HOLYROOD — The Feb. 9 meeting of the USD 112 School Board of Education, held at Central Plains Elementary School, Holyrood, included a mid-meeting walkthrough of the facility by board members and attendees. The board also voted to extend Superintendent Bobby Murphy’s contract.

In agenda action items, the board approved a facility use request for the football field at Claflin.

“We were contacted earlier this year, when all the schools were going through their next twoyear rotations for their football scheduling, by Frankfort and also Stanton County,” Murphy said. “They are interested in using our facility, our football field and locker rooms to host Stanton County. Frankfort would be hosting Stanton County for the next two years on the third Saturday of September for football. There is a pretty good distance between Stanton County, almost by the Colorado border, and Frankfort, so they asked if they could meet in the middle and play in Claflin.”

Murphy said after visiting with staff, the school could accommodate the requests for the next two years. Following the discussion, the board unanimously approved the request.

Murphy presented the board with a proposed 2026-27 school calendar.

“We met with each school and representatives from each building and we put together three options for the school calendar for next year. Option 1 received 75 percent of the total vote, so we attached option one,” he said.

Murphy pointed out a few dates.

“This does build in the same number of days that we have this year, in case we have emergency days,” he said. “One thing that is going to be really weird is the month of March. We will have the end of the nine-week period in the month of March, then we have a full week off for spring break and then Easter falls really weird, so you’ll have a couple of days off there, too. March gets really scrunched down really quickly when compared to the past. It does still give a week off for Thanksgiving. December does still give us the full two weeks off for Christmas break as well.”

The board unanimously approved Option 1 for the district calendar.

Proposed improvements for the Central Plains Jr./ Sr. High School gym were discussed.

“A lot of school districts are trying to get their gym floors redone in the moratorium period, which is around July 4, which is always a hot time because the kids can’t be in the gym and that’s when the majority of the schools would like it done,” Murphy said. “We did include the bids from the companies that we worked with last year for this project. To do the sanding, sealing and finishing, they are estimating a total of eight to 10 days, and that part came in right about $14,700, with options for staining if we pick a certain floor color.

“The company that does all the lines and painting comes in after they are done with the sanding part of it and fixing any dead spots in the floor, then they come in and then the other group comes back and does the finishing part after all the lines and colors are done.

“These are two separate companies; they have two separate parts of the gym floor, so it comes out to a little over $30,000. We don’t know the last time that’s been done all the way down fixing what needs to be fixed. It’s been a while.”

Following discussion, the board unanimously approved both contracts for the floor refurbishing.

In other business:

• Principals at both Wilson Elementary School and CPES discussed illness causing numerous absences in the schools.

• The board did a walkthrough of CPES.

• Murphy outlined KSBE-recommended board policy updates.

• Following the first executive session, the following resignations were accepted by the board: Katie Ryan, assistant boys’ tennis coach; Sheila Franson, CPES cook

• Contract renewals with salaries to be determined later: Jessica Murphy, CPJSHS principal and Shaelyn Sheehy CPES principal, both for next school year

• New hires: Peyton Ryan, assistant boys’ tennis coach; Thomas Reazin, substitute bus driver

• Following a second executive session, a threeyear contract for Bobby Murphy as superintendent through the 2028-29 school year was approved.

A public hearing on the fate of WES will be held 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at CPES, Holyrood. The next regular meeting of the board will be 6 p.m. March 9 at WES.