(OLNEY) The Richland County School Board of Education had its regular monthly meeting for August last night in Olney. The Board : approved the July financial report with the bill listing at $757,275 : approved the FY26 Tentative Budget : agreed to purchase replacement passenger vehicles for the district fleet up to a total of $160,000 : approved the agreement with the Olney Public Library for the 2025-2026 school year : recognized the 2024-2025 RCHS Volleyball team for receiving the 2025 American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Team Academic Award : heard from various coaches and athletes about the proposed Athletic Complex and the improvements involved : and in personnel – accepted resignations from Paraprofessionals Brittany Balding, Ashley Travous, Britny Kocher, and Summer Williams – accepted resignations from RCES Supervision Aid Kaylee Hemrich, RCHS Assistant Girls Track Coach Lauren Eagleson, from RCHS Custodian David Murphy, from RCES Teacher Kyle Shipman, and from RiseUp Alternative Education Teacher Courtney Bishop – accepted the retirement of Bus Driver Gary Cummins – agreed to hire Jessica Bailey as RCES Food Service Staff member, Jonah Scherer as RCES Teacher Assistant, Mark Steber as Part-Time CTE Instructor for the RiseUp Alternative School, Lori Kocher as Reading Interventionist at St. Joseph School, and Traci Gray as Fall Behind-the-Wheel Driving Instructor for Saturdays – employed Vanessa Thomas, Whitney Fielden, Lora Burke, and Dawn Hemrich as RCES Paraprofessionals – approved the extra-duty assignments of Austin Bussard as RCMS 7th Grade Girls Basketball Coach and Taylor Milburn as RCHS Assistant Girls Soccer Coach, both for the 2025-2026 school year – and approved ten volunteers : also noted the district’s student enrollment at the beginning of school this week was at 2,227 students : and heard about the possibility of adding a third School Resource Officer to the district while adding truancy intervention to their responsibilities : the Richland County School Board has a special meeting to discuss the Athletic Complex proposal on Thursday, August 21st, at 5:00 and the Board’s next regular monthly meeting will be held on Thursday, September 18th.
