The school board held their August meeting Monday, August 18 with about 25 extra people in attendance.
During the public input portion of the meeting several members of the VFW, led off by Rick Johnson, spoke about a graduate who had signed to enter the Navy having their request to wear a Navy sash with their graduation robes being denied. Joe Riener, Dave Frei and Clancy Slichter also spoke. Later in the meeting the concern was discussed and superintendent Jon Rehder and high school principal Matt Elven spoke about it. Their current policy limits what is allowed, which is why the request was denied. Rehder said he will work up a military exception and bring it back to the board for their review.
Another speaker during public input was Lori Mader and she spoke in regards to the anonymous letter that was sent out to many in the community. She said she has been accused of writing the letter and wanted to set the record straight that wasn’t the case. She would’ve signed it if it was her. She stated she has also been accused of lying in the letters she put in the newspapers and wanted to set the record straight that she wasn’t. She also voiced a concern about 2 board members apparently living in the same trustee zone.
In regular board action, the board passed the consent agenda which included accepting the resignation of head cook Sharon Deimler.
The auditor’s report was given and accepted by the board.
Changes were reviewed in the school and district handbooks and approved by the board.
Changes were also reviewed for administrative procedures. References to a sick leave bank committee were removed since they have had such a committee in many years. They also had some coaching salaries that were 13% for varsity and 10% for the assistant while in other sports they were 12% and 9%. Rehder changed all those to 13% and 10%. The board approved the changes.
Bus routes were approved. They are printed below.
The Elementary and High School schedules were reviewed and approved.
Amber Nuxoll was approved for hire as the new head cook. This opened up the paraprofessional position she had been hired for a couple months ago. She had served as a cook previously and was very interested in the head cook position if it ever opened up. She just didn’t expect it to open up this soon.
Madison Shears was approved for hire a JV volleyball coach. She had held that position last year as well.
Sisters Madison and Tamden Pecarovich were approved as the Junior High volleyball coaches.
The board voted to approve the updated extra-curricular assignments.
Lot of policy changes were reviewed. The board voted to approve the changes to policies 1500B, 1500P, 4105 and 4105F,
Policy 3265 deals with cellphones in the school. It basically bans their use during school hours. Grades K-8 will have them banned at the start of the school year. Grades 9-12 will be gradually reduced until they are banned for those students at the start of the second semester.
Several more policies were reviewed and then tabled to the next meeting so that the board members have a chance to fully review the suggested changes.
3 more policies were reviewed on Health Enhancement Education. They are 2320, 2320P and 2320F. These are in relation to a law passed by the legislature that all students have to view a video. Rehder had a sample video recommended by the legislature played for those in attendance. He said they are seeking clarification on whether said video needs to be shown every year or just to any new students after the first year.
The anonymous letter Lori Mader spoke about earlier was discussed. Rehder said he forwarded it to the attorney. His primary concern was the students and their families accused by name in the letter. The attorney’s advice was to move on from it unless things do start to escalate.
In the administrative reports, Elven reported that he and Rehder attended the Idaho Association of School Administrators conference Aug. 5-7. Each attended several workshops and both were elected to positions. Elven was elected as president of the principals and Rehder as president of the superintendents.
At the fall sports meeting over 150 student athletes in grades 7-12 attended with their parents.
Practices started Aug. 11. Elven said there are currently 24 out for football, 26 for volleyball, 13 for cross country (8 boys and 5 girls), 7 for cheerleading and 1 in co-op soccer with Grangeville.
Coaching positions still open are softball, baseball and girls basketball.
Registration was held August 13 with 188 students registered out of 207 with 9 new students.
Rehder in his Elementary principal report said back to school night is Wednesday, August 27 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Elementary School. He will be barbecuing burgers and hot dogs and the parents and students will get the chance to meet their teachers.
In his facilities report had talked about carpeting at the Elementary School. He’s looking at doing carpet squares and will do the current multi-purpose room over Spring Break 2026. This will become the new library. The rest of the classrooms will be done summer 2026. He received two bids, one at $31,141.75 and the other at $32,486.46. One said the price can go down is they buy in bulk. The reason to go to carpet is it helps with heating and you don’t need to do the buffing and waxing.
He reported the window project at the high school is nearing completion with the windows over the front entrance to be replaced this week.
The BST surfacing at the Elementary School was done in one day in about 2 hours. He said they are looking at doing the upper parking lot at the high school next year and will look at doing the whole lower parking lot. Currently they push a lot of gravel off the lower lot during the winter months when plowing and then have to replenish with new gravel. BST may be more cost effective.
Laurie Lorentz and Shelly Sandford have been busy waxing floors in the elementary and burnishing the hallways. They will do the reverse next year.
Rick Forsmann and Sydney Shears have been working on the water pipes at the high school. They will complete the water repairs at the beginning of next summer.
He decided to put the gym foyer update off for another year. He wants to see what the federal government does with the forest funds.
The lagoon dredging project for the Monastery has been put off for a year. Since the high school uses water from the Monastery, the school contributes 35% to projects.
Track resurfacing is recommended soon. They were quoted $43,785. They have $30,000 in the track resurfacing fund right now. Rehder felt it best to put this off until June of 2026 because of the logistics of football starting and getting hold on anyone who comes in to walk the track. The track would be off limits for about a week when this is being done.
He looked into air purifiers for the Elementary. Lewiston School District installed them in 3 elementary schools last year and saw an increase in attendance due to less sickness plus an increase in testing scores. He received a quote of about $40,000 for 15 classrooms.
In his superintendent’s report He also talked about the IASA conference he and Elven attended.
He talked with Dave Shears about getting a new bus and is looking at ordering in October/November 2025 for delivery in Spring 2027. They would then order another in October/November 2026 for delivery in Spring 2028. This would get them back on track with current buses.
He had a tech visit with staff and community members on August 13 that went very well. The consensus was to try and reduce screen time for students and out of this also came the recommendations for the cell phone ban the school put into policy.
Enrollment decreased a little from last year but they added 3 to the Elementary on Monday. Open enrollment is at 41 right now which is down from 51 last year.
The continuing policy updates as well as further discussion on graduation attire were added to the future agenda items for September.
The meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m. The next regular meeting is set for Monday, September 15 at 7 p.m.

Approved Bus Routes for 2025-26
Following are the school bus routes approved for 2025-26.
#1 MOUGHMER POINT – Kenneth Cox, Bus # 14-4, 7:00 a.m.—Jake Holthaus, Will Schlader, Jeremy Meyers, Mike Kehler, Stephen Goeckner, Adam Uhlenkott, Prairie High School, Jarod Cash, Matt Duman, Jody Blakley, Chris Duclos, Damian Riener, Chris Brannan, Ryan Uhlenkott, Joe Rehder, Daniel McIntire, Hangout (morning), Auxiliary Gym
#2 COTTONWOOD EAST – Bambi Woolford, Bus # 18-3, 7:00 a.m.—Tonya Schumacher, Annie Pack, Cody Winkles, Ed Wemhoff, Brad Hibbard, Doug Bixby, Scott Schacher, Nick Uhlenkott, Jason Weber, Clark Tacke, Andy Terhaar, Doug Schumacher, Cody Graham, Sales Yard
#3 KEUTERVILLE – Rick Johnson, Bus # 24-7, 6:45 a.m.—Kevin Geis, Cody Graning, Zach Hasenoehrl, Bob Enneking, Aleana Lockart, Ryan Mader, Keuterville, Ronnie Chandler, Jack Secrest, Nate Duman, Dustin Uhlenkott, Heath Klapprich, Wayne Shears, Prairie High School, Dustin Behler, Shawn Forsmann, Hangout (afternoon)
#4 FERDINAND/BUTTE – Sasha Schacher, Bus # 15-1, 7:05 a.m.—Mark Schwartz, Toby Schwartz, JP Coppernoll, Justin Hanson, Jared Schwartz, Chelsea Tucker, PCI, Nick Frei, Ferdinand Church, Ferdinand South, Cory Lustig Curtis Nuxoll, Cody Funke, Bob Lustig, Levi Lustig, CJ Frei, Joe VonBargen, Keith Schultz, Casey Forsmann, Mark Gehring, Craig Duclos, NolanRehder, Don Lustig
#5 GREENCREEK – Jerry Schumacher, Bus # 09-09, 6:50 a.m.—Adam Schumacher, Kevin Karel, Chad Arnzen, Ryan Witters, Shaun Sides, Tony Bennett, Kyle Westhoff, Adam Forsmann, Alex Arnold, Matt Elven, Thomas Holman, TJ Schmidt, Kris Shears, Jacob Forsmann, Mark Anderson, Shane Ratcliff, Alysia Kindrick, Scot Schlader