Superintendent Jim Simpson said the restroom building was added to prevent the usage of the future school’s restrooms.

“If we don’t have this, they will be coming to the school, and that means we need to have custodians there,” Simpson said. “There will be a lot of athletic facilities out there.”

Micklethwaite voted in favor of the original motion “with reservations,” she said. It passed unanimously. The work is being financed by a $57.3 million bond issue authorized by voters last April.

In other business, the board heard an update on the search for a new superintendent. Simpson will be leaving at the end of the school year for a job with the Lindbergh School District in suburban St. Louis.

Robert Watkins, a search consultant with the Missouri School Boards’ Association, said he expects more than 20 applications for the position by the deadline of March 21.

“We’ve had about 25 requests for application packets,” Watkins said. “They usually won’t request those unless they are serious about the job.”

He said the references and backgrounds of each of the candidates would be checked. The background checks will be paid out of the fee that the district will pay the state association for its services.

Superintendent search

The Joplin R-8 School Board will narrow the pool of superintendent candidates down to between four and six. Interviews will be conducted during the last week of March. The board hopes to have a new leader hired by April 4.