USD 418 MOVES SPECIAL BOARD MEETINGS

Still Looking to Fill 2 Empty Board Positions

By Staff

MCPHERSON – It was announced that the McPherson USD 418 Board of Education has moved their previously scheduled ‘Special’ Board Meeting scheduled for tonight, September 7 to Thursday, September 18.

This ‘special’ board meeting was set to conduct interviews for the two open board positions currently upon the USD 418 seven-member board.

A note to readers as a bit of an editorial from the staff – The USD 418 school board lost two members to resignations in June due to both moving out of the school district. The board as it currently sits has five members of which four are currently up for re-election on November 7, less than two months from today.

They have had over a month to sit down with those candidates who applied for the openings by the district set due date, yet now will have to wait two more weeks and another regular board meeting before the interviews.

Each week that they do not fill the vacant positions and bring the board to a full quorum of seven members is hurtful to the district, staff and students.

The USD 418 Board of Education is still planning a special board meeting for Monday, September 11, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. for the purpose of conducting the Revenue Neutral Hearing to approve the proposed mill rats for the 2023-2024 budget.

An additional Special Board Meeting will also be held on Monday, September 11, 2023, at 5:45 p.m. for the purpose of conducting the Budget Hearing and approving the 2023-2024.

Both these ‘special’ board meetings will be held before the monthly regular meeting of the USD Board of Education.

Note to readers as a bit of an editorial from our staff – We question two items here.

One, and we admit it slipped by us without noticing (our fault), when and why did the USD 418 Board of Education go from having two regular monthly meetings to just one?

Two, is anyone else concerned about USD 418 requesting the public to vote in favor of an $88.5 million bond issue concerning building an entire new high school without having any type of visual concept/design of what the new school may look like or approximate costs at this point?

Just two questions we are looking for answers to – especially considering the original bond issue had an extensive video and written presentation as to a new concept high school facility, in which the district scrapped due to the bond issue failing, when in our staff opinion – the bond issued failed to the presentation of the where the athletic facility was to be placed.

We cannot comprehend favoring that much money and raise in property taxes without having some kind of visual concept of how that money is going to be spent.

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