Now hear this: CHS will get new audio system

By Sun Advocate

In a move to make it so that all performances and particularly musical programs sound better at the Carbon High auditorium, the Carbon School Board voted last Wednesday evening to fund a new sound system to the tune of $65,954.33.
Superintendent Steve Carlsen said that with the hiring of a full time drama teacher and the priority being that the school has planned to do a musical each year, the system was definitely needed.
“The cost of having someone come in and do a special set up for each program is about $1,800 per night,” he said. With all the different programs that would need the system that would amount to about $16,000 this coming year.
Board member Jeff Richens asked about the fact there were no performance microphones included in the bid. Carbon High Principal Bruce Bean explained to the board that the school had already purchased a number of new microphones last year, but that the present system couldn’t handle them. He said those would be used with the new system.
But the move was not without a lot more discussion, which ihas been going on at meetings all summer.
At the center of that talk was not the cost of a new sound system, but the way the money was requested. Earlier in the summer the board discussed the fact that they had no real numbers for the purchase, just estimates for the new equipment. It was also brought up at that time by Board Member Kristen Taylor that the request for the capital outlay money to do the project was not requested properly. While there was a request put in during the request period, it had no detail and therefore it was taken off the list. That same discussion emerged on Wednesday evening.
“The capital projects for this year were already approved,” she said. “This action cannot happen in the future. It’s unfair to others in the district. We need to be sure that teachers understand that they need to include dollar figures in their requests.”
Principal compensation
In another matter the district continues to struggle on how to compensate principals fairly across the system. This was also a continuing discussion from earlier in the summer. Board members talked about a new proposal that Darin Lancaster, the district’s business administrator, brought them.
With some schools bursting at the seams and others down in the number of students attending, board members worried that salaries need to reflect the work a principal must do. However the question remained if salary was based on the size of the school would a principals salary go down should the school decrease in size the next year or they move to another school?
There was not resolution on the problem and Lancaster was asked to look at other avenues on which to judge salaries.
It was also revealed at the meeting, by Kerry Jensen, the district’s Director of Transportation, that Denise Young, a school bus driver for the Castle Valley Center, was recently named the School Bus Driver of the Year in the state of Utah.