To fill their district one seat vacancy, the Christian County School Board approved appointing Erin Westerfield to the position at their Thursday meeting.
Along with Westerfield’s appointment the board approved a tentative budget for fiscal year 2024-2025, change orders for the consolidated Christian County High School and a new contract for Superintendent Chris Bentzel.
In April, former District One Representative, Jeff Moore announced his resignation and later in the month the board approved advertising the position at a special called meeting. On Thursday, the board went into closed session for the purpose of discussing the possible appointment of an individual to the vacant seat.
Following closed session, the board unanimously approved Westerfield’s appointment to the district one position. Board Chair, Tom Bell read the motion.
WHOP News had reached out to CCPS for information concerning the vacancy candidates, but had not received that information by the time of the meeting on Thursday.
The board also approved the tentative budget for the upcoming fiscal year presented to them by District Finance Director, Jessica Darnell. For projected revenue, Darnell shared that the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) fund formula was altered in the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly.
Darnell says the revised formula will result in the district receiving $340,235 more in SEEK funding.
Concerning expenditures, Darnell says the budget includes A 3% pay raise to all employees, wage raises to employees that did not receive one in 2018 and $1,000 employee stipends.
The board also approved six more construction change orders to the consolidated Christian County High School. Alliance Corporation Construction Manager, Kevin Hitchel shared that change order 19 is an expense concerning the purchase of additional classroom cabinets and also a credit for returned counter sill. Change order 20 is an expense concerning header blockings for windows to prevent leaks.
Change order 21 is an expense for coiling counter sill that was removed in change order 19. Hitchel says change orders 22 and 23 are net zero changes that moves funds from one purchase order to another concerning Kirk-key breakers.
Lastly, change order 24 is an expense for the remediation of soil unsuitable for building on. Hitchel says Thursday’s change orders total to around $67,000 and he and his team are running into less changes than they expected when taking on the project.
At the board’s prior meeting, Bentzel shared a self-evaluation highlighting his achievements during his term as superintendent. Since then, board also evaluated Bentzel and Bell says they unanimously gave him exemplary ratings.
With a positive evaluation, the board approved a new four-year contract for Bentzel.