The Nashville High School Board of Education met last night and held a public hearing on the tentative budget for this school year. Superintendent Ernie Fowler said nothing had changed from what he presented the Board with last month. Again he reported that he is looking at about $379,000 deficit spending in the Education Fund. Enrollment was down last year, which contributed to some reduction in state aid, but the State is giving out $85,000 less to NCHS due to them pro-rating every school, as well as about being short of nearly $170,000 in transportation funding. Again, the school is only expecting 3 of the 4 payments this year in each category. This all adds up to approximately $250,000 that the school should be getting that it won’t be getting. Later in the meeting the Board approved of the budget resolution to file with the various agencies to make it legal, as needs to be done by the end of this month. The Board also approved of the application to the Illinois Association of School Boards for Recognition of Schools. This is a yearly application that checks for compliances and Fowler says NCHS is compliant in all areas. He also presented a list of 6 field trips for the FFA to attend various competitions throughout the entire year, not just one at a time. The Board approved of all these trips last night, so they won’t have to worry about them coming up later in the year. The audit was done by Fuehne & Fuehne and was presented to the Board. Fowler reported it was a clean audit, as everything looked good and he commended NCHS Bookkeeper Stephanie Bauza for her work. The Board approved of the audit. Part of the audit is a form called a Report on Shared Services or Outsourcing and the Board approved this as well. Fowler explained what this is, which is a report to the State on what the school tries to do in sharing some services with other districts. One example is sharing curriculum planning with Nashville Grade School. Another example is working with the Career and Technical Educational Center and Kaskaskia Special Education District on shared educational programs. So, it basically tells the State Board that they are pooling resources when possible. Before going into closed session to discuss some student discipline, employment and other issues, the Board approved of Board President Shawn Cook as Hearing Officer for any student discipline hearings. Afterwards, two students were expelled for gross disobedience and misconduct for the whole school year. Fowler said they could be back next year upon completion of a year at alternative schooling. He could not go into any details on who the students are or why they were expelled. English instructor Bethany McQuiston, formerly Hinkle, was hired as the Freshman girls’ basketball coach. Also, the Board approved of changing Jennifer Maschhoff’s title from Special Education Coordinator – Curriculum Director to Dean of Students – Special Education Coordinator, but her duties will not change.