LARNED — The Fort Larned USD 495 Board of Education will host an information session regarding upgrades to the outdoor athletic facility at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 3 in the Larned Community Center auditorium.
Prior to the meeting, the board requested that questions regarding the project currently being undertaken by Mammoth Sports Construction or other questions dealing with district finance be submitted online to a form on the district website. The form was open for submissions until April 25.
The format for the meeting is believed to be designed as an information-only session, derived from the questions received by the district via the online questionnaire.
The Great Bend Tribune made multiple attempts to contact the district office during the past week by email and telephone regarding the meeting format, but was unsuccessful.
The public, however, will be allowed to attend.
Many questions
Larned resident Eric Fox, as one of some 500 concerned patrons in the Larned school district, provided questions submitted to the website regarding the ongoing $2.1 million project under contract with Mammoth Sports Construction to effect upgrades to the outdoor athletic facilities at Earl Roberts Field at Larned High School.
A list of questions as submitted appears in a paid advertisement elsewhere in this edition of the Tribune.
Fox noted that questions concerning previous board discussions of the project have been generated since an overflow crowd attended the BOE’s March 8 meeting at the district office. “We would just like to know what is going on,” Fox said.
At that meeting, Pawnee County Commissioner Bob Rein Jr. was the only patron allowed to speak from the floor, having been placed on the board’s agenda for the meeting through application of current board policy.
The meeting included two 10-minute recesses as board officers conferred with Kansas Association of School Board legal staff in Topeka in lieu of a sitting school board attorney.
Rein told the board he had been made aware of two petitions, one written and one on-line, each bearing more than 250 signatures of district patrons seeking information on the board’s decision-making process on the project as well as parameters of the project itself.
Rein then appealed to the board to schedule a public meeting to discuss district patrons’ concerns about the project, as well as review the board’s policy on public address to board members during future monthly meetings.
