The Pineville Board of Education was presented with a trophy by the PHS Cheerleaders for placing second at the State All “A” Boys Basketball Tournament during a special called meeting last week.

“While we were at the All ‘A’ the cheerleaders were definitely a big stand-out bright light performance,” Superintendent Russell Thompson said. “I felt like the way they came together and laid it all out there on the floor was a big reason why you came back with the hardware that you did. We are very proud and glad to see the program going in the right direction.”

The team is coached by Brittany Ralston and Seretta Gambrell.

“We are very thankful to whoever had a hand in getting us to Owensboro — the board, Russell, J.D. (Strange), Dr. Boster, everybody — so thank you for that,” Ralston said. “I know the girls enjoyed their time actually getting to be together outside of school and stay at a hotel. I feel like it was an all-around just a really good weekend for everybody.”

Several of the girls also thanked the board for allowing them to go on the trip.

“We would have been proud of either way, but getting to bring home a trophy makes it an experience that hopefully you all remember for the rest of your lives,” Thompson said.

In other business the board accepted a clean audit report from Matt Shackleford for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024.

“The district gets a clean, unqualified opinion which is the best you can get,” he said.

That opinion was the same for the overall audit, the review of federal programs and the review of state funding.

There were only two minor comments, one on invoices that were not properly signed off on and one involving some activity funds that weren’t in the proper account for school oversight, but both of those issues have been corrected.

Athletic Director J.D. Strange had good news to share as he went over the athletic budget with the board. He said the teams had generated nearly $71,000 of their overall $80,000 budget so far with spring sports still to come. He also noted that both the girls and boys basketball teams will be receiving shares for advancing to the 13th Region Tournament.

“We’re on a pretty good track right now,” he said.

In a separate matter, Thompson said work was planned to repair the baseball and softball fields that were damaged during the recent flooding in Newtown. He said there were plans to add a new flagpole, new gravel and to make repairs to the outside of the concession stand/press box building.

“The fencing saw a lot of damage, but the city has agreed to work with us on getting it fixed,” Thompson said.

He added that there were also plans to put in a brick backstop on the baseball field.

“I know it’s small, about 35 x 30, but the baseball and softball teams have really been able to utilize that strip of turf behind the football field while their fields have been flooded,” he said. “They’ve also gone up into the batting cages and we got them a new shell that they can use for batting practice out on the concrete.”

He said they were waiting for flood season to be over before starting work on the Newtown fields.

“We’re going to repair all that we can and make it better than ever — we’ve got it all lined up,” Thompson said.

Architect Ben Boggs with Clotfelter-Samokar gave a construction update. Not much has happened with all of the recent rain and he said the final punch and review is still being worked on. One change order had to be approved for $600 for electrical work on the lights in the parking lot.

Boggs explained that the electrical engineer didn’t coordinate with KU and a part had to be swapped out.

“I don’t know the exact technicalities behind it other than they had to make some modifications,” he said. “We’ll take care of that and deduct the $600 from our architect fee.”

He said it may be April or early May before the final put in and all the drainage work is signed off on.

Schematic plans for the preschool will be presented at the March meeting. Boggs said some preliminary geo work has been done to determine what material to use for the foundations and the site is being surveyed.

Board member Chris Arnett shared concerns he had heard about how the outside of the old Presbyterian church would match with the planned new construction. Boggs said the entire building will have a new exterior so that everything matches.

In other business, the board:

• approved waiving the high school’s 24 credit requirement for a student who had moved from Australia and is projected to meet the 22 credits the state requires for graduation;
• heard from assistant principal Michael Wilson that the juniors had voted to hold the prom in the cafeteria this year for a more intimate setting;
• renewed their student accident insurance with Roberts;
• approved the 2025-26 Calendar Committee
• heard from Thompson that the school will be applying for a grant for 40 new ViewSonic boards and will be upgrading the wiring in the 80s building for 10x faster internet speed. That project will be paid for by $15,000 in grant funding and $4800 from the district.