In a change from prior years, the safe rooms will have a remote system that unlocks their doors automatically in the event of a tornado warning, meaning that residents who seek shelter there won’t have to wait for staff or volunteers to arrive to let them in.
“The doors are going to open if there’s a tornado warning, so you won’t have to worry if anyone is going to be there to unlock it,” said Chris Sloan, a Board of Education member who serves on the district’s safety committee.
Since their construction after the 2011 tornado, community safe rooms at all Joplin schools and Junge Field have been operated by volunteers and opened to the public during tornado watches, tornado warnings and severe weather events with winds exceeding 75 mph.
They now will be open only during tornado warnings or if there is dangerous weather in adjacent counties that is expected to hit the area, said Kerry Sachetta, assistant superintendent of operations. Volunteers will continue to be needed to supervise within the safe rooms, he said.
Sachetta said the safe rooms will no longer officially be open during tornado watches because district data showed they were significantly underused during those time periods. Most people who sought shelter in safe rooms did so during tornado warnings, he said.
The district plans to push out its new approach to the public within about two weeks. Specifically, residents who live near one of the 14 safe rooms can expect a letter from the district outlining the changes.
In other business, incoming Superintendent Mendy Moss will formally begin in her new role on Monday, but she will be in Joplin as early as today to attend a district leadership meeting and be introduced to staff, interim Superintendent Norm Ridder said.
“Dr. Moss is coming, and we’re very excited,” he said.
Moss was hired by the school board in November to replace Ridder, who has served in the interim role since summer 2015. She will begin moving into Ridder’s office at Memorial Education Center this week, and Ridder will start shifting into a role that is more supportive of the new superintendent, he said.
Ridder said several major administrative decisions have been delayed until her arrival. Key positions such as the principal of Jefferson Elementary School – previously filled by Chris Mitchell, who recently was named the principal of South Middle School – and a district communications officer have been left unfilled until Moss can provide input on hiring, he said.
The board on Tuesday also approved:
• The sale of Washington Education Center, 1112 E. Second St., for $1 to S.O.S. (Serving on the Streets) Ministries. Board President Jeff Koch said the building is unusable to the district and would have cost $300,000 to demolish.
S.O.S. Ministries founder Aaron Garcia said he looks forward to the potential.
“What this building really is going to inspire is change,” he said. “Inside those four walls, we hope for it to be an outreach center we can revive East Town, if you will. It’s going to be a great place for parenting classes, possibly an emergency shelter for people in the streets, just a great assortment of things we can do for people.”
• The payment of monthly bills in the amount of nearly $59.8 million. A typical month’s bills for the district are more in the range of $8 million to $10 million, and they typically cover the payment of salaries and benefits.
The majority of that amount was a refinancing and payment on the district’s voter-approved 2007 bond issue, said Paul Barr, chief financial officer. The bond issue provided $57.3 million in general obligation bonds to build and renovate the middle schools.
While the bonds are still not completely paid off, Tuesday’s motion is expected to save about $8 million in interest over the remaining 10 years of their life, he said.
• A summer school proposal in which classes begin on May 30 and end on June 23. Classes will be open to early childhood special education pupils, incoming kindergartners and students currently in kindergarten through 12th grade.
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