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Friday, February 15, 2019
REPUBLICAN-TIMES TRENTON
Trenton, MO 64683
Established Sept. 4, 1864 - 155th Year - No. 48
TRENTON R-9 SCHOOL BOARD
due to the weather. The district had already added May 16 as a make-up day for classes missed in October for the state high school girls softball tournament in which Trenton played. Should the final make-up day be needed, April 18 would be used. Parent-teacher conferences, scheduled for March 14, have been cancelled and students will be in class for a full day rather than the early-out, which was designated on the original calendar. Corey Leeper, who cast the lone no vote, expressed concern about not having a day available when classes could be dismissed should the high school girls basketball team play in the state tournament in March. Director of Supportive Services Kris Ockenfels noted that the district’s other options would be to go to school on Good Friday (April 19), go to school on a Saturday or go on May 28, the day after Memorial Day, which would push back the start of summer school. The board voted 6-1, with Leeper opposed, to approve the 2019-20 school calendar, which is based on the number of instructional hours school is in session rather than the number of days. DESE is
requiring districts to have a minimum of 1,044 hours of instructional time during the school year, giving schools the flexibility of building additional hours in the calendar within the school year for “snow days” if needed. With the first day of school being on Aug. 14 and the last day on May 15, 2020, the new calendar has 1,091 hours of classroom time at Rissler and 1,130 at the middle school/high school. This gives Trenton 58 hours for weather days, which equals eight full days and three early outs or late starts. The calendar extends the instructional time at Rissler by five minutes per day, making the new dismissal time 2:55 p.m. The change at Rissler is being made to allow enough total hours to be built in for weather days. Teacher contracts would not be affected and bus times and routes would have a minimal adjustment. There was also a recommendation that non-certified staff not on 12-month contracts be paid for the weather days, however, that suggestion was tabled for further discussion. The board had originally voted See R-9, Page 8
SCHOOL BOARDS Grundy R-5, Laredo R-7, Tri-County R-7
See Boards, Page 8
Fourteen Pages - 2 Sections - 1 Insert
President’s Day Closings Several offices and businesses have announced their plans to close on Monday, Feb. 18 in observance of the President’s Day holiday. Closed will be the Trenton City Hall/Trenton Municipal Utilities, the Grundy County Courthouse, the Grundy County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Trenton Area Chamber of Commerce/License Bureau, the Grundy County-Jewett Norris Library, the Grundy County Health Department, the North Missouri Children’s Advocacy Center, the North 65 Center, Green Hills Regional Planning Commission (the Career Center will also be closed), Community Action Partnership of North Central Missouri, KCP&L, Grundy Electric Cooperative/Grundy and Livingston County Public Water District offices, Farmers Bank of Northern Missouri, Farmers State Bank, Citizens Bank and Trust and US Bank. The Trenton Post Office will be closed on Monday and there will be no mail delivery or box mail. There will be no classes in the Trenton R-9 School District as well as at North Central Missouri College. The Republican-Times office will be open regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
County Commission Meeting The Grundy County Commission will hold its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday in the commission office at the courthouse. Grundy County Emergency Management Director Glen Briggs will meet with the commission at 8:30 a.m., followed by a meeting with Grundy County Ambulance Director Steve Tracy at 10 a.m. MoDOT District Engineer Austin Hibler will meet with the commission at 1:30 p.m. for an update.
TAMA Fundraiser An event to benefit the Trenton Area Ministerial Alliance’s Good Samaritan Fund will be held on Friday, Feb. 22. “The Sharing of the Heart” baked potato bar and homemade pie auction will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Space in downtown Trenton. The event is an eatwhat-you-want, pay-what-you-want meal. The pie auction will be conducted by auctioneer Michael Witten, with a pie to be sold every 15 minutes. All proceeds will go to the TAMA Good Samaritan fund to help residents in need pay for utilities.
Calendar Revisions Approved Make-up days were set and administrator contracts offered during February meetings of the Grundy R-5, Laredo R-7 and Tri-County R7 boards of education. Grundy R-5 The Grundy R-5 Board of Education approved nine make-up dates for classes lost due to weather during a meeting on Wednesday night. Superintendent Rob Deaver said that Feb. 18, March 15 and March 18 will be used along with May 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20, with May 20 being an early-out and the last day of school. R-5 has missed 12 days of school, but only nine are required to be made up so far. In addition to the make-up days, the board cancelled parent-teacher conferences, scheduled for March 14, and March 20 will now be the end of the third quarter. March 15 will also be an early-out, with the high school getting out at 12:30 p.m. and the elementary school dismissing at 12:40 p.m. The board set a public hearing for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 at the high school in Galt to hear public comment on the proposed 2019-20 school start date. A hearing is required when the classes start more than 10 days prior to the Labor Day holiday. March 13 will also be the regular meeting date for the board. The Annual Performance Report was reviewed with Grundy R-5 earning 100 percent of the 118 points possible. The district was only one of 10 districts in northwest
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Briefs...
Pay Decision Based On 2019-20 Calendar Delayed
Revised 18-19 Calendar OKd Students in the Trenton R-9 School District will be losing some of their originally scheduled days off from school, but a new calendar adopted by the board of education on Tuesday night will assure the last day of classes this year will occur before the Memorial Day holiday in May. On a 6-1 vote, board members approved a revised school calendar that makes Friday, May 24 the last official day of school for 2018-19 and allows students to be out of classes prior to the start of summer school, which is scheduled for Tuesday, May 28. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires school districts to make up the first seven days of class time missed due to weather, then make up every other day missed through 14 days. Trenton has missed 12 days of school due to weather through Tuesday, Feb. 12, requiring the district to make up 10 of those days. If more days are missed due to the weather, Trenton would have only one other day to make up. The calendar approved by the board designates March 15 and 18, April 22 and May 17, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 (an early out) to be used as make-up days missed
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Bulldog Apparel Sale The Trenton Middle School PTO will be selling Bulldog apparel through March 1. T-shirts and hoodies will be offered for sale for youth and adults through size 3XL. The cost is $10 for shortsleeved t-shirts, $15 for long-sleeved t-shirts and $25 for hoodies. Order forms are being sent home with students and will also be available at the Republican-Times newspaper during business hours. Money and order forms can be dropped off in the TMS office prior to March 1. R-T Photo/Ronda Lickteig
It’s possible that the Green Hills Weight Loss Challenge should begin after the annual Green Hills Animal Shelter’s “Walk in Chocolate Heaven” fund raiser as there was a lot of temptation at the event, held Tuesday at the First Christian Church. There were a total of 28 entries in the event, including Rebecca Neill’s chocolate Oreo truffles, and the event raised approximately $5,000 for the shelter. Winners were selected in both adult and youth divisions. See page 3 for photos of those taking top prizes for creativity, taste, presentation and overall winners.
TRENTON CITY COUNCIL
********** Weather permitting, Trenton’s Got Talent will be held at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the Trenton High School Gym. Admission is $3. Pizza and drinks will be sold at intermission.
Water Line Projects Approved
Trash Hauling Bids Being Sought, Again Bids are being taken for trash hauling services in Trenton after council members approved specifications at a meeting on Monday night. The council unanimously agreed to seek new bids for the contracted services, which would include residential and city facilities trash collection along with bulky item pick-up. The contract would be for a five-year period, running from May 1, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2023. In December, council members rejected three bids received for trash hauling services and chose to extend its contract with Rapid Removal for four months until new bids could be sought. The city will be accepting bids through Wednesday, March 6, allowing the council to consider the bids at its Monday, March 11 meeting. Some additions have been made to the specifications, requiring the com-
pany to notify local media and city hall at least 24 hours in advance if trash will not be picked up on a specific day and stating which day the pick-up will occur. In addition, the company will be required to have two persons to pick up bulky items that weigh up to 150 pounds and trucks being used will be required to have single rear axels to allow for tighter turning radiuses and to reduce sliding of tandem axels at intersections. An advertisement for the bid will appear in Friday’s Republican-Times. The council, on a 6-1 vote with Brad Chumbley opposed, approved an ordinance authorizing a change in its agreement with Lathrop Gage LLP and ESSI for engineering services regarding the city’s water line testing for lead. ESSI, on a request from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, will be preparing a revised set of drawings
National Weather Service Snow returns on Friday before clearing off on Saturday during the day under sunny skies. Snow will be back on Saturday night and Sunday, with partly sunny skies on Monday. The high at Trenton on Monday, Feb. 11 and Tuesday, Feb. 12 was 32. Wednesday’s high was 41 and the low was 16. There was also one-half inch of snow on Monday. Wednesday’s high at the Government Weather Station near Spickard was 39, the low was 12.
showing significant changes that have been made during construction of the city’s phosphate chemical system in accordance with records already provided. In addition, ESSI will be available to consult with the city as it finishes up its lead testing through June 30. The cost to the city for the additional work will be $9,500. Bids were accepted for two water line projects, with both bids going to M&M Utilities, Inc. of Chillicothe. The first bid of $179,494.40 is for water line work on Eighth Street while the second bid of $155,510 is for elimination of water lines crossing Ninth Street. City Administrator Ron Urton said both bids were below what had been budgeted by Trenton Municipal Utilities for the project cost. Both projects will be completed this year prior to the state’s planned overlay of Ninth Street in 2020.
Urton reported he had talked with the Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer regarding concerns about the current condition of Ninth Street and was told it would be looked at in the spring to see if any work could be done to make improvements to the road. The council also approved the yearly net metering report from TMU regarding solar power users within its system. There are currently four users of solar power in Trenton. Chumbley asked city staff to address concerns regarding removal of snow from sidewalks on the Ninth Street bridge, noting that individuals have been walking on the roadway because the snow has not been removed. Urton said he would talk with MoDOT about the concerns and will also provide
What’s Inside... Classes 1, 2 and 3 begin girls and boys district basketball play next week. Tournament brackets involving several area high schools, including Trenton and Grundy R-5, appear on page 2 of today’s Republican-Times.
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What’s Inside Sports.................Sec. 1, page 2 Local ...........Sec. 1, page 3 & 8 Op/Ed.................Sec. 1, page 4 Community .......Sec. 1, page 5 Agriculture ........Sec. 1, page 6 Crosswords........Sec. 1, page 9 Dear Annie.........Sec. 1, page 9 NASCAR ...........Sec. 2, page 1 Comics ...............Sec. 2, page 4