School board

School board swears in election winners

The OISD board of trustees administered the oath of office to new Place 5 trustee Summer Branham and incumbent Jake Bailey and voted on new officers at the May 10 meeting. Place 4 trustee Jeff Harvey, who fended off a re-election challenge from Chris Widner, did not attend the lunchtime meeting. The board accepted the results of the May 7 election, in which Bailey and Harvey were re-elected, and Branham took the seat formerly held by Len Bernhardt for 12 years. The board re-elected Bailey as president, Place 6 trustee Kyle Hinson as vice president, and Harvey as Secretary. Branham volunteered to replace Bernhardt on the Olney Community Library and Arts Center board of directors.

Olney school trustees discussed options for rehabilitating the baseball and softball fields for the coming season after a $6 million bond issue to upgrade the sports complex failed at the polls on May 7. The school district recently signed a 50-year lease with the City of Olney for the baseball and softball fields to mitigate the costs of the improvements the school district planned. The bond proceeds would have paid for new fields and bleachers, press boxes, new lighting, a new concession stand and restrooms.

“I would ask everyone to be thinking about what direction we want to go,” Bailey told board members.. “As I look at it we have a few options.”

Bailey outlined three options: “One is to try again in November, one is to say we are going to take that fund balance money that we were going to use on the football field turf and try to spread that across the projects or the third option would be to do very little,” Bailey said.

He urged board members to talk to the community and come prepared to a May 23 meeting to discuss strategy for the ball fields. Rising interest rates may limit the board’s option to try again on a bond measure, but the ball fields could be improved in more affordable steps, he said.

School Superintendent Greg Roach outlined a potential strategy to make the baseball complex “presentable” with funds on hand. The playing field turf, fencing, and lights need to be replaced, and the concession stand and restrooms gutted and overhauled, he said.

“I’m not just talking about a minimum amount of money but continuing to save for what we want to do, whether we do another bond or not,” Roach told the board.