School Board meets
The School Board held their regular August meeting Monday, Aug. 17.
They filled a pair of paraprofessional openings with Lexi Schumacher hired to fill the Elementary School position and Shelby VonBargen hired to fill the jr./sr. high school one.
The auditor’s report was given with the auditor having no findings and stating during his report that new clerk-treasurer Carly Behler did a great job.
District and school handbooks were reviewed and approved. Administrative procedures were also approved.
The Elementary and Jr./Sr. High schedules were reviewed and approved.
Cooper Riener presented his senior project proposal to build a batting cage for the baseball program. His mother, Vikki Riener, was there for support as was Kyle Westhoff who said they might look at two batting cages. The board gave approval pending checking with the city on street right of way and Cooper’s approval for this to be his project by Suzi Quintal. He came early because the first thing they need to get done is pouring the concrete posts that the structure will be mounted on. They would like to get those done this fall so they can cure.
Superintendent Jon Rehder reported on the fire alarm system. The school has been working with Fisher Systems out of Lewiston and he is also reaching out to a firm in Orofino. He will keep the board updated on this.
A large group of policies were reviewed and all were approved with recommended changes.
In the administrative reports Matt Elven said that he and Rehder attended the Idaho Association of School Administrators conference. Both were elected to leadership positions for region 2.
Over 100 jr./sr. high students and their parents attended the fall sports meeting on August 13.
Fall sports practices started August 10. There were 20 out for football, 24 for volleyball and 13 for cross country. There were no individuals turned out for fall cheerleading.
Registration went well on August 13.
Jon Rehder reported there will be a back to school kickoff on Wednesday, August 26.
Wednesday, Sept. 2 will be the first day of school.
Student council elections will be in early September.
In his facilities report he noted all the carpeting is done at the Elementary School.
The gym roof repair is complete.
Also the seal coat for the high school upper parking lot and the access road is complete.
Laurie Lorentz and Shelly Sandford are working hard getting the buildings ready with some assist from Rick Forsmann and Kenly Forsmann.
Track resurfacing was done July 21-23. Striping was supposed to take place this week but may get put off for another week. Rehder said he told the company we need to get it done before the first home football game on August 28.
The lagoon will be dredged that services the Monastery and High School. It will be done this fall. The District will pay 35% of the cost which is expected to be about $100,000 cost to the district.
They had a work crew from NICI August 7 to help with landscaping at the Elementary School.
Andrew Miller, who did the high school gym roof, took a look at the southside windows at the Auxiliary Gym and recommends resealing the windows. Board member Keith Holcomb also suggested adding sealer to the cinder blocks as the pictures Rehder shared show moisture coming in that doesn’t appear to be coming from the windows.
The maintenance/bus shop has a roof leak. Miller looked at that as well and estimated about $20,000 to repair. Holcomb suggested contacting the original contractor as he said it looks like an installation issue.
They are also looking at adding gutters in several places to try to eliminate water runoff that turns to ice in traffic areas. Cost estimate is about $4,000.
In his superintendent’s report Rehder said the Continuous Improvement Plan is no longer required. Now they need to work on a Strategic Performance Plan.
At the IHSAA annual meeting Rehder, Elven and Travis Mader accepted the “School of Excellence” award for Class 2A. Mader also received a Distinguished Service award for District 2.
He shared enrollment numbers with K-12 numbers showing 407 at this point although that may change by first day of school. Last year they had 430 enrolled.
The ISBA annual convention will be Nov. 4-6 at Boise.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m. The next regular meeting is set for Monday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m.