Carrollton School Board commits to purchase video board
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By Carmen Ensinger
Even though, technically, they didn’t reach their goal of raising enough funds through verbal commitments to pay for the first year’s installment of a new video board for the high school gym, the Carrollton School Board gave their approval for its purchase at the July 17 school board meeting.
The total cost of the video board from NEVCO is $64,415. The first year the district is obligated to pay 50 percent which is $32,208, plus installation costs at $8,250 for a total cost of $40,458.
Former Interim Superintendent Les Stevens, who has been spearheading the project, has spent the last several months trying to sell advertising packages to various businesses. These packages were for $1,000, 3,000 and 5,000 each for three years, which would give premium advertising space on the sign itself.
Stevens was at the July 17 board meeting to give an update to the board.
“I have a verbal commitment today of $73,100,” Stevens said. “The problem is, we are not going to see it all right away – this is over a three-year period.”
Remember, Stevens presented advertisers with a three-year advertising plan.
“Right now, for the first year you will see $28,100, which is short of what you are looking for,” he said. “But for the second year, you will see $23,000 and the third year, $22,000. Some people have chosen not to go across three years and only do one or two and some of that money is through donations.”
The first-year payment is short almost $12,500, but there is a bit of good news in there as well. Along with the video board, this also includes two shot clocks, which will become mandatory during the 25-26 basketball season.
One board member asked if any of the advertisers had signed a contract yet.
Stevens said he wasn’t going to write a contract to commit them to something when he didn’t even know if the board was going to approve the video board in the first place.
Actually, Stevens said he has been met with several challenges while trying to solicit donations for this video board.
“One of the biggest factors is the economy,” he said. “A lot of businesses have small advertising budgets and they are reluctant to commit to something that isn’t even here yet.”
Secondly, the football scoreboard.
“While very few people have said anything about the football scoreboard not being operated much since COVID 19, a couple people have said that they were disappointed their ads were not being seen after they paid for them,” Stevens said. “Of course, the last problem is I am not a citizen of Greene County. I think perhaps someone from Greene County might have more luck than myself who isn’t from here.”
Stevens said they would be surprised how many businesses are in the “waiting for responses” column.
“What I discovered is when you go into a lot of businesses, the decision maker is not there,” he said. “The company manager is never there or the decision maker is never there. That is frustrating to say the least.”
Stevens said by signing the contract tonight, the installation will take place in September, which will be well into the start of the school year.
“That is going to impact at least two days of the old scoreboard coming down and the new going up,” Stevens said. “But it shouldn’t affect PE too much. There is a 12 to 13 days window that the girls don’t have a home volleyball game so they can try to schedule it for that time.”
In other business, the board approved its health insurance renewal with United Healthcare. New Superintendent Jason Bauer said he negotiated a better deal with them.
“We were initially looking at a seven percent increase next year,” Bauer said. “But in getting them information about our claim history for the last 12 months and asking them to crunch the numbers, they came back with a two percent counter proposal with no changes in coverage, benefits or service.”
Bauer said to get only a two percent increase with no change in anything is very good and favorable for the district. The board agreed and approved the motion 100 percent. The renewal takes effect Sept. 1.
The board approved partnering with Therakids to provide speech pathology services to students in the district. Board member Amber Flowers asked if there was any chance of going back to in-person speech services for the students.
“The problem is you are competing with a lot of other places for their services,” Bauer said. “In my last district, we were paying in the mid-$60’s and we were losing them because it is more profitable for them to go into the private sector.”
The board also approved joining two purchasing cooperatives which would allow them to buy different supplies and services.
“By joining these cooperatives, the district is under no obligation to buy anything from them,” Bauer said. “But you have to be members to buy anything or use their services. This just allows us to get additional quotes for things we buy yearly to compare prices or maybe find better prices.”
