Bernie, Missouri - In preparation for the solar eclipse, the Bernie School district purchased 600 NASA approved solar glasses to distribute to all teachers, students, and staff on Monday, August 21.

"We will again review all safety precautions Monday, and our teachers will be using this as an educational opportunity with lessons full of statistical fun facts about a total solar eclipse," commented Dustin Hicks, Bernie Superintendent.

Elementary students will be viewing the eclipse from their grade level playground.

Jr. High/High School students will be viewing in the parking lot south of the baseball field.

Pre-school, kindergarten, and students without a signed permission form will view the eclipse televised on the projector from their classrooms.

Students will walk from their respective buildings at 12:45 pm and arrive at their viewing location at 1:00 PM to view the remaining 20 minutes of the solar eclipse.

Each 1st -12th grade student that returned a parent signed permission slip will be supervised using their NASA approved sun glasses while viewing the eclipse.

Once the eclipse is over the students will return to their buildings for the remainder of the school day.

"Please make sure your student returns the permission form if you wish for them to participate," stated Hicks. 

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Dexter, Missouri -  On Monday, August 7, 2017 newly hired Dexter School employees gathered for their first official meeting of the 2017 - 2018 academic school year.

The district has hired several new employees this year and has welcomed back some former employees.

In the front row, from left are: Susan Pfeffer, High School Math; Christy Colyer, Middle School Counselor; Kim Lacy, Middle School Building Aide; Angie Seabaugh, Southwest School Special Services Aide; Stacey Dunivan, High School English and Superintendent C.A. Counts.

Second row: Keli Shaver, Central School Special Services Aide; Jennifer Slavings, Middle School Special Services Aide; Willa Fees, Southwest Second Grade Teacher;  Jenni Rinehart, Southwest Kindergarten Teacher; Andrea Galloway, Southwest 2nd Grade Teacher and Alexis Rauls, Central 5th Grade Teacher.

Third row: Taylor Williams, Southwest Special Services Aide; Brooke Walker, Southwest Special Services Aide; Tammy Mallard, Southwest Special Services Aide; Shelly Culp, High School Business Teacher; Rebekah McGhee, Southwest Special Services Aide; Megan Miller, Central Asst. Principal and Donna Morgan, DHS Teacher's Aide; Josh DeLay, Sixth Grade Science Teacher; Aaron Pixley, Grades 7-12 Athletic/Activities Director; Amy Pixley, Central 5th Grade Teacher and Lauren Powers, Grade 7 Science.

Back row: Jordan Noyes, DHS Math; Kris Chamberlain, Grade 6 English, and Cody Boyer, Middle School Companion Aide.

Dexter, Missouri - "Dexter R-XI Schools will be celebrating the Total Solar Eclipse that is scheduled for Monday August 21, 2017," stated Gavin Miler, Dexter Assistant Superintendent.  "We purchased 2,500 NASA approved solar glasses to distribute to all teachers, students and staff on Monday."

"Our students will be viewing the eclipse from Charles Bland Stadium on the Dexter Campus," continued Miller.

Students will walk from their respective buildings at 12:45 pm and arrive at the stadium at 1:00 PM to view the remaining 20 minutes of the solar eclipse.

Each 2nd -12th grade student that returned a parent signed permission slip will be supervised, using NASA approved sun glasses while viewing the eclipse.  

While at the stadium Dexter Senior Jake Rice will give a brief mini-lesson full of statistical fun facts about a Total Solar Eclipse.  Once the eclipse is over the students will return to their buildings.

"Our kindergarten classes will view the eclipse from their teacher classrooms and our 1st grade classes will view it from the 1st grade playground," stated Miller.

Please remember to be safe while viewing the Solar Eclipse.  DO NOT ATTEMPT to video record or take photos with your cell phones. They could be damaged. 

Chad Upchurch, was recently awarded with a Distinguished Service Award at the 2017 MVATA Awards Luncheon.  

Upchurch represented the Southeast District Association of the organization.  

This awards luncheon was held as a function of the Missouri Vocational Agricultural Teachers Association annual conference held during the Missouri Association of Career and Technical Education Conference in Springfield.

MVATA is a professional agriculture education teacher association that has 510 members serving 339 schools.

At a special workshop meeting of the Board of Education for the Dexter R-XI School District conducted on August 10, 2017, at the District administration offices, several long range planning matters concerning the potential levy necessary to meet the priority facilities needs of the District were discussed at length.  

The District’s municipal bond underwriter, L.J. Hart & Company of St. Louis, Missouri, reviewed several project amounts and Larry J. Hart, President/CEO of the firm, explained the associated debt service fund levies necessary to accommodate each hypothetical situation.

The Board President, Rick Williams, stated, “Since Fiscal Year 2006-07, the District’s assessed valuation has only grown by 1.78%. However, the District’s facilities have continued to age, and the projected costs of fixing our buildings to be more conducive to a quality education are likely to rise in the near term.  I believe we need to give some careful thought as to what the best course of action might be for establishing the debt service fund levy at the August tax rate hearing at a level sufficient to complete our numerous high priority facility improvements.”

The superintendent of schools, C.A. Counts, pointed out that an approach that focuses on preserving the debt service levy does not appear to be viable in terms of accomplishing the multitude of improvements that are a high priority.  He requested that L.J. Hart & Company bring projections to the meeting to demonstrate what can be achieved with associated levy adjustments to fund hypothetical project amounts for the board members’ knowledge. He also mentioned that the increase in assessed valuation for the Fiscal Year 2017-18 was above the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which has the impact of reducing the operating tax levy ceiling by 2.21 Cents from $2.7869 of Fiscal Year 2016-17 to $2.7648 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation for Fiscal Year 2017-18. We need to consider at least moving this 2.21 Cents to debt service to maintain a constant total tax levy,” Mr. Counts remarked. 

The District’s last general obligation bond issue election was on April 3, 2007 for the $14,000,000 to construct the new classrooms at Southwest Elementary, Dexter High School, T.S. Hill Middle School, Central Elementary and to construct the new Event Center and other improvements. The District’s assessed valuation at that time was $157,235,714 and was averaging approximately a seven percent (7.00%) annual growth rate although the Board of Education asked the Municipal Bond Underwriter, L.J. Hart & Company, to only project it at 3.50% to be conservative. Now eleven years later, the District’s assessed valuation is $190,324,289 and has only averaged an annual growth rate of 1.27% for the last five years. The facilities of the District did not stop aging during this time period, and in fact, the cost of making additional improvements has probably escalated, which also increases the difficulty of trying to do this work with additional bonds within the existing 62.31 Cent debt service levy. 

After taking into consideration the Series 2016 Refunding, the Missouri State Auditor’s Form C Debt Service Computation provided a recommended debt service levy of about 75.54 Cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation. The legal general obligation bonding capacity of the Dexter R-XI School District is approximately $21,647,154 for the April 3, 2018 election. To be able to amortize another $21,000,000 of bonds, the necessary debt service fund levy is anticipated to be 95 Cents, an increase of $62.11 per year for a taxpayer with a $100,000 fair market value home. L.J. Hart & Company presented another example for a financing of $10,000,000 general obligation bond issue that can be managed with a 69.52 Cent debt service fund levy ($9.50 of additional expense for a taxpayer with a $100,000 fair market value home). 

The Board of Education decided to seek a quick estimate of the total priority needs at the high school and other buildings in order to determine where to set the debt service fud levy at the August 16, 2017 tax rate hearing. With the District’s 2016-17 total levy of $3.4100, the Dexter R-XI School District ranks 27th out of 32 Districts that have similar enrollments (between 1,732 and 2,455) in the state of Missouri. Increasing the total levy by five cents to $3.4600, which represents the 2.21 Cent required decrease in the Incidental Fund and a 7.21 Cent increase in the debt service levy to 69.52 Cents would only move the District up to 26th out of the 32 Districts. If the District chooses to set the debt service levy at 95 Cents and grow the total levy to $3.7148, the Dexter R-XI School District would move to the 22nd spot. In any case, the District is going to remain below the average of about $3.99 for these 32 schools of similar enrollment.

After several questions were asked, the Board of Education directed Mr. Counts to prepare the hearing notice for the August 16, 2017 tax rate hearing of $2.7648 in the operating fund and to move the debt service fund levy to 69.52 Cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation.  If we meet with any noticeable resistance from the community at the tax rate hearing, we can listen carefully to it and change our decision.  Since it is part of our financial planning and represents good stewardship by the Board of Education, I expect most of our citizens are going to remain supportive,” Mr. Williams stated.  

The board members expressed appreciation to Mr. Counts and L.J. Hart & Company for the comprehensive report. “It is important that we establish our facilities priorities soon and adjusting the debt service fund levy in a way to prepare and involve the patrons as we jointly develop our future financing and building plans,” Mr. Williams concluded.