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Fredericktown R-I School Board President Richard Allgier, left, and UniTec Graphic Design Teacher Corey Warner, right, recognize Kali Smith for being the March UniTec Student of the Month.

Jane Kopitsky and Leo Francis take their oaths of office as Fredericktown R-I School Board members on April 19.

The first order of business at the last Fredericktown R-I School Board meeting was the reorganization of the board. 

Incumbent Leo Francis and newly-elected board member Jane Kopitsky both took their oaths of office. After Francis and Kopitsky took their seats, Richard Allgier was elected president of the board and Xandra Sonderman was chosen to be the vice president. 

The April election results were certified during the meeting. 

The board then welcomed several visitors to the meeting.

High school student Kali Smith was recognized for her commitment and achievements in the Graphic Design class at UniTec. Smith was chosen out of all her peers to be the UniTec Student of the Month for March.

UniTec Graphic Design Teacher Corey Warner attended the meeting to talk about Smith and present her with a plaque.

"Fredericktown supports UniTec very well," Warner said. "I think more than half of my students at UniTec come from Fredericktown, this one (Smith) being the best."

Warner said, every month he was asked to provide a name for student of the month candidates and every month he nominated Smith.

"I just threw Kali's name in every single month and it wasn't persistence it was because she deserved it every single month," Warner said. "She was performing the best. She gets along well with all the other students. She has a nice dry sense of humor which I appreciate."

Warner said, he is glad Smith was finally recognized as student of the month because it is well deserved.

"We should also mention that she represented UniTec at the Skills USA Competition this year," Warner said. "Which is something that is district, state and nationwide competition that all the programs in UniTec compete in whether it be welding, graphic design, culinary, etc."

Warner said this is his second year teaching and he did not get to compete in the Skills USA Competition last year because due to COVID-19, it was canceled.

"This year they told us basically to find your best student and don't give them an option," Warner said. "Luckily, I told her (Smith) and she jumped at the opportunity to do it. I felt bad because I couldn't help her out with anything because I'd never done it before either."

Warner said he had faith in Smith and they did their best to figure out what she would have to do during the competition. In the end, Smith placed second at the district competition and moved on to the state level.

"She placed third out of 12 and did very well," Warner said. "I am very happy for her because not only has she set a great example for the other students who might go next year but now she can explain to me exactly what happens there to teach kids to do it next year."

Warner then presented the plaque to Smith in front of the board and all those in attendance.

On behalf of the entire board, President Richard Allgier presented Smith with a card and goody bag.

In other business, Austin Pace with Byrne and Jones provided the board with an update on the high school track project. He said he would be attending each monthly meeting to keep the board informed of the progress.

"We have the track excavated," Pace said. "We have, I'd say 95% of the rock ready to go. The concrete is currently being poured. We have the inside curves and the drainage system around the track installed and the concrete crew has now moved to the D zone, which are the defensive, oval areas, on the football side."

Pace said, there was an unfortunate mix up with the cement plant and the wrong kind of mix was sent. He said he noticed significant amounts of shrinkage cracks.

"I saw that and said 'we can't have that,'" Pace said. "We ripped it all out. We are going to pour it all over again. We are moving forward with that."

Pace said, after the D zones are poured, crews will move to the outside where there will be a surrounding sidewalk around the outside. He said, the other crew reached a snag when the rock breaker, which is being used to break out the bedrock that is in line with the outflow drainage system, broke.

"Unfortunately, the breaker broke so we are waiting for a part to come in and fix that," Pace said. "From there we are going to break out the rock that is there and be able to install our drainage pipe and structures. Then we can move to paving the track and parking lot."

The board approved pay order No. 2 for the track in the amount of $226,899.90, as well as change order No. 3 which is estimated to cost between $15,000 and $25,000.

In other business, a pay increase for classified staff was approved.

"On the classified salary schedules, we tried to do the same percentage as what we did on the base, so around 3% and we just added that on all the lines," Superintendent Chadd Starkey said. "Probably the lowest increase would be somewhere around $500 and goes up to around $1,000, depending on how much you make and the base. There are a lot of factors there. We try to do that same percentage whenever we do the base for the classified folks as well."

Victoria Kemper is a reporter for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at vkemper@democratnewsonline.com

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Fredericktown R-I School Board President Richard Allgier, left, and UniTec Graphic Design Teacher Corey Warner, right, recognize Kali Smith for being the March UniTec Student of the Month.

Jane Kopitsky and Leo Francis take their oaths of office as Fredericktown R-I School Board members on April 19.

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