The Adair County Board of Education recognized students for recent achievements and last month’s ASCEND winners, addressed several requests to use the school campus and received an update on buildings and grounds in their regular meeting Thursday night.
Anthony Darnell, director of transportation and maintenance, commended his staff for their hard work. He said they had some last-minute tasks arise, but everything was completed.
Superintendent Jason Faulkner thanked Darnell and his staff. Track and field’s first meet was held Saturday and the pits for shot put and discus were added close to deadline. Darnell and his staff worked diligently to get it completed. This was the first track and field meet held on campus in at least 25 years.
Faulkner also addressed some recent comments about a large flag being installed on the school campus.
“I want to give a shout out and set the record straight on a few things,” said Faulkner. “We have started to install the flagpole that will be on the far end of the football field.”
Faulkner said the project could not have been done without the help of Casey Taylor, who drilled through rock to be able to set the pole.
“There’s been some buzz around the community that we have had other people that have gone in with us on this project, but I just want to set the record straight that this has just been us.”
He also credited Jaimie Wisdom for helping find the funding, the board for their approval, and the maintenance staff.
“One of the things that I saw was that it was going to be a 60-foot American flagpole and I just want to set the record straight on that, it’s not going to be a 60-foot flagpole, it’s actually going to be a 70-foot flagpole,” he said.
The flag will measure approximately 15 feet by 25 feet. The pad and base are complete, and Faulkner said it should be completely installed within the next few weeks, if not days.
In other business, Faulkner recognized Carolee Lloyd for setting up the online employment application portal for the district. The benefit is already showing with the increased number of applications being received.
The district approved to allow the Chamber of Commerce to host a 5k run, allow Lindsey Wilson to host a football camp and to allow a canine training on campus.
The theme for the February ASCEND awards was employees that support our community. The recipients were Pam Bivens for primary, Laura Willis for secondary, and Melinda Knight for the district.
Willow Phipps placed sixth out of 37 students at the Big Blue Bee Regional Scripps Spelling Bee.
Thirty-one students from Adair County Middle School Beta Club attended the Kentucky Junior Beta State Convention. Two students earned top placements and will advance to the National Junior Beta Convention in Nashville. Michael Cash Hare, a sixth-grade student, placed first in social studies and Maddie Wethington, an eighth-grade student, placed fifth in language arts.
Adair County High School Beta has several students who qualified for nationals in 11 events.
Adair County students earned the following honors: Hannah Kotter, fifth place in Creative Writing Division 2; Claire Loy, third place in 10th-grade social studies; Ashley Loy, third place in 10th-grade U.S. history; Pierce Stotts, first place in ninth-grade U.S. history; Crystal Mendoza, third place in 11th-grade Spanish; Kolt King, first place in Speech Division 2; Halle Trowbridge, second place in Fiber Arts Division 2; Chluey Acanto, fourth place in Pottery Division 2; Keely Kerns, first place in Onsite Drawing Division 2; Sarah Gass, third place in Onsite Painting Division 2; and the club/team scrapbook, fifth place.
By Amy Pike
amy@adairvoice.com
