School Board Appreciation Month was the theme for the regular monthly meeting of the DeLeon Board of Trustees held on January 14. The Board was treated to a light supper provided by the Elementary Campus Faculty Club. The Board also received shirts with the district seal and noting their position as Trustees with the district.

Following pictures and the observance of Board Appreciation, the Board considered the consent agenda as presented by the administration. In addition to the regular monthly reports, the results of the recent Comanche County Appraisal District Board of Directors election were provided to the Board.

Serving for 2008 will be Gaylon Atkins, Billy Ray Evans, Jerome Hall, Rachel Hilliard and Sam Sparger.
The Board was also given an update on the progress on the two major renovation projects currently underway in the district. Slides of work being done at both the district’s new support center and at the baseball fields were reviewed.

Work at the support center continues with painting and flooring work being the main focus at this time. Students attending the district’s Project Success Program will be moving into their section of the building in the next two weeks. The Board was also shown work that had been done by Educational Service Center Region XIV in preparation of their moving from Comanche to occupy space in the facility.

Work on the baseball fields continues with all of the pipe for the backstop now up and the concrete work completed. Masonry work for the dugouts is scheduled to begin at the end of the week.

New bleachers have been ordered. Given the progress, it was noted that everything looked good to begin the season with a majority of the work completed by mid•February.

As a matter of discussion, the Board was briefed on the status of a piece of property in Desdemona that was previously owned by the district. The Board was briefed on the legal standing of the district in relation to the property. The administration noted that the school’s attorneys were researching the matter and additional in-house research was underway. No action was taken by the Board.

On the matter of facility needs, the Board postponed for twelve months any action related to calling a bond election for school construction purposes. Given the uncertain economic environment the consensus of the Board was that it was in the best interest of the district and the community to wait.

The administration noted that the window for state funding would be open in twelve months and that the best action for the district would be to wait. Even if a bond election was successful, the district would again be eligible for state funds in 2009.

In the area of personnel, the Board went into Closed Session for the purpose of evaluating and
reviewing the contract of the district’s superintendent. Upon returning from Closed Session the Board
approved an extension of Dr. Mohundro’s contract for an additional year, ending June 30, 2011, and authorized the Board President, Lisa Nowlin to negotiate the final document between the district and the superintendent.