The school board held their September meeting Monday, Sept. 21. As part of the consent agenda, the resignations of Linda Kaschmitter as an Elementary School cook and Garrett Beckman as assistant baseball coach were approved. Under action items, Hallie Michels was recommended by superintendent Jon Rehder for the Elementary School cook position and was approved by the board. Samantha Auman was approved for hire to the Jr./Sr. High Paraprofessional position. Joe Rehder and Jordyn Higgins were recommended and approved for the Jr. High girls basketball coaching positions. Policy 3580 was introduced and discussed and the board approved the policy with the recommended changes. 28 other policies were introduced and discussed before tabling to the October meeting to give the board time to study the recommended changes. Matt Elven reported the class sizes. 7th grade has 36 students. 8th has 31. There are 33 freshmen, 27 sophomore, 29 juniors and 31 seniors. There is a total of 187 students at the Jr./Sr. High School. Last year they had 206. He also updated the board on cell phone use and how he plans to proceed this year. The board will look at this policy at the next board meeting. He reported they instituted some changes for Homecoming this year. No hall decorations, an increase in class games/participation. They had an outdoor homecoming dance with firepits and floats in the high school parking lot. He reported they had the largest dance turnout since he has been at Prairie with over 100 students attending. MAP testing was held Sept. 4-18. They had over 70 sophomores, juniors an seniors sign up for dual credit courses on Sept. 16. Prairie will be hosting the regional FFA Soils Contest this year on Sept. 29. They will be using multiple fields in the area with the school as the central meeting location. Jon Rehder reported they had 192 of their 217 students make it to the open house with their families. They fed 303 people. ASB elections were held with Cael Tacke elected as president; William Holman, VP; Leo Rehder, Secretary and Lincoln Jones and Riata Graning as 5th grade representatives. Reading assessment and MAP testing are going on at the Elementary School. In the facilities report Prairie Gutters will be here in October to install gutters at both the high school and elementary school. They would go in on the backside of the elementary school, the new roof on the bus entry at the high school, above the gym entry at the high school and the upper parking lot roof line at the high school. The damaged tin sheets on the roof of the bus/maintenance shop were replaced. Rehder also reported he received a quote from Andrew Miller to add 3” of foam to the roof. This would eliminate leaks and add insulation to the building. Leakage at the Auxiliary Gym windows was discussed. The plan is to seal the windows properly and also sealing the exterior walls as the bricks are porous. Miller is working on a quote. Rehder is guessing about $7,000-$8,000 to complete the project. In his superintendent’s report, Rehder said a bus route change has been made Bambi Woolford will be driving the Keuterville route and keeping the bus at her house during the week. Rick Johnson will drive the East route. This change would cut 3500-4000 miles off the buses during the year and save over $1400 in diesel fuel. Tax relief funds arrived at the end of August in the amount of $408,042. This paid off the $275,000 override levy and leaves $133,042 to use for maintenance purposes. Rehder noted this does not assure we will receive this amount in future years. It is a moving target we can really count on. But any amount helps. He would like to look at increasing pay for the 2027-28 school year. They had a 0% increase this year to stay within budget but doesn’t feel we can sustain this with the cost of living increasing as it is. Current enrollment for the entire district at this point is 398 which is down from the 430 we had last year. K-6 numbers this year are K-30, 1st-22, 2nd 31, 3rd 21, 4th 32, 5th 36 and 6th 38. The board adjourned to an executive session at 8:26 p.m. The next regular meeting of the board is set for Monday, October 19 at 7 p.m. |
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