The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education met Wednesday evening, and approved three out of four personnel matters. The Board approved the resignation of Jordan Mullen as Head Boys Track Coach, but tabled a decision on offering a contract to Abby Becker for the same position. The matter will instead be handled in an exempt session, later. No reason was given for their decision. The Board did approve contract recommendations for Clint Weppler as Link Center Para Educator, and Mark Anderson as Volunteer Boys Soccer Coach.

In other business, the School Board approved a 2019-20 Amended Certified Budget. The question was asked why the Budget was increased from nearly $2.5-million to $8-million. Superintendent Steve Barber explained “When we certified our budget (which must be certified by April 15th), part of that certification of the budget is to publish and post it at least 20-days prior to April 15th. The bond issue was passed on April 2nd (2019). There’s no way that we could have amended that, because it couldn’t include the bond expenditures in there because it hadn’t passed yet.

Barber went on to say “So we went to $8-million just for the fact that we didn’t know how much expenditures would be coming by June 30th (2019). This year (past year) we’ve had five projects. Anything that is spent for the bond…and expenditure to that account would be approved by the Board, based upon work that was completed with the project.” Board Vice President Kristy Pellett said also, “The taxpayers authorized, when they approved the General Obligation Bond Sale, that tax expenditure. So that’s already been done. That was done last year with the passage of the bond. This process is more to keep our school budget in line that we are spending what we have told the State we would spend for the 2020 Fiscal Year.” Steve Barber added, “It’s safe to say we’re not going to spend $8-million, but we didn’t want to say ‘Okay, it’s gonna be $4-million, 800-thousand, then all the sudden it’s $5-million,200-thousand. We kind of elevated that number just to say ‘We really don’t know how much is gonna be done by June 30th, so that we wouldn’t overspend it and have to amend it again.”

The bottom line, according to the Administration: There will be No Increases in taxes to be paid in the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2020. In other news, the Atlantic School Board set 6-p.m. March 11th as the date for a Public Hearing on the 2020-21 School Calendar, which as it stands, calls for: classes not to begin until Aug. 24, 2020; Fall P-T conferences to be moved back one-week to avoid extracurricular activities conflicts, as in prior years; A full day of school Dec. 22nd, prior to the Winter Break; A shorter Winter Break due to Christmas falling on a Friday; and the Last Day of School (2021) to be scheduled before Memorial Day due to that holiday falling on May 31st.