The Santa Fe Board of Education met in regular session on Thursday, January 22nd. Mr. Lark shared that school resource office, David Cobb, would be attending a safety workshop sponsored by Missouri School Board Association’s Center for Educational Safety. The training will provide best practices for SRO’s as well as account for mandated training for school districts as a result of legislation passed last session. Additionally, he shared that members of the districts Threat Assessment Team would be undergoing refresher training, which will focus on assessing the validity of threats in schools, such as general threats of violence towards the school as a whole, individual threats, self-harm, bullying, etcetera. The threat assessment process provides a platform that provides a concrete structure for trained individuals to make informed decisions. “Discerning the validity and seriousness of the various and numerous types of threats that are made in all venues of a school district can be very, very challenging. Having a standard process with trained individuals enables us to make decisions that are more informed and consistent,” stated Mr. Lark. He then focused on the Governor’s State of the State Address. Summarizing the educational issues discussed, Mr. Lark noted that Governor Kehoe emphasized his intent to support school choice through legislation involving open enrollment and school voucher systems (MO Scholars). Lark shared that in fiscal year 2026, the state approved $51 million for the MO Scholars funding. He went on to share that more importantly, the major shift is that this funding is now coming out of general revenue (public tax dollars), whereas prior, funding came from tax credit eligible donations. It is anticipated that this will more than double the number of scholarships handed out in Missouri. As well, while voucher systems were initially touted to provide opportunities for families who could not afford private education, the threshold to qualify for the MO Scholars program was increased to 300% of the free and reduced threshold. “Presently, many of our law-makers in our capitol support school choice measures that will continue to divert public tax dollars away from the public education system in Missouri. This shift in policy will marginalize small, rural schools and I believe that is intentional. So, here’s the question, do we value rural public education opportunities, or do we want see larger countywide schools and public tax dollars for vastly increased attendance at private schools? You can’t have it both ways.” Mr. Lark went on to share that he is in the planning phase of a ‘Town Hall’ type of opportunity to further share this information and educate the public so they can make informed decisions and share those opinions with their elected officials. In other business, he also shared that he would be submitting a waiver request to enable the Santa Fe S.D. to start on the traditional 3rd week of August, which under present law, will not be permissible because of the state fair running a week later than usual. He did share that if the waiver were approved, students participating in fair events would be excused and that the district would use reasonable discretion on student absences that week.

In their reports, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Brown recognized the following: Mrs. Smith Santa Fe staff for supporting the Waverly Food Pantry—$700 donated by district Beta Sigma Phi Sorority— preschool and library book donation Riverview Insurance Agency—Donation to pay off school lunch accounts at semester Waverly Assembly of God Church—paper and marshmallow donation Waverly Christian Church—clothing donation for older and/or larger students La Crosse Lumber Co.—donated plexiglass for popcorn machine Danny Meyer—replacing the doors on the popcorn machine Mrs. Brown Thank you to Bratcher’s for donating plastic bags for the back snack program.

Thank you to the businesses that made donations for the Alma Country Christmas.

Thank you to the patrons that donated official dress items for FFA this last month.

Thank you to the Warner family for bringing pizza for staff for lunch on the last day before break.

Congratulations to Wyatt Aversman and Dalton Doak for placing in the top 10 at the November Area VI Trapshoot Congratulations to Wyatt Aversman and Ainsley Hall for placing in the top 10 at the December Area VI Trapshoot.

Students that went to Sedalia for Middle School Honor Band.

In closed session the board unanimously approved Megan Tichenor as the next principal at Santa Fe High School. Ms. Tichenor has years of experience in educational administration, with her first experience in the Orearville school district. She then spent time at Northwest schools before her last tenure in the Marshall School District. With regrets, the board also approved the resignation of Mrs. Chandra Keuhn who will be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m.