Dunn, Sklar elected as President and Vice President of BOE

Despite school being out for the summer, the Mountain Brook Board of Education met on the afternoon of June 12 to elect new board officers.

Chairman of the board Brad Sklar, who has served as president since 2015, nominated vice chairman of the board Elizabeth Dunn to take his place for a term. Her nomination was approved unanimously and was met with a round of applause.

“First I want to say thank you to Brad for serving for two years. You’ve done a great job leading this school system and leading this board,” Dunn said. “I have very big shoes to fill.”

Sklar said it has been a privilege to serve the community and the school system alongside his fellow board members and he’s looking forward to the upcoming years as a board member.

“People ask you a lot of times, ‘What’s it like, serving on the Mountain Brook school board?’ or ‘What’s it like, you know, for the past two years being president of the school board?’” he said. “And I tell people often that, you know, you get the opportunity to serve on boards in your life, but when you serve on a board where you can see results and it’s your students it’s so much more meaningful … than any other board I’ve ever had the opportunity to serve on.”

Board member Richard Murray IV then nominated Sklar to serve as vice president of the board, which was unanimously approved.

After the election of new officers, the board reviewed the financial statements through the end of May. According to the statements, the school system had received 83 percent of revenues and 93 percent of the ad valorem taxes. Expenditures are on target totaling at 67 percent of the budget and the unreserved fund balance was $20.7 million at the end of the month.

Members of the board continued to approve the minutes from the previous meeting as well as the 2017-2018 board meeting calendar and the sixth grade update math materials, as recommended by Superintendent Dicky Barlow. Both had been tabled for public input after being announced at the last board meeting on May 15. Personnel recommendations and the disposal of surplus items were also approved.

The next Board of Education meeting will be on July 17.

Following the meeting, the school system will welcome new educators with a New Teacher Orientation week beginning on July 24 as well as a New Teacher Breakfast to be held at the Country Club of Birmingham on July 25. The school system will also host Institute Day on August 10, not long before students’ first day of school on August 15.