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Volume 104 • Number 74 • Thursday, April 17, 2014 • PO Box 188 • 111 E. Jenkins • Maryville, MO
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R-II board names president, new AD By TONY BROWN News editor
With no membership changes due to a lack of challengers in the April 8 municipal election, an officially reconstituted Maryville R-II School Board met Tuesday, voting in new officers and selecting mathematics teacher Jason Kurz as the district’s new athletics director for the 2014-’15 school year. Kurz is replacing Paul Snow, who has been reassigned to the position of high school activities coordinator. After 12 months as head of the district’s governing panel, Roger Baker stepped down during an organizational session held prior to
the regular meeting, and the board chose Frank Grispino as its new president and Rob Sparks as vice president. Both will serve oneyear terms. Another personnel item included board acceptance of the resignation of veteran Northwest Technical School agriculture teacher Jacqueline Lacy, who is leaving the district at the end of the school year In other business, Superintendent Larry Linthacum issued thanks to the board, district staff and the Maryville community at large for support of a $10.25 million bond issue in the election, which passed easily. The bonds will provide financing
for a new Maryville High School performing arts center, a second high school gymnasium and an enlarged cafeteria and kitchen at Eugene Field Elementary School. Other improvements are to include a new MHS weight room and secured main entrances at all three of the district’s campuses. Linthacum briefly laid out a construction schedule for the proposed auditorium, saying that work is to begin this fall and continue through December 2015. He said the district could have moved construction up had it spent significantly more on preliminary architectural and engineering plans, but that the decision was made to delay such spending until
Kurz is new MHS athletics director By JASON LAWRENCE Sports editor
Jason Kurz has coached four sports during his three-year tenure at Maryville High School. Starting with the 2014-’15 school year, he will be in charge of the athletic department. “I’m very excited, it’s a great opportunity,” Kurz said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life and kind of worked toward that goal. I didn’t necessarily see it happening this soon, but I’m very excited, especially to do it here at Maryville.” Kurz was approved Tuesday night by the Maryville R-II School Board to take over as athletic director next school year. He will replace Paul Snow, the 2014 Missouri Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Athletic Director of the Year for the Northwest District, who was previously reassigned to be the activities coordinator. Kurz said it would be a challenge following in Snow’s footsteps, but that he is glad to have Snow there as a resource as he moves into his new role. “It’s going to be a challenge because he set the bar so high,” Kurz said. “This department’s up high. That doesn’t mean we can’t
Jason Kurz New R-II AD
See KURZ, Page 3
voters actually approved the measure. As for the secondary gymnasium, that project will move forward as well, even though an applied-for grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to be approved. The grant is contingent on the gym being built in a way that would allow it to be used as a community crisis shelter designed with extra thick walls and other protective infrastructure. If the grant does not come through, a more conventional facility is to be built at less cost using bond revenue. Linthacum said that, at the moment anyway, he is not especially optimistic that the grant will come through. “It doesn’t look good,” he said. “We’re hoping that in time that it might be approved, but at this time it has not been.” In addition to new construction, the board was informed of other improvements slated for this summer, including asphalting of the lower, west-side parking lot running along Munn Avenue. Keller Construction of St. Joseph, which has also been contracted by the city of Maryville to pave a number of city streets this year, was the successful bidder on the job, which carries an estimated cost of $111,635. On other fronts, the superintendent had some pleasant fiscal news for the board with regard to faculty/staff health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield, premiums for which will not increase for the coming school year. Again in 2014-’15, R-II will pay
Frank Grispino New R-II Board President $1.28 million for employee health insurance out of a budget totaling $17.9 million. Other administrators reporting to the board included Northwest Technical School Director Jeremy Ingraham, who said the tech school’s building trades program will construct its next house on a lot obtained from the city of Maryville in exchange for student construction of two new rental cabins at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. The residence, to contain three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an unfinished basement, will be located at North Vine and Sixth streets. As with similar projects in the past, the home will be offered for sale following completion in order to recoup construction costs. District staff also made a couple of calendar announcements, including the annual Eugene Field Elementary School Field Day on Wednesday May 14 and MHS graduation, which will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 11.
Gift, grants boost library By KEVIN BIRDSELL Staff writer
KEVIN BIRDSELL/DAILY FORUM
Good news for the library
Maryville Public Library Director Stephanie Patterson is shown next to one of the five new computers that the library purchased with new grant funds.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — A new color copying machine, six new computers and 30 new folding tables are just a few of the items the Maryville Public Library has been able to purchase in recent months due to three grants totaling $24,515 plus a $1,800 gift from Nodaway Valley Bank. Two of the grants were funded federally via the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The third came from the locally administered Gladys Rickard Charitable Trust. Maryville Public Library Director Stephanie Patterson said she had a growing list of items that were wearing out and needed to be replaced, and that the grants were very welcome in yet another tight budget year. “The things we’ve been able to purchase with these grants may not be flashy, but they are what we need to keep the library functioning at a time when use is at an all-time high,” Patterson said. “We’re grateful to the Missouri State Library for helping us obtain these funds as well as the Rickard Grant trustees.” The $14,594 Rickard Grant paid for 30 lightweight folding tables, table and chair dollies and a flat screen TV with a cart. These
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items will be used for programming in the basement community room, as well as by community groups and families who rent the room for their own events and meetings. The Rickard Grant also provided $2,000 for children’s books and $1,000 toward the new copier. The rest of the cost of the copier, which is available for public use, was covered by federal Library Services and Technology Act funds totaling $3,733, money that went for new patron receipt printers as well. A separate $6,188 LSTA grant, awarded in the fall, paid for new wireless software and six new PCs, four of which are used by patrons to access the library’s catalog. Patterson said that while she’s thankful for the LSTA grants, she’s nervous about federal lawmakers seeking to cut federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “IMLS is the source of most of our grant funding,” Patterson said. “Those grants help us keep up with the technology needs of our patrons, so that Maryville residents can have the same level of access to technology as library patrons in urban centers. I encourage citizens to let (U.S. Rep.) Sam Graves, (U.S. Sen.) Roy Blunt and (U.S. Sen.) Claire McCaskill
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know how important these funds are to rural communities.” Nodaway Valley Bank donated $1,800 to the library for leveled reading books, which are intended for children just learning to read on their own. Such books, Patterson said, are in high demand and account for much of the recent record circulation. “We needed help meeting that demand, and Nodaway Valley Bank came through for us,” she said. In an effort to generate still more funds, the library host a book sale this week beginning today and running through Saturday. “This is the first sale that the proceeds are going to the ‘Reach Out and Read’ program,” Patterson said. “There’s an early childhood specialist at Northwest that wrote a grant. What it does is work through the physicians’ offices, and when kids come in for their well-child visits, the doctor — in addition to checking their health — tells parents they might want to start reading to their child. The kids then get a free book.” Along with the book sale, the library is holding an open house from 12:30-5:30 p.m. Friday that will feature drawings made by local children featuring scenes from their favorite books.
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