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The Salem R-80 Board of Education held a tax rate hearing Thursday evening at the district administrative offices. Superintendent Steve Carvajal presented the operating levy of $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation, the lowest allowed by state statute, and the debt service of $0.45 per $100 assessed valuation to pay for the bond issue. The assessed valuation for residential and personal property came in at $66,414,000 which will provide approximately $1,826,388 in income to the school and the debt service amount should be close to $298,863 to pay the bonds. No one from the general public attended. In the regular meeting, Superintendent Carvajal said landscaping continues at the high school while the roof work at the Upper Elementary School is now complete. He did say that some tweeking is going to occur like the moving of some lockers to alleviate congestion, fixing some speakers that aren’t working, etc. will need to be done. Assistant Administrator John McCulloch said the professional development days consisted of mostly basic requirements and participation in a “shooter” exercise where the school has an intruder. He also said the R-80 and rural schools will get together for a program with an expert to discuss how to handle students who live in poverty. McCulloch then gave a preliminary Annual Progress Report that showed Salem going from a score of 89.6 in 2013 to 93.9 in 2014, but the final numbers for the district will be out August 29^th. McCulloch said the focus this year will be on math as that was an instructional trouble spot that the district feels they have fixed. At William Lynch, late enrollments increased the number of kindergarten students to 101 creating the need for a 5^th class. A total of 257 students attended William Lynch while the Upper Elementary School had a total of 305 students attend. Principal Melanie Wisdom said the Upper Elementary would host another technology safety night for parents and community members on September 16^th from 6:30 to 7:30 with Jennifer Schiftman from the St. Louis Cyber Task Force. They will be discussing Internet tips for parents and what their children are actually looking at on their phones. She and Middle School Principal Scott Roberts reported the Tiger Trail kickoff event at the Upper Elementary will be held September 13^th from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM. The trail was secured by a DNR grant through the Council for a Healthy Dent County. Roberts also thanked Healthy Dent County for the Neon Menu for the cafeteria, two water bottle filling stations and a rock-climbing wall at the middle school gym that were all paid for with grant money. Roberts and High School Principal John Smith both said school attendance was about 98%. Smith wanted to let the public know that all patrons attending events at the High School Gym will need to enter through the front doors only off the circle drive. He also said there were eight students in the Missouri Options program. The board approved the 2013-2014 Annual Secretary of the Board Report for the last school year, approved the tax levy of $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation and the debt service of $0.45 per $100 assessed valuation for 2014, and approved three changes to the A+ Handbook. The board also approved the 2014-2015 school budget that will continue to have about 20% reserve balance in Fund 1 and should be close to a breakeven budget, but Superintendent Carvajal said this year Salem has an increase of 30 students that could generate an additional $100,000 from the state, so he feels comfortable with the budget. He said there is still between $400,000 and $500,000 in Fund 4 that is for capital projects, but not all of the final bills have been submitted from the improvements. The board re-adopted board policy BBFA that deals with board members and any conflict of interests with businesses they may be associated with, and they accepted the resignations of Laura Parsons and Alicia Brookshire from food service. The board went into closed session.

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