Elijah Racz, a junior at Russellville High School, received recognition during the Dec. 16 meeting of the Russellville City Schools Board of Education meeting. Racz placed first in the comedic solo musical theatre category at the State Trumbauer Festival.

Racz, along with a group of other students from the musical theatre department, led by RHS musical theatre teacher Patrice Smith and RMS/RHS choral director Aaron Freeman, performed for the board, singing and playing musical instruments. Songs included “Carol of the Bells,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Deck the Halls,” “Up On The Housetop,” “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

“We are incredibly proud of Elijah, as we are all of our students,” said Smith. “We have two major state competitions, and this is the first. Elijah competed against the top 30 comedic soloists in the state in his category.

“To win at state is a huge honor,” she added, noting three judges participated in his scoring, with Racz receiving a perfect score of 50 from one and a 49 from the other two.

“He is a hopeful professional performer,” explained Smith, “and we’re very thankful for the dedication he puts forth for our program. We’re excited to see where else he can go.”

In other business, the board approved the following expenses for the month:

• Peer Helpers program renewal
• Contractor services for RHS Project Phase I
• Monthly bond payment to the City of Russellville
• Monthly payment for SROs to the City of Russellville
• Annual payment on Jumbotron loan
• NextGen renewal (financial/payroll program)
• Door Control security system for RMS

Payroll for the month was $2,193,803.

The board also approved the purchase of nine 72-passenger Type C gasoline-powered school buses, to be purchased without a bid process, through the purchasing cooperative “Sourcewell” for the price of $117,283.09.