The School Board held their December meeting Monday, Dec. 15.
The January and February regular meeting dates fall on holidays. It was decided to keep January’s meeting on its regular date and time, Monday, January 19 at 7 p.m. It was decided to move February’s meeting to Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 5:30 p.m. This was more due to the fact that Superintendent Jon Rehder will be at meetings in Boise on Feb. 16 and 17 than because it is a holiday.
Suzi Quintal was in attendance to discuss the valedictorian and salutatorian requirements. She shared that she had the policies of most other schools in our area. She left the board with a proposal that requires students to take more rigorous classes if they seek to be the valedictorian or salutatorian. If the board decides to make any changes they would go into effect with next year’s incoming freshman class, the class of 2030, or the class of 2031 if they don’t get a change made by the end of this school year.
The school calendar for 2026-27 was presented by Rehder after being hashed out in a committee. Board member Shawn Kaschmitter asked if the days, such as teacher in-service days for instance, that are no-school days be clearly marked as such. The board then approved the calendar.
An update to the Jr/Sr. High School Handbook regarding tardies was discussed. Principal Matt Elven presented a proposal and after some tweaks by board members it was approved. The following is the verbiage that was approved:
“Students are expected to report to class on time with their necessary materials after the passing bell. Students not present after the passing bell for attendance or students missing required class materials will be marked tardy and notified by their instructor. A portion of a student’s grade in a course will be based on attendance and the tardy criteria otherwise known as “work ethic.” After the second tardy in a given class the next tardy will lower the student’s semester course grade by 1% in that class. 
If a student goes past 10 tardies, then 2% for each additional tardy will be deducted from a student’s course grade.
Parents will be notified after the student has reached 5 tardies and 10 tardies in any given class, explaining the consequences of additional tardiness.”
The class withdrawal process was discussed. It was reported that students have the first week of each semester to make any changes. After that they are locked in. Elven said their class schedule is so tight that if you do drop a class, you’ll need to take another that is offered in the same time frame. Such as if you want to drop a third period class, you’ll need to take another third period class offering. Dual credit classes are somewhat different. If you drop the dual credit part, you would still need to attend the high school class but you have more than just the first week to change.
Policy 2320F was discussed. The board had previously passed an opt-out request form. Apparently you cannot do that, it has to be opt-in. The board voted to make the change. This is directed at classes with reading materials that may have passages that parents don’t want their children having to deal with.
In the Jr./Sr. High principal’s report Casey Forsmann had a question on the fall activities surveys. These were sent out to parents on Dec. 2 and 9 to parents and Dec. 11 to student athletes. They are basically an evaluation of the coaches. They need to be turned in by Dec. 19. Athletic Director Travis Mader will then meet with each coach in January to review the results.
In other items, Elven reported the Idaho County Shootout raised a record amount for the food banks and Prairie won the school competition for the 8^th straight year.
The ASVAB test was given to juniors on Dec. 3. They have received the results and will have an interpretation meeting with the juniors after Christmas Break.
The Christmas Concert went well. It was moved from the cafeteria to the gym this time.
10 students competed in Regional Business Professionals of America (BPA) competition and 9 of them qualified for state.
The PHS alumni games will be Dec. 26. This is a fundraiser for the boys and girls basketball programs.
In the Elementary principal’s report, Rehder shared the results of the ISIP testing. They give this assessment each month and results were all over the place. Some students test very high one month and not so much the next month. Rehder said he is not 100% sold on the validity of the assessments.
The November and December R-3 assemblies will be combined and will be held Friday, January 9.
Progress Reports went out Dec. 3.
The Elementary Christmas Concert is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 19 at 1 p.m. Mrs. Karel isn’t available for piano accompaniment so they have asked high school band member Matthew Jones if he could help.
The students are having Christmas dress-up days this week. Teachers are also having Christmas parties with their students during the week.
Rehder said he attended a training with the Lion’s Club on hearing and vision machines. They will be doing this testing the week of March 16.
In the facilities report Rehder noted the new mini-split they were looking at in the special ed classroom, there is a new business in Grangeville that said they could fix the old one for much less.
New blinds have been ordered for the high school after the samples they tried worked well. Rick Forsmann, Dave Shears and Rehder will install them Dec. 22-23. They were able to get some holiday discounts when they ordered the rest of them which saved over $1200.
There were some issues with heaters at the high school leaking freon. Quality Heating refilled them but they are investigating why it happened.
They will be carpeting portions of the elementary school this spring and early summer.
Rehder said he and board chairman Aaron Hinkelman have been visiting about the gym foyer at the high school and maybe looking into any grant opportunities. With the Secure Rural Schools (forest funds) reauthorized maybe they can use those funds. It has passed Congress and needs the President’s signature.
In his superintendent’s report he said he is meeting with local legislators. IDLA is a major topic of discussion with legislators. Some seem to want to do away with it. Rehder said our school would suffer greatly without IDLA classes. Rehder said he is pushing the problems rural schools face with them.
As to school funding for next year, he is hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. He fully expects public schools to get hit with the funding holdback Gov. Little has applied to the rest of state programs.
The board adjourned to an executive session at 9:15 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.