The USD 480 Board of Education met on Monday evening and in New Business action items, approved the Contract with Nexus Talent Solutions to recruit and hire an HR Director for the District.
The Board also approved a sign on bonus of $5,000.00 over 3 years to new certified teachers as described in the contract, and approved offering a $2,000 retirement incentive to certified and administrative staff if announced prior to Feb 15th of each school year, which would be applied to any eligible announcements that have been received to date this year.
Approved was the Payment Application No. 3 for the LHS Auditorium Rainscreen project in the amount of $418,999.59, and approved the bid from Pro-Tech Spraying Services, in the amount of $26,473.85 for bare ground weed control services to be provided throughout the district.
The Board approved the quote from Southwest Roofing in the amount $42,702.00 for repairs to the gym roof at LHS main campus and approved the 24-25 middle school focus handbook as presented.
Approved at the meeting was the new KESA 2.0 goals as were seven new courses at LHS for the 2025-26 school year. These include Advanced Materials & Fabrication, Applied Biotechnology, Coaching & Leadership, Computer Programing, Drawing for Designers, and Intro to Education. New course codes for classes at LHS were also approved.
A step to the supplemental salary approval flow chart was approved by the Board.
Approved was the hiring of Hirefox LLC to recruit certified teachers from the Philippines to teach in Liberal. Responsibilities of Hirefox include completing an extensive background check, ensuring candidates that are interviewed meet the qualifications of being a Kansas teacher, and help complete the legality requirements of bringing teachers over to the United States to work in Liberal. At this time, the Administration has asked Hirefox to begin the recruitment of 20 teachers in the areas of Math, Science, ELA, Special Education, and Elementary.
Given approval at the meeting was to allow the Director of Technology to spend up to $45,000.00 on streaming equipment for the Board meetings.