| $325,000
levy sought
With the state legislature’s Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee sending an increased education budget to the state’s house and senate, Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann said they would be able to balance their budget for 2018-19 with a smaller override levy than the past several years. Therefore the school board approved asking for a $325,000 levy in the May 15 election. This is down from the $350,000 amount of the past several years. The board also approved calling for bids for the first phase of the Jr./Sr. High School heating system upgrade. A transfer of $37,000 from the forest fund to the general fund was approved. Renee Eckert submitted a retirement letter, which was approved. Ronnie Chandler was approved for hire as assistant baseball coach. An audit proposal for the next three years was approved. Cost would be $6,200 for FY18, $6,500 for FY19 and $6,800 for FY20 from Quest CPA’s of Payette. These amounts are about $2000 less than their previous auditor was charging. A couple of policy updates were approved. These are from the company the district hired to keep their policy manuals up to date and up to code. There was quite a discussion on appropriate student’s use of the school’s electronics network. The board approved Jeff Martin’s seeking a tech-ed endorsement through the University of Idaho. This will allow the school to offer more tech classes. In her facilities report, Forsmann shared the findings of the appraisal of the old Elementary school minus the gym addition. The appraiser went into great detail with an over 100-page report. His value for the building and property was just $120,000. Way lower than the previous appraisal. Forsmann said the original appraisal, which included the gym, was done from an insurance perspective, what it would cost to rebuild, while this one was done from the point of view of what could be done with this property. Forsmann said she would talk with their real estate agent and this will be an agenda discussion item at the March meeting. The primary option appears to be a call for bids with $120,000 as the minimum bid accepted. In administrative reports Forsmann said she attended the all-state music presentation at Moscow on Feb. 2. Prairie students Alex McElroy, McKenna Wilson, Anna Everson and Isabella Walsh all participated. The District Spelling Bee was held with Monica Goeckner as the winner and Reed Chapman as runner-up. Monica will be at the Regional Competition on March 10 in Lewiston. As superintendent she reported they received $35,000 to upgrade switches and wireless infrastructure at both schools. Jon Rehder reported 26 students took the ACT test on Feb. 10. On Tuesday, Feb. 20, Ryan Hasselstrom and Jeff Martin will be visiting with 9th through 11th graders about tech classes being offered. They will be Microsoft III, Adobe, Principles of Engineering and Computer Programming. Registration for next year will also start on Feb. 20. Spring sports start practice on Friday, Feb. 23. Rehder also reported art students have works on display for judging at the U of I. Shane Chapman would like to take the students to see their work being displayed on Monday, March 5. The meeting adjourned to an executive session at 8:30 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, March 19 at 5:30 p.m. |
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