The Steelville R-3 Board of Education reached out to the Crawford County R-1 School District in Bourbon to ask for a cooperative sponsorship between the schools’ softball teams for the spring 2026 season, and the issue was discussed on Feb. 19 by the Bourbon Board of Education.

“(They) came to us, asking us to co-op softball with the fear of them not having the numbers and not being able to have a team,” said Crawford County R-1 Superintendent Brian Witt.

Witt can see Bourbon having to do something similar in the next few years, so he wants to make positive partnerships now with the other schools, just in case.

Stephen Waldron, board member, asked if there were any costs to the Crawford County R-1 School District if the co-op was approved.

“I don’t foresee necessarily any additional added cost,” Witt replied. “They would have to do the transportation for themselves. There’s going to be a lot of things that we would have to work out, you know, if we go down this venture.”

Witt asked Randy Payne, Bourbon softball head coach, for his opinion on the matter.

“My biggest fear is next year, having three, four girls looking at college softball, and Bourbon not even having a team,” Payne said. “You know, you’re an injury away from forfeiting games when you have girls looking at college sports.”

“From an AD (athletics director) perspective, the hurdles are minimal. I don’t foresee any kind of true issue like that at all, as far as from the AD side, whether it be scheduling games, costs, whatever it may be,” said Athletics Director Devon Payne. “I’m doing it with basketball right now. I got seven, and I’m one sickness away from possibly not being able to play that night.”

R-1 board members made a motion to approve the co-op with a 4-0 vote.

Despite Bourbon’s board approving the request, the Steelville R-3 Board of Education on Feb. 19 decided to wait and see what their numbers look like. They are worried about multiple issues, including busing students to the other district when they’re already busing other sports to other surrounding schools. If they don’t get the numbers this year, they plan to possibly reach out to nearby schools that don’t have a program, like Viburnum, and see if they would like to send a few players to Steelville.

Bourbon High School Principal Cassandra Haar gave the A+ program report. 

“We have 64 graduating seniors in 2025, of which 20 were awarded the A+ scholarship. Two additional students would have been added to this total, but were ECA (Early College Academy) students,” Haar said.

There has been an increased interest in the ECA program, with seven students currently expressing interest compared to the average of two to three in previous years.

Looking at previous financial increases, the board projects the cost to be approximately $3,229 per student, with about $25,832 for the total investment.

Witt tried to explain why the school may be seeing increased interest in the program.

“Every class is different. I think that has a big thing to do with it, and honestly, the kids see kids graduating with an associate degree and hear about it and see what a huge benefit it is. Kids notice,” Witt said.

Jason Gobin, Crawford County R-1 Board of Education president, asked Haar if she thinks this will be an upward trend for the program or if it will go down again next year.

“I think it will probably go down next year,” Haar said. “Our current freshman class is a small class, and their academics are on the lower side.”

Afterwards, Witt gave the midpoint of the fiscal year 2026 budget report.

Their current working revenue is approximately $11,055,510 with an estimated $13,021,782 in expenses.

“Our strategy has been disciplined and intentional. We are using a portion of the strong reserves to maintain staffing levels and modernize infrastructure without making cuts,” Witt said.

Student recognitions were included in the superintendent’s report.

Beth Hanes, elementary teacher, was nominated for the South Central Teacher of the Year Award. 

The school district was found to be in full compliance with foster care, homeless services and English language learners from DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).

Due to ongoing construction at the Cuba golf course, Bourbon has been informed that their golf team will only have access two days a week to practice. They are looking for additional practice options.

The district was allocated more Title I funds, so a motion was approved to use them to purchase Chromebooks for the third grade to take their MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test, for $28,654.69 from FantasTechs, with a 4-0 vote.

“So unfortunately, the (HVAC) unit at the office of the elementary is no longer reducing heat,” Witt said.

They got quotes for repairing the unit versus replacing it. The repair cost would be about $4,000, and replacing it would be about $18,000, but the issue is on the bond approval list, which means that if it is passed, they can use bond funds to pay for it.

A motion to approve Juergens Heating and Cooling, LLC., to replace the HVAC unit for $18,440 was approved by a 4-0 vote.