The Lebanon R-3 Board of Education learned more about the district’s participation in the Missouri Career Ladder Program from Career Ladder Committee co-chairs Mandy Jones and Lindsey Marcum before approving the district’s participants for 2025-2026 during their Tuesday meeting at the district’s Administrative Center, 224 W. Commercial Street.
The program, the district’s presentation explained, was a voluntary performance pay program that supports salary supplements for additional responsibilities and voluntary efforts that a teacher or teaching staff does not already get paid for. State legislators re-established the 60-40% (state-district) matching grant program in the 2022-2023 school year. There are 299 participants this year.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Services and Quality Improvement Dr. Jeremy Brownfield spoke out the revised required documentation for the 2025-2026 year as well as the district’s goal of increasing academic interventions through the program. The conversation also discussed state guidelines for the program and particpant feedback.
Board members Mary Russell and Amy Waterman discussed feedback they had received on the state’s shifting guidance on the program. Brownfield said the committee co-chairs had planned to move towards quarterly meetings with building representatives, building leaders and Brownfield for feedback.
Approved consent agenda items included the 2025-2026 calendar amendment mentioned in the Record’s Sept. 13 school board article, which removed five potential make-up days because of Senate Bill 68, and a memorandum of understanding for the district’s 2025-2026 Reading Recovery program established with Oklahoma State University.
During the district’s finance and operations update, Chief Financial and Operations Officer Adam Dameron showed that year-to-date operating fund revenue increased $634,611 from last year. Proposition C funding was $297,121 less than last year, but that funding was less behind than it had been last month. The foundation formula increased $200,217 through September from last year.
Year-to-date operating fund expenditures increased $28,780 from last year, Dameron showed.
Dameron said the district was reviewing operating expenditures to plan for a projected-to-continue reduced operating tax rate and projected, uncertain funding. The district planned feedback meetings for budget planning on Oct. 16 with principals and directors, Oct. 27 with the district’s Budget Committee (two principals, the Executive Leadership Committee and three school board members), and with the school board in a study session Oct. 29.
During a legislative update from Superintendent Dr. David Schmitz, he reiterated his view that now was a crucial time to advocate for public education and his concern about funding mechanisms in Missouri.
After Schmitz’s report, the school board voted to go into closed session for legal, personnel, and records protected by law from disclosure.
Readers can listen to a recording of the meeting by going to the district’s website and going to District Info, then School Board, then Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes, then the Oct. 14 Board of Directors Meeting and clicking on the video link.
