, 2019 — The Nelson County Board of Education approved its tentative 2019-2020 budget at its regular board meeting on Tuesday evening.
The tentative budget includes funds to help add technology to school classrooms for the teachers and students to use. The move is the next step in advancing the use of technology in the classroom.
The technology will come in the form of 65-inch TVs on rolling platforms that teachers and students will be able to connect to with their Chromebooks.
Teachers will be able to use their Chromebooks to draw, type and write on the display shown on the TV. The wheeled stands mean the technology is mobile, and isn’t dependent on being stationary and pointing in only one position.
The plan is to purchase 80 to 100 of the 65-inch TVs and stands each year, and in four years, all classrooms will be equipped with the large TVs. The existing classroom projecters
The tentative budget includes $100,000 to cover the costs of the first group of TVs in the next fiscal year. The board approved the budget by unanimous vote.
VIOLENCE PREVENTION GRANT. The board approved a federal school safety equipment grant application brought forward by School Resource Officer Bradley J. McCoy.
The grant offers school district money for infrastructure and training that will reduce violence in the schools. If the district is awarded the grant, it will use the $334,000 to fund major security infrastructure improvements across the district.
For example, school security systems are standalone systems at each building. McCoy wants to purchase 300 new security cameras to watch building perimeters, doors and other areas in each school. The new security system will bring all the schools together in a districtwide security system, he explained. McCoy will be able to view the cameras in every school from his security office. Currently, to review security video he must drive to each school to do so.
The funds will also be used to convert any remaining buildings to electronic access and eliminate the need for keys.
McCoy said there were other safety improvements he would seek, but he offered no details because the board meeting was an open meeting.
If the district receives the grant, it will have to provide $84,000 in matching funds.
SCHOOL NURSES. The board approved a contract with Cumberland Family Medical Center for providing school nursing and medical services to the district for the next year.
As part of the agreement, Cumberland will provide an additional nurse — they will provide a nurse at Bloomfield Elementary so it no longer will share a nurse with Bloomfield Middle School. Cumberland is also going to staff an additional nurse practictioner in the district. Under the new contract, the school nurses will now be employees of Cumberland Family Medical Center.
The one-year contract is effective July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020, and will automatically renew for an additional year.
Students and school district employees are eligible to use the clinic services at each school.
In other business, the board:
— approved the low bid for the district’s oil and fuel products from A&M Oil Co. in Taylorsville.
— approved a contract for its banking services with WesBanco.
— approved adding Foster Heights Elementary School and Old Kentucky Home Middle School to the Community Eligibility Provision for the 2019-2020 school year. The CEP means that those two schools will offer free breakfast and lunches to all students when classes resume in August.
— announced that a public hearing on the District Facilities Plan will be held on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.
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