Thursday, January 25, 2024
Volume 152, No. 4 - Princeton, MO 64673
FIND THIS INFORMATION AND MORE IN THIS WEEK’S PRINCETON POST-TELEGRAPH
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IN SPORTS - PRINCETON BOYS SECURE WIN OVER TRI_COUNTY
Marathon meeting for R-3 school board Meeting runs for almost 71/2 hours with two closed sessions held. One closed session ran almost 7 hours; open sessions lasted 27 minutes PRESTON COLE Princeton Post-Telegraph
MERCER, Mo. The North Mercer County R-3 Board of Education met for nearly 71/2 hours last Thursday night (Jan. 18), with virtually all of that time spent behind closed doors. Two closed sessions were held, with the first session lasting nearly seven hours and extending past 1 a.m. Friday (Jan. 19). The evening began routinely enough at the usual 6 p.m. start time, and members took up the usual start-of-meeting items, such as approving past meeting minutes and the consent agenda. On this night, that agenda including paying January bills plus a December bill (for property insurance), and approving finance reports, the boys/girls basketball report, and reports on the after school, guidance, nurse and transportation programs. It was noted that the board had unanimously paid January bills via email on Jan. 8. The board then went into its first closed session at 6:07 p.m. under Subsections 3 and 6 of Section 610.021 RSMo, officially the Open Meetings Act but bet-
ter known as (and called) the Sunshine Law. Subsection 3 involves personnel matters (hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of individuals). Subsection 6 involves scholastic probation, expulsion or graduation of identifiable individuals, and includes records of test or examination scores. This session lasted 6 hours, 54 minutes, until 1:01 a.m. Monday. No action was taken during the marathon session, and no votes were taken. An open session followed, which lasted 20 minutes. During this time, the 2024-25 school calender was approved. It calls for classes to start Aug. 20 and end May 15, 2025. Parent-teacher conference days will be arranged with professional development activities in the morning, and conferences in the afternoon. No spring break is included in the calendar. Budget amendments were received and approved, and they sliced just over $6,000 off the anticipated end-of-year deficit. The deficit is now pegged at $29,396 at the end of the school year, which is June 30. Superintendent Wade Hall said the district will get about $49,000 from the MOQPK preschool grant. See Mercer school board, Page 8
Cainsville Homecoming royalty
September-November 2023 will go down on record as Earth’s warmest such period on record, a substantial leap - 0.70 F (0.39 C) - above the previous record from 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The report uses historical climate data going back to 1850. NOAA says there is a 99% chance that 2023 will be the warmest year in 174 years of records. The average annual temperature in the lower 48 states was 54.43 F, making it the fifth-warmest year on record dating back to 1895, based on data from NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information. In a record-breaking year with many climate extremes across the globe, Missouri also experienced unusually warm and dry conditions in 2023, says Zack Leasor, UniverCOLUMBIA, Mo.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A retirement celebration was held on Wednesday, January 17 at Farmers Bank in Mercer for Fran Fisher (second from right). Fisher retired from Farmers Bank of Northern Missouri after 34 years of dedicated service. Friends, family, coworkers and customers gathered to celebrate and wish her well. FBNM president and CEO David Tribble (from left(, FBNM team members Lori O’Reilly, Mitch Reger, Shayna Mulvania, and Emily McFee were on hand to help Fran Fisher celebrate her retirement last week.
2023 may have been Earth’s warmest year on record University of MO Extension
Junior Bree Vaughn (left) and senior Benecio Madrid were crowned as the royalty of Cainsville High School’s Homecoming on Friday night.
Fisher Ends 34-Year Term With Mercer Banking Institution
sity of Missouri Extension state climatologist. Missouri’s average temperature in December was 9.1 F above average. “This continues a streak of 14 consecutive months with above-normal average monthly temperatures in Missouri,” Leasor says. “Eleven counties in northern Missouri experienced their warmest December on record. The smallest county in the state, Worth County, in northwest Missouri, was warmest, with temperatures 11.5 F above average,” he says. The statewide average temperature for 2023 was 57.4 F, making 2023 the third-warmest year on record for Missouri going back to 1895 and 2.9 F above the 19012000 average, he says. The same data shows that Missouri’s annually averaged daily high temperatures were higher on average (+3.2 F) than daily low temperatures (+2.6 F). Howell and
Oregon counties in southern Missouri set the record for their warmest year on record, breaking records from 2012 and 2016, respectively, Leasor says. Missouri finished the year with 35.89 inches of precipitation, which is 4.61 inches below the state’s annual average. 2023 ranked as the 24th driest year on record. Excluding some of the wetter months of the year, the eight-month period of April to November was the seventh driest stretch on record, with the 2023 drought defining the state’s growing season. The only years with drier growing seasons include some of the most notable drought years in state history: 1901, 1953, 1980, 2012, 1976 and 1930. Thirteen counties ended 2023 with precipitation deficits exceeding 10 inches for the year. For more information on Missouri’s climate, go to http://climate. missouri.edu.
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