School Board meets
The School Board held their October meeting Monday, Oct. 19, with most of the action items concerning policy updates.
They approved safety busing, something they have to do every year so that students in town can be picked up by buses.
Policy 5100 was read and approved with changes. It concerns hiring practices and criteria. The main update was that hiring committees need to be at least 3 people.
Policy 3265, which concerns student owned electronic communications devices was also approved with updates.  The changes address after how many offenses will students have to leave their phones at the office before school and pick them up again after school.
Another slew of policies received their second readings. Action on them was postponed to the November meeting as one deals with AI which will be addressed in a workshop at the Idaho School Board Association convention and they would like to get input from other schools.
In administrative reports, Matt Elven noted a Jr. High drug-free party was held.
The Prairie FFA attended some competitions with local students scoring well.
The PSAT was given Oct. 7 with 27 sophomores and 6 juniors taking the test.
The Fall blood drive was held Oct. 8 with 28 registered and 25 successful donations.
Cross Country Senior Night honored 4 athletes. Football Senior Night also honored 4 athletes. Volleyball Senior Night honored 5 athletes.
Prairie Youth Wrestling hosted a tournament on Saturday at the high school with about 300 athletes competing.
ACT testing was held Oct. 17 with 8 students taking it.
The junior high band was to participate in “Mass Band” at Nezperce on Oct. 21.
Senior project demonstrations will be held Oct. 21 with 10 juniors set to make their presentations during the day.
FAFSA Night has been moved to Oct. 29.
Jon Rehder shared the results of Amira testing. He noted some Kindergartners, who have never worked with electronic devices as they don’t have them at home, struggled. He expects them to do much better in the Spring.
The R3 assemblies are going quarterly this year instead of monthly. The first will be Nov. 13.
Parent/Teacher conferences will be Oct. 27-28. No school Friday, Oct. 30.
A Veteran’s Day assembly is set for Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m.
The Elementary Christmas Concert is set for Friday, Dec. 18.
In his facilities report he shared photos of the work done on the bus barn roof and gutters installed at the high school and elementary school. The primary aim with the gutter improvement is to remove some areas where they were getting icy buildup in traffic areas.
Rehder is looking to get quotes on the baseball field fence.
Cooper Riener, Bucky Harman and Clint Riener are doing prep work for a batting cage. They are looking at two of them but the second would be partly within city right of way and they would need to get city approval.
In his superintendent report Rehder noted they had some issues with the intercom/bell system at the Elementary School, mostly in the 2 new classrooms. They had a technician up Oct. 8 but they were unable to get the issue fixed.
Rehder said he visited with Cottonwood Mayor Keith Holcomb about submitting a grant for a Student Resource Officer for the school. This may also help with the city’s police chief search as it would add more salary for the life of the grant.
The ISBA convention is Nov. 4-6 in Boise. 4 of 5 board members plan to attend along with Rehder and Carly Behler.
The board adjourned to an executive session. The next meeting is set for Monday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.