The December meeting of the Callaway Board of Education began, as they always do, with acknowledging something or someone deserving of a special shout-out…a district celebration. This month, there was plenty to celebrate, as the AQUeSTT scores were released and Callaway Public Schools did very well.

“The one thing on the administrative side that we all agreed on was that the improved attendance of our students had a dramatic effect on our overall testing scores. Our elementary school had a 4.5 percent chronic absenteeism rate, and that’s down from well over 20 percent and in a four-year cycle it has dropped and dropped,” said CPS Superintendent JD Furrow. “I just think that having kids in school is huge for their success academically. The high school has improved attendance as well. Each of our schools showed improvement over the previous year, at every level.”

Improving school attendance is an issue the Callaway school administration has been working on for some time. “We incentivized it and talked about it, and that probably helped a little bit,” Furrow said. “And I hate to continue to bring this up, but we are one more year removed from COVID, and that probably makes a big difference too. We had a lot of people who got used to not being around, and I think the farther we get away from that, the better we will be.”

During the principal’s report, Heath Birkel recapped the events of the last month for the board and gave a nod to the One Act team, who finished third at the district contest. Elementary Principal Brittany Jesseph then explained more of the data from the AQUeSTT report in greater detail for the board.

Furrow informed the board of two issues the school is having with the boiler system. Those problems are in the process of being resolved. The superintendent also reminded the board that 2026 is an election year and three of the seats on the board are up for re-elec-

Cont. PAGE 5: School Board tion. They are Liana Hrupek, Rebecca Eggleston, and TR Anderson. Incumbents can file beginning Jan. 5, and must file no later than Feb. 17, to be on the ballot.

Furrow also presented an update on the teachers’ retirement plan and how the fact that the system is making more money is impacting the district. “The employee and employer have to pay into the system to fund retirement,” Furrow explained. “It used to be that teachers contributed about 9.8 percent of their salary into retirement. Last year that dropped down to about 8 percent, and next year it will be 7.25. From the employer’s standpoint, we saved about $36,000 this year that we didn’t have to send into retirement. And we are going to save probably $12,000 - $15,000 next year.”

The board renegotiated Furrow’s contract and added a year so it continues to be a two-year rolling contract. However, Furrow did not seek a pay raise this year.

“With some of the financial concerns we have, we need to be a little more financially prudent. In this area, I sit about in the middle when it comes to salaries,” said Furrow.

The superintendent’s salary will remain at $145,000 for the 2026-27 school year.

Tiana Lisby and Melissa Eggleston updated the school's annual report. It is a Rule 10 requirement that the school share an annual report that includes the critical district data with the board of education and the community. We will share details of that report in next week’s Courier.

One of the major topics of discussion at the Dec. 8 meeting was a potential change to what the school day in Callaway might look like in the future. “Our intention is to maybe start our school year a little bit later than what we have. So we are trying to find some options that will allow us to keep our instructional minutes up and may allow us to cut some days off the front of the school year,” Furrow explained.

A number of teachers were present at the meeting to hear more about this plan. Furrow said the board will discuss the issue in depth at the January workshop to come up with a schedule for next year so everyone will know what that will look like. “It will be a huge change for us if we do that. I think everybody would appreciate starting school a little later.”

Another topic that has been discussed for a few months is outstanding lunch bills, and Furrow was happy to inform the board that three of the major delinquent bills have been paid. He said that amounted to about $11,000 the school has received in the past six weeks.

“We very much appreciate that. And I understand how hard it is for families when you fall behind,” said Furrow.

The final board action was the approval of the co-op agreement for all sports with Arnold Public Schools.

The board then adjourned into executive session to discuss classified staff member pay. They remained in closed session for about 30 minutes, and no action was taken when the board reconvened in open session.

The next meeting of the Callaway school board will be Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. in the school library. The public is always invited to attend.