Sedalia 200 board approves calendar, salary increases, facilities plan and several purchases; hears health insurance and financing briefings

The Sedalia School District Board of Education on March 31 approved calendar option No. 1 for the 2025–26 school year, a salary-schedule adjustment for employees, a long-term facilities plan, several construction and equipment purchases and a handful of staffing changes, and received extended briefings on the district’s health-insurance renewal and options for new lease-purchase financing.

The actions—taken during a regularly scheduled board meeting at Smith Cotton High School—followed staff presentations on each item, public recognitions including Skyline Elementary’s statewide growth ranking and the district’s Purple Star designation, and a market presentation on medical-plan alternatives led by Holmes Murphy.

Why it matters: the approved measures change district spending and staffing for 2025–26, set out a multi-year facilities and financing path and move key operating items into implementation (for example, the district will begin the procurement process for a planned bus-lane concrete project included in the facilities plan). The insurance briefing outlined trade-offs between a revised Blue Cross Blue Shield renewal and a self-funded/unbundled option using UMR + SmithRx + Symetra that could lower recurring costs but raise district financial risk.

Major board actions

- Calendar. The board approved calendar option No. 1 for the 2025–26 school year after Superintendent Dr. Fraley reported survey results showing staff preference and mixed opinions on the importance of spring parent-teacher conferences. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Salary schedule. The board approved a 2025–26 salary schedule that adds a $500 base increase for certified salaried employees and a $0.20 hourly base increase for classified employees. Dr. Fraley told the board the package, combined with an estimated 8.7% insurance increase, would cost roughly $1.694 million next fiscal year; he described district reserves as “thin” and said the district is dependent on state funding decisions. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Long-term facilities plan. The board accepted the district’s long-term facilities plan and noted the plan includes targeted projects, cost estimates and a timeline for bidding a bus-lane concrete project at the high school that will be returned to the board for bid approval. The plan contains placeholder estimates for a potential maintenance facility and warehouse that staff described as preliminary and inflated for comparison. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Videography contract. The board approved a proposal from CGI to produce promotional video content for the district at the three-funnel level (the memorandum cites a $13,000 starting price for three ‘‘funnels’’ of five to seven videos each). Board member comments raised questions about the SEO/online-reputation portion of the proposal; the approved motion specified the three-funnel option as presented. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Equipment and vehicles. The board approved purchasing one 2025 Polaris Ranger UTV (base model) from Jaeger Cycle of Sedalia for $24,302.91 and authorized staff to seek and purchase a used dump-style heavy-duty truck not to exceed 26,000 pounds and $60,000. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Construction change orders. The board approved two PCE Construction change orders (numbers 11 and 12) for Smith Cotton Junior High totaling $103,491.78 to add gym-lobby flooring and an audio-visual system. The board also approved a masonry repair contract at Washington Elementary with MTS Contracting for $15,525.00. The motions passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Student council (StuCo) advisor. The board approved creation of a combined StuCo advisor extra-duty position for 2025–26 using two existing extra-duty stipends (the change was described as not increasing the number of stipends, but combining them). The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Personnel and role changes. The board approved converting an open certified occupational therapy assistant (COTA) position into an occupational therapist (OT) position with an approximate $30,000 salary increase to reflect the OT pay scale; staff said the OT would be able to case-manage students and be scheduled in ways that could be reimbursed by the state when services are provided at the Loftus program. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

- Donations. The board accepted a $1,199.70 donation from Nucor to support new science equipment at Sedalia Middle School. The motion passed (ayes recorded; no dissent recorded).

Matters discussed, not decided

- Health insurance renewal. Holmes Murphy representatives summarized the market analysis the district requested after an initial Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City renewal of about 11%. Blue KC reduced its renewal to an 8.7% increase after negotiations; the broker team presented an alternative unbundled/self-funded illustration using UMR (third-party administrator) with SmithRx (pharmacy benefit manager) and Symetra (stop-loss). Holmes Murphy said the UMR+SmithRx option could yield roughly $300,000 in recurring savings driven by pharmacy reforms but would increase the district’s potential maximum liability (illustrated as roughly $10 million versus about $7.9 million under the revised Blue KC renewal). The board heard questions about member disruption (mail-order fills, formulary changes) and run-out costs if the district leaves Blue KC; the item was discussed and is scheduled for a decision at the April 14 meeting.

- 2025 lease-purchase financing options. Financial advisor L.J. Hart (Miss Wegman) presented scenarios for $10 million and $15 million financings, showed conservative rate and reoffering-premium assumptions, and said the district’s assessed-valuation growth and the existing capital-levy continuation would allow additional financings without breaching affordability under the presented assumptions. No financing was authorized; the briefing was informational and intended to shape future decisions.

Other notable discussion items and informational reports

- Recognitions: Skyline Elementary received statewide growth recognition for ELA growth (ranked fourth statewide in Missouri growth measures) and the district will be recognized as a Purple Star district at the state capitol for military-friendly school status.

- Senate bill 727/169-day calendar: Dr. Fraley briefed the board on Senate Bill 727, which creates an incentive for districts that adopt a minimum 169 student-day calendar (a 1% formula increase in year one, 2% thereafter). Staff noted that unless contractual work days remain unchanged, added student days could increase payroll costs and reduce or eliminate expected revenue gains; the board discussed gathering staff and union input.

- Sedalia Middle School renaming: Staff explained a DESE coding issue after sixth-grade moves years earlier; DESE currently classifies the building as ‘‘Sedalia Elementary’’ for certification and reporting purposes. The board discussed the naming clarification.

- Instructional and special-education proposals: The board received initial proposals (to be returned in April as decision items) to convert an existing English-learner teacher position into an EL instructional coach, to add an additional speech-language pathologist for the Loftus program, and to pivot elementary assessment software from MasteryConnect to Newsela Formative (staff cited a three-year quote of $50,385 plus a one-time in-person training fee of $4,500).

Tuesday, April 14 was identified repeatedly as the next meeting at which the board expects to take final votes on some of the items now in discussion (insurance decision, bidding for bus-lane construction and other projects). The board adjourned to a closed, statutorily authorized session under Section 610.021, RSMo., for personnel and other specified matters.

Ending note: multiple motions were approved by voice (‘‘aye’’) during the meeting; where the transcript records abstentions those are noted in the actions summary below.