Treasurer Lance Erlwein presented Pam Lowry with a plaque Thursday night during the Belpre City Schools Board of Education’s regular meeting for her retirement after seven years of service in the Belpre Elementary kitchen. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

BELPRE — The Belpre City Schools Board of Education recognized Pam Lowry Thursday night for her retirement after seven years of service in the kitchen at Belpre Elementary.

Board members and attendees expressed their gratitude for her hard work and commitment, acknowledging the important role she played in serving students and supporting the school community.

“We know that’s not the easiest place to work,” Treasurer Lance Erlwein said. “I hope you had some fun while you were there.”

Lowry retired before the school year began and said she misses seeing the students every day. She said she has been keeping busy with house and lawn work.

“Gotta keep going,” Lowry said.

Erlwein gave the board a financial update saying the federal government has released Title II and Title VI funding for the district.

“We were worried that they might hold that up,” Erlwein said. “We hear that they are recalling some active grants, but at this time, we don’t think it’s going to negatively affect us.”

Board member Fred Meredith said the district may want to look into introducing a resolution to enact a spending freeze as the district prepares to build a new facility.

“We got the new building being built, we really got to be conservative with our money,” Meredith said. “So we need to put a resolution out there, probably, maybe next month, on a spending freeze and also a hiring freeze.”

Meredith said this would not affect the hiring of positions that may need filled during the year due to unseen circumstances, or any substitute hiring the district may need, but be focused on full-time positions.

Erlwein said as of now, all the full-time positions in the district are filled.

He also talked to the board about the recent receipt of $45.7 million from the sale of bonds for the district’s capital projects.

“Now in the first year, I only expect to spend $3.5 million of that. We probably won’t even spend that much,” Erlwein said. “But what I’m doing here is that these are the guardrails for the fiscal year. You can’t spend more than you tell the county auditor you’re going to spend.”

He said a meeting also took place this week with Fanning Howey, an architectural and engineering company, and Elford Inc., the construction company chosen by the district to build the new school.

“Just to talk generally about square footage,” Erlwein said. “We gave them our wish list, and they’re going to come back and put numbers on it and tell us what we can and can’t afford based on our budget.”

He said there was also talk of involving the community once those plans come back.

“We will have a meeting where we involve board members and the community so you all can have input in what you’d like to see, the do’s and don’ts, what you’d like to see, what you don’t like at other buildings. So you’ll have a chance,” Erlwein said.

He also talked about the success of the recent cross country invitational held at Civitan Park with 91 teams being represented.

“We had over 600 student athletes down in Civitan Park. So that breaks our record,” Erlwein said. “Kudos to the volunteers and the donors and the staff members. I mean everybody, the city, the police department, everybody comes together to make that event what it is. It’s great for the school district, it’s great for the city, it’s great for local business. It’s just a fantastic day.”

The board reminded everyone to come out and support the high school football team tonight during homecoming as they play 0-3 Green High School.

“Kickoff is at seven o’clock. So get down there and support the kids,” Meredith said.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com.