| School
Board adopts 2018-19 calendar
The school calendar for the 2018-19 school year was adopted at the December meeting of the School Board Monday, Dec. 18. It appears at the bottom of the page. Ryan Hasselstrom, Teel Bruner, Carson Schmidt and Caleb McWilliams were present to talk about the bleacher project. Hasselstrom said what they are looking at would cost about $28,000 for a 90 foot wide, 9 row set of bleachers, $18,000 for the aluminum needed and another $10,000 for the other materials that would be needed to build them. They would look at custom building them to fit the slope that is already there. Purchasing a set of similar bleachers would run about $52,000. Schmidt, McWilliams and Spencer Schumacher are looking at taking on aspects of the project for their respective senior projects. Schumacher would be involved in the engineering, McWilliams in the safety aspects and Schmidt in the building. They raised over $8000 already with the raffle and parking space fundraiser held during football season. They would be looking at a loan of $20,000 from the school district to get the project rolling and pay that back from further fundraisers. Board chairman Gus Hoene expressed concern about the track project getting paid off. He also said he would insist on a licensed engineer to oversee the project as was done with the track. Hasselstrom said he has not forgotten about the agreement with the board on the track and is pursuing grants and other fundraisers for that. This could be done alongside that project. Hoene suggested maybe a funding chart or thermometer similar to what the Library had years ago be set up showing how fundraising is developing. They will revisit this at the January meeting giving the group some time to address concerns. The January meeting was moved to Wednesday, January 17 at 5:30 p.m. due to the holiday on their regular meeting date. At the January meeting they will determine whether or not to move the February meeting as it is on a holiday as well. American Disabilities Act compliance for the school website was discussed. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann said she is looking into this. They will need to make some changes. If they get dinged on it they have 18 months to make it compliant. They did ask that any Facebook pages dealing with school programs be renamed so that it’s obvious they are not school generated, such as the Prairie Football page being renamed to Supporters of Prairie Football or something similar. An overnight stay at Moscow for the 4 students who will participating in the all-state choir was approved. In the facilities report Forsmann said they are nearly finished with the abatement at the old elementary school. A sign has been posted describing the project. Once it’s completed she has an appraiser set to go. Cost for the appraiser is $7,500. Once they receive the appraisal they can decide how to proceed. Pat Alfrey suggested if nothing else they could look at tearing down the old building and sell the lots. Forsmann commented that would be an option now that the abatement has been done. She also reported she has asked Quality Heating for a quote on heating units for the high school classrooms. It look like each heating unit would run $10,500 with an additional $5,500 if you add air conditioning. Hoene suggested looking at doing it in phases. So many this year, several more next year, etc. and cutting off each section from the boiler as it is done. They figure about 17 units would be needed. Jon Rehder suggested the cafeteria/band room area be part of the first section done. Forsmann said she is also looking at converting the computer lab into a 6th grade classroom for next year. The library has an area that could accommodate 15 of the computers so that they would still have the computer access for the students. The key fob system has been installed. Denise Uhlenkott is in charge of fob check out and scheduling events. There would be a $10 deposit to check out a fob, which you would get back on return. Keeping it does no good as fobs can be electronically deactivated. In her principal’s report Forsmann said the Kindergarten for next year is looking like about 20 students, maybe less. The Center for Discover was discussed. Grant availability appears to be $35,000 which doesn’t even pay all the salaries. Forsmann said they could guarantee it will be here next year but couldn’t guarantee it would be here in 5 years. Alfrey and Tara Rowland said they would like to see some numbers and facts so they have something to tell those patrons that are concerned. Rehder reported they have 6 new students starting the 2nd semester. They have one student enrolling in the Northwest Intermountain Metal Manufacturing (NIMM) program through LCSC. It is a pilot program for 10 graders with just 100 students accepted from throughout the area. The program begins in March and the student will follow the program the remainder of their high school career and into college. The PSAT was taken by sophomores in October and the results are in with Prairie’s average score of 941 compared to the national average of 934 and state average of 911. 3405 cans of food were donated during the Idaho County shootout Food Drive with an additional $2416 in cash. Prairie and Grangeville combined to raise over $12,000. The meeting adjourned at 7:23 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, January 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Elementary school Computer Lab.  |
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