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Board meets
It was reported at the June school board meeting Monday, May 16, that the junior high rooms in the lower level at the high school were very near completion. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann said there are some furnace issues and some wiring yet to do otherwise the work is done. Many of those attending the school concert later in the evening toured the lower level. Della Gehring and Gus Hoene were certified as elected as neither had any opposition in the school board trustee elections. The negotiations agreement with the teachers was ratified. Some of the things brought up in the negotiation process led to looking into updating Section 5 of the District Policy Manual, which deals with personnel. Forsmann said new laws coming from the legislature will lead to deletions of parts of it as one of the laws states that state law takes precedence over policies or negotiated agreements. Forsmann presented their proposed updates to the board members for their review. She also suggested they sign up with a policy updating service offered by the Idaho School Board Association. Cost would be $295 for a year. She was given the go-ahead to try the service for a year. Along with this the board approved a resolution to negate any policies in conflict with state law. This enables them to be legal while giving them time to root out and remove any parts of the policy manual that are in conflict with state law. Several resignations were accepted by the board. Greg Deiss is resigning from most of his current duties, some of which, such as elementary principal, were going to be eliminated anyway with the closing of the Elementary building. He will stay on with his technology work. Others resigning/retiring were Judy Forsman as school secretary, Joan Riggers as an elementary teacher, Theresa Carter as a high school teacher, Dorothy Nuxoll as an Elementary Teacher Aide and Vikki Riener as varsity volleyball coach. There was discussion of paying dues to the Idaho Association of Counties which will be leading the state’s push toward getting the Craig-Wyden funds approved for another 5 years. The board decided to wait until the June meeting to take any action on this. Presnell & Gage was approved to be the auditor again for this year. Their quote for this year is $7040, a 2.9% increase from last year. The board also approved use of the high school football equipment at the summer football camp. High School Principal Randy Brown said the IHSAA requires such approval be made. In administrative reports Deiss said the ISAT results for the third and fourth grades were very good with all sections well over the state proficiency requirements. Idaho Reading Indicator testing is also done and they also did very well on it. On May 4 he had some of the PAVE students from the high school help weed out nearly 900 books from the Elementary Library as they prepare to move them to the Middle School this summer. Books weeded were duplicates, ones never checked out anymore or ones hopelessly out of date. On May 9 Megan Sigler and Beka Bruner presented a program on recycling to each grade. Brock Heath helped them to prepare the program presented and Deiss reported they did a wonderful job. The Elementary School also had a bungee bounce party on May 12 for the classrooms that brought in the most boxtops for education. Mrs. Kim Schumacher’s 3rd graders and Mrs. Cindy Schumacher’s 1st graders were the lucky bouncers. Over $1100 was raised with the program which was spearheaded by Megan Rambo. 20 prospective Kindergartners were screened last week with at least 18 of those expected to make up next year’s Kindergarten class. Brown reported he has had several juniors approach him wanting to do the senior project pilot program for next year. He also reported the ISATs are complete and he is very impressed with the results. He said they have 4 teachers willing to teach Idaho Education Network (IEN) courses. They are also pilot the MAPP program which would enable students to test out of certain classes and receive credit for those they pass. This would enable students more time for college credit classes to be taken in high school. Forsmann reported the last Progress Reports were sent out May 3. She said the student council is busy working on last day of school events. As superintendent she reported she and Sheri Daly attended the Professional Technical Academy audit and it looks like they will get approved again for next year. Daly took a week recently to physically visit all the schools involved. She said they need to get a policy together on the Pay for Performance program that is part of the new programs recently passed by the legislature. They need to decide what to use to determine this at the local level. She also reported that FirstStep Internet out of Moscow has some grant money to spend and are looking into connectivity for schools, hospitals, prisons, etc. They could offer the district more bandwidth at a very reasonable rate once the equipment is installed. Forsmann said this would help a lot as the district becomes part of the IEN and they get more and more online usage. The board adjourned at 7:45 p.m. with board members taking a tour of the lower level work at the high school. The next regular meeting will be Monday, June 20 at 7 p.m. at the Middle School library. |
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