Platte County schools will be dismissed for summer on May 25 after board vote

The school year will end a day early for Platte County R-3 students.
During the board of education meeting on Thursday, April 19, the members unanimously voted to make the last day of school, Friday, May 25.
Due to four makeup days in recent months — Jan. 11 and 16 and Feb. 20 and 22 — the last day of school was scheduled to end after the Memorial Day weekend.
Superintendent Dr. Michael Reik noted the school is required to attend 174 days by the state. Platte County would’ve been attending day No. 175 if they returned to school on Tuesday, May 29 for a half day of class.
“When this happens, when we have that half day pushing on the other side of Memorial Day Weekend, we realize we won’t get strong attendance that day,” Reik said. 
In other action, the board approved a contract with St. Luke’s Sports Medicine to provide athletic training services.
The school will spend $30,000 over the next three years as part of the contract with St. Luke’s — formerly Mosaic Orthopedic and Sports Medicine.
Others submitting bids were Children’s Mercy, $15,000 and SERC, $64,800. Two of the three were invited for an interview with the selection panel, who decided to go with the second lowest bid based on, cost of service, qualifications and relevant experience.
An athletic trainer will be at the high school five days a week and at the middle school one to two days a week. The athletic trainer will start the first day of fall practices and work until district postseason in the spring. Physicals will be given for athletes between seventh and 12th grade — a slight change from the high school only availability. 
A trainer will be at all home fall, winter and spring sporting events at all levels, while traveling to every away varsity football game and be at each high school football practice. In addition, a trainer will be at all high school and middle school hosted tournaments and coverage of all postseason games in which Platte County is a participant.
The school agrees to have signage posted in the stadium, event program and announced through the PA system.
In addition, a contract was approved for Infinite Campus for a student information system for Northland Career Center. Infinite will charge $18,031 to implement of the software and $7,241 annually for 362 students.
The other bidders included Lumen Touch, which had a $13,066 base bid, but annual costs ranged between $5,000 to $10,000 annually. PowerSchool had a base bid of $75,967.53.
Reik noted the school is in better shape this year than last year and that is before the month of March financials have been posted. Later in the meeting, he and Angie Hughes, executive director of business services, provided information on the strategic plan update for the R-3 district.
The district 2016-17 per pupil expenditure was $10,229, below the state average of $10,724.
In terms of the reserve ratio, the district is at a five-year low 14 percent. The peak came in 2013-14 at 21.29 percent and has dropped the following three years to 1806 to 17.46 and to the current 14. Reik noted the goal is to be between 18 and 22 percent.
“The 18-22 percent is not a one-year goal, it is a multi-year strategy,” Reik said.
In terms of tax levy, the school district’s $5.0439 checked in one of the lowest in the area compared to other area schools in 2016-17. Of the 16 school totals provided, only West Platte, North Platte and Smithville had a lower levy and last month, Smithville voters approved a hike to help pay for construction of a new school and that made their levy higher than Platte County.
Park Hill’s levy is $5.52, while three area schools have levies at more than $6 – Liberty ($6.45), North Kansas City ($6.42) and Raytown ($6.32).
In other news:
- Platte County senior Lauryn Masters was recognized by Platte County High School Principal Dr. Chad Sayre for receiving two awards – the Virjean Burton Youth Philanthropy Award and The Presidential Volunteer Service Award. Masters, who is the president of PCHS’s FBLA organization and a member of the National Honor Society, received a $1,000 grant and earned a $2,000 scholarship for the Burton award from The Northland Community Foundation, given to students from Platte or Clay counties. Masters was honored for her work with Hillcrest Platte County, organizing two Community Bingo Nights as well as a pancake feed that helped raise more than $3,000 for the local organization. She donated more than 500 hours of volunteer work.
“Before we first started with Hillcrest, I didn’t know what they did. I thought they were just a thrift shop on 92, that is what I thought it was,” said Masters, who will attend Evangel University in Springfield this fall. “Then we drove and learned they are making a deep impact in the community.”
- The board approved a contract renewal with MOREnet, a University of Missouri-based business that provides internet access, technical assistance and training to public entities which expires in June. The board approved a three-year contract for $3,888.62 per month and will include 625 mb, an increase of 25 percent over the current speed and could increase to 2.5gb.
- Platte County Middle School teacher Julie Points was the April SCHIVIR Me Timbers award winner for being student-focused and having a ‘true heart of an educator.’