The Newport Board of Education listened to a short presentation from Grady Brown, who has been the Energy Manager for the district for the last nine years. Since he has taken over as energy manager, he has saved the district $2.4 million with his procedures, he said. Brown stated that his original goal was $1 million, and he has far surpassed that.



The board presented special framed plaques to Larry Geiger and Joe Bristow, owners of Pompilio's and alumni of Newport High School. Superintendent Kelly Middleton told about how the two have provided breakfast and lunch for two years for the day that all the teachers visit all their students before school begins.



"They have been there every time we have asked," he said.

Mark Krebs, Director of Facilities and Transportation, agreed.



"I am honored and proud to say that they're my friends," he said.



Middleton also gave Gina Hildebrandt, a teacher who has retired from the primary school, an engraved box for her retirement. She has worked for 35 years in the teaching profession. Although she was the only teacher present at the meeting Wednesday evening, she was not the only teacher who retired. The other teachers are Belinda Adams, Gary Adams, and Jacqueline Bersch.



Middleton announced that Nexigen, a network security company occupying an old Trauth building, is recruiting students from Newport High School to be part of a Cyber Hacking Team for the company. One of the managers from the company has a team at Northern Kentucky University that recently placed fourth in the country, and they want to introduce high school students to the company to be part of a feeder team. Middleton said ten students have signed up so far, but they hope to have up to twenty sign up. One of the perks is a preview showing of the new Star Wars movie.



The school district has applied for a School Improvement Grant (SIG) and will find out on November 6 how much money it will receive. With the money, the district hopes to buy Macbooks for the seniors and possibly the juniors, and pass down the iPads that they have so that hopefully the whole school can be on a one to one basis with tablets. Right now the 7th through 12th grades are on a one to one basis but under the seventh grade they are not.



Financial Officer Tete Turner, Jr. explained that the transferring of funds and operations from Citizens bank to Heritage bank was going well, and that they have had three payrolls so far and no issues.

Written by Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor