The Pineville Independent Board of Education heard an update from IT director Kenzo Vanhaesebroeck during a special called meeting on May 28.

He said that while a lot of improvements have been made in the way the school handles its technology since last year, more strides need to be made in that area.

“We’ve had less go missing and less break, overall we’re continuing to see improvements,” he said. “This was the first year we had an inventory system and I noticed that at the end of the year there were still a lot of devices missing and a lot that were broken.”

Vanhaesebroeck said it wasn’t unusual for a school district to lose some of its inventory over the year, but suggested some new policies be put in place to reduce those numbers at Pineville.

In all, 44 devices were completely missing — 22 from the high school, 21 from the middle school and one from the elementary. That was a total of almost $13,000 worth of Chromebooks that were checked out and never returned.

“It really comes down to how can we hold those people accountable, both staff and students,” he said.

Vanhaesebroeck said he had checked with other districts to see what they are doing and found there was no perfect solution.

“Do we want to charge a technology fee at the start of the year to offset what we lose? Do we want to charge them for a device lost or broken? Do we want to hold them accountable by saying if you lose it you don’t get another device for the rest of the year or you get a lesser device,” he said. “The problem is every school district says there is no perfect solution. I just know that’s a lot of money to lose year-to-year.”

Another 64 devices were lost during the school year due to breakage. The student technology club was able to repair 13 of those and several others were covered under warranty.

“I don’t want us to get into a position three or four years down the road where half of our inventory is gone and we don’t have the money to replace it,” Vanhaesebroeck  said.

Superintendent Russell Thompson asked how many computers were damaged due to a TikTok challenge that showed students they could harm their laptops by sticking lead into the USB port.

Vanhaesebroeck said he was still finding lead in USB ports and that he would guess between 20 and 30 devices were damaged because of that.

“Some of those are still functional, just the USB port doesn’t work,” he said. “I’m having to test every single one of them.”

Some kids were caught doing the TIkTok challenge and had been punished.

Thompson said those who couldn’t afford to pay the $300 for a new Chromebook will be doing community service of 30 hours to make up the cost.

“If we continue with no consequences then they are going to continue to follow TikTok trends,” Thompson said.

Vanhaesebroeck also informed the board of Senate Bill 181 going into effect for the upcoming school year. The new law requires traceable communication between staff and students and takes effect on June 27.

“The state has pretty much said that all communication between staff and students needs to be traceable by the district and saved so a parent can request to be shown that information,” he said.

After researching several potential solutions, Vanhaesebroeck recommended using Parent Square as the most cost-effective.

“It can take over some things that Infinite Campus already does like attendance calling and gives us an option to reach out on Facebook, e-mail, phone and it can put things out on our website,” he said. “It pretty much combines all of our communication out to parents into one platform.”

Barbourville, Cumberland County were already using Parent Square as of the meeting with five other nearby districts planning to sign up to use the platform.

The cost of Parent Square is $2,700 per year with an initial implementation cost of $375. $1200 per year can be saved by cancelling part of Infinite Campus.

Assistant Principal Michael Wilson shared some good news during the principal’s report. Pineville’s Ava Arnett was crowned the 2025 KMLF Princess and the senior lemonade stand raised over $4800 during the festival and has now raised over $17,000 toward next year’s senior trip. Also the track team placed second overall in the region and the softball team advanced to the 13th Region semifinals.

He said there were currently five open positions and Principal Dr. Jarryd Boster was interviewing a possible candidate.

Wilson also shared some upcoming key dates. July 21-23 the district will hold a Professional Development Retreat for teachers in Lexington. July 31 is Open House, Aug. 4 is Opening Day and Aug.5 is the first day for students.

In other business, the board approved:

• a pay application of $3052 to Richard’s Electric for materials for work done on the football field;
• the tentative budget for fiscal year 2026. Finance Director James David Strange said they are anticipating a $300 per student bump in SEEK funding this year and another $300 increase next year;
• awarding the 2024 audit contract to Lester and Company;
• awarding the worker’s compensation insurance bid to Hartford Mutual at roughly the same $10,045 premium as last year;
• naming First State Bank as their bank of depository;
• the treasurer’s bond for fiscal year 2026;
• awarding the Occupational Therapy contract to Mitchell Wilder at the same rate as last year;
• policy updates from the KSBA;
• early Kindergarten enrollment for two students who will turn five a few days after the deadline.