The school board decided not to renew the contracts of 3 Prairie High School head coaches at their June meeting Wednesday, June 11.
The board spent nearly an hour in an executive session following the regular portion of the meeting. During that time the over 40 people in attendance were asked to leave the meeting room with only Lori Mader remaining to address the board and plead her case. During the closed session, Mader’s mother, Ingrid Mader, read to the crowd in the Auxiliary Gym what Lori was sharing with the board.
Once the board reconvened to an open session there were 3 motions made and passed unanimously to not renew the contract for person A, person B and person C. Those turned out to be Lori Mader, girls basketball coach for the past 15 years; Julie Schumacher, volleyball coach since the 2017 season; and David Shears, baseball coach for the past 3 seasons.
No public input was allowed from those supporting the coaches during that part of the agenda as that was an executive session item and not part of the regular agenda.
No reasons were given for not renewing the contracts.
It was apparently first decided to not renew Mader’s contract at the May 19 board meeting during an executive session. The board then held a special meeting on May 23 and at that time decided to also not renew Schumacher and Shears and reaffirmed their decision to not renew Mader. However Shears and Schumacher were not told they were not being renewed until Monday, June 9. After Prairie’s graduation where Schumacher was the commencement speaker and each had a child graduating. The May 23 meeting was apparently not advertising in all the required places in time and at the June 11 meeting they decided to cancel any decisions made at that meeting. That necessitated the executive session on June 11 where they wound up doubling down and reaffirming their earlier decisions. No reason was given for the non-renewals.
In other business, the board accepted the resignation of head softball coach Jeff Martin. He took over as head coach for the 2009 season and won 3 state titles at Prairie.
Matt Elven resigned his position as co-Athletic Director.
The 2025-26 budget heading was held and the budget was approved. It includes increases in special ed and the career ladder, which was state required.
The preschool agreement with Erin Shears was approved with no changes from last year.
The board approved hiring of two paraprofessionals. CiCi Chavez will be at the Jr./Sr. High School and Hope McIntire will be at the Elementary School.
It was decided to table the policy update to the July meeting due to the expected length of the meeting.
In the Jr./Sr. High Report Matt Elven said the Spring concert was well-attended. They may look at moving the concerts back to the gym next year.
The 6^th graders toured the school on May 20 as they will be moving to the school as 7^th graders next fall.
Eight band members went on a trip to Silverwood on May 31 as a reward for participating in pep band.
FFA went to State Career Development events on June 3-5. Clarise Rehder, Lillian Rehder, Dylan Klapprich and Maggie Nuxoll went to the U of I on June 3 and took 9^th out of 52 teams in livestock judging. 9^th grader Kade Hanson and junior high students Ray Terhaar, Matt Frei and Henry went on June 4 and placed 30^th out of 41 teams in Ag Mechanics, competing against mostly high school teams.
The PHS awards assembly was held May 30 and graduation was held June 6.
Fisher Systems will be in the building to test and review the fire systems on June 16.
He shared the results of the ISAT and MAP testing. Prairie students did very well with results well above state averages in most of the results.
He reviewed the year’s results for absences and discipline.
Technicians will be here later this month to install NFHS cameras in the high school gym and at the football field.
Football camp was at the College of Idaho June 12-14.
Boys basketball open gyms were June 3-25 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They will also be involved in the LCSC summer league.
There will be a wrestling camp June 14-18 at the Auxiliary Gym.
Jon Rehder reported the Elementary student class lists are completed and students visited their new classrooms on June 4.
The Spring Concert on May 30 was very well attended. He said he hear a lot of positive feedback.
Kindergarten graduation was held June 2. 30 Kindergartners graduated to 1^st grade.
Field Day was on June 4. Mrs. Harman helped with organization before having to leave town. Madison Shears, Carissa Jones and Amber Nuxoll stepped in to help make things go smoothly.
Rehder shared the ISAT and MAP results for the Elementary School with third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders taking the tests.
In his facilities report Rehder said that Rick Forsmann will be working with the city to sealcoat the Elementary parking lot, the road from East St. to the bus barn gate entrance, the stretch from the baseball field to the back bus entrance and a 20 foot stretch at the high school going from the green gate to the bus barn.
High school painting started June 9. Rick Forsmann, Sydney Shears and Dave Shears began the process with Nita Lorentz painting the alley lower level to alleviate so much taping. They hoped to have this done during this week.
A Touch of Glass was hoping to start the window project on June 16. They had a breakdown of the boom truck and had to have a different one brought in. The school is paying for a week’s worth of rent on the boom truck for the painting while A Touch of Glass is paying for 3 weeks worth as part of their contract.
Fisher Systems was at the Elementary School June 17 to test fire systems.
Classrooms floors will be stripped and waxed this year while hallways will be polished.
Gym floor refinishing will be done at all three gyms the end of June. They will be painting 2 pickleball courts in the Auxiliary Gym at a cost of $1000 per court with the $2000 cost covered by donated funds.
Rehder said he would like to revisit the Gym Foyer project. Maybe go out for bids in the fall and see if the price is right to move forward next Spring. The board decided to add this to the future agenda items and discuss it further in July.
In his Superintendent’s report, Rehder noted June is School Board Appreciation Month.
The levy passed with a 76% yes vote.
Ryan and Lisa Hasselstrom and Jennifer Riener will be going to a PowerSchool training in Las Vegas July 13-18.
Institute of Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) training will be attended this week by 3 certified teachers and 5 paraprofessionals.
Rehder plans to meet with a group of parents and staff regarding tech use in the district. The feeling is to make it a teaching tool and not for entertainment purposes.
Th retirement party for Denise Uhlenkott on June 5 was well-attended.
After passing the motions upon reconvening from Executive Session, the meeting adjourned at 8:49 p.m.
The next regular meeting will be Monday, July 21 at 7 p.m.