LA VETA — After reviewing the one and only letter of interest the district received, Gary Bridges of Cuchara was sworn in to replace the vacant seat left by Dianne “Sam” Law. The board was impressed by Bridges’ impeccable resume, which includes an extensive background in education and accounting. Mr. Bridges and his wife are fulltime residents of the Cuchara Valley and have a heartfelt interest in the school because they had two children who graduated from district back in 1989 and 1993. Right after Bridges was sworn in, acting President Kenny Schneider brought up the reorganization of the board, saying he would like to remain as Vice President rather than president due to his busy schedule. Director Ed Donovan was quickly nominated and unanimously voted in as Board President and the reorganized board quickly went about the rest of their meeting. The board accepted the resignation of fourth grade teacher Emily Madler with regret and heartfelt best wishes towards her future endeavors. They went on to approve the hiring of Laura Jameson as the elementary school teacher for 2014-2015 who will be taking over the fourth grade class. In other business the board approved superintendent Bree Lessar to take the head coach varsity volleyball position, due to the lack of qualified applicants. Heath Higgins will coach varsity golf, Lester Berry will be varsity girls basketball and assistant
volleyball coach, Jon Brunelli will be assistant varsity football coach. The board also approved Mike DeTray as an activity bus driver. They approved the second reading of the transportation policy, however due to controversy over eliminating one of the routes, the Bear Creek route, which now has only four students living on it. The school district has been sending a bus to the district line to bring in nearby students for over 20 years, and decided to continue the route after all this year. The board approved bringing back some supplementary stipends for the 2014-2015 school year. Last year the district had to do away with the stipends due to budget cuts, but as Superintendent Lessar and Business Manager Toni Brgoch said, we feel bringing the stipends back in a small form goes a long way towards the overall morale of the staff. The board will have a special meeting on August 18 at 7 pm to review and select a bid for the Garland Street project; bids will be received until 8 am on August 18. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the La Veta Board of Education will be on September 8. The board work session starts at 5, the regular meeting at 7 pm in the La Veta School library. As always the public is welcome to attend.
