School Board meets
The Cottonwood School Board held their January meeting Monday, Jan. 19.
The consent agenda was approved which included approval of the emergency closure for a power outage on Dec. 17 as well as the retirement of special education teacher Michelle Bledsoe.
Board members Aaron Hinkelman, zone 1; Keith Holcomb, zone 2 and Casey Forsman, zone 5, were sworn in for a new term of office.
A motion was made and passed to keep the officers the same. That would be Hinkelman as board chairman, Tara Klapprich as vice-chair, Carly Behler as clerk/treasurer and Jennifer Riener and Lisa Hasselstrom as assistant treasurers.
Board members signed and returned the code of ethics.
Meeting dates and times will continue to be the 3^rd Monday of each month at 7 p.m. starting in March.
A motion was made and passed requiring two check signers on each District check from among the Chair, Vice-Chair and Clerk/Treasurer.
Superintendent Jon Rehder was approved as Civil Rights Officer. No board member volunteered to serve as a legislative representative.
Air purifiers were discussed for adding to the 4-5 grade rooms. Action was tabled to February to get more information on the affect they have in the K-3 rooms.
Valedictorian and Salutatorian requirements were discussed and it was decided to bring this back at the February meeting with additional information including research on class course availability and other questions.
It was voted to approve all the required annual review policies.
In policy manual review the first reading was held on multiple policies and then tabled until February.
In his Elementary Principal’s Report Jon Rehder reported the R3 assembly went well on Jan. 9. It was a combined November/December awards day.
He started his classroom observations.
Katie Munger is serving as a student teacher with Rachel Hernandez from Jan. 5-Feb. 27. She will then spend 4 weeks with special education teachers Vikki Riener and Michelle Bledsoe at the Elementary School from March 2^nd-26^th. She will then spend her last 4 weeks at the high school with Tori Decaria from April 6-May 1.
The Christmas Concert was well attended on Friday, Dec. 19.
In his facilities report Rehder said Rick Forsmann had a man come in to fix the heating unit in the special education room.
The blinds have all been placed in the high school windows. They turned out great.
Air purifiers have been installed in Preschool-3^rd grade. Forsmann feels they are working well. Rehder would like to put them in the grade 4-6 rooms. They are $2695 per unit. They can get 8 for $21,560 and get a 9^th and 10^th for free. That works out to $2,156 per unit.
Upcoming projects-They are looking at membrane replacement on the high school gym roof this coming summer. He spoke to Andrew Miller and will reach out to him this spring to get a quote.
Carpet is to be installed in the multipurpose room and hallway between the K-1 building and cafeteria during Spring Break. All upper classrooms at the beginning of summer. Moving of the library from the current location to the new location will start after Memorial Day.
Looking at BST for the upper parking lot at the high school this summer. They also are looking into BST for the lower parking lot. It would take more prep and a higher cost. They may be looking at summer 2027 for this.
He is still looking at the high school gym foyer. He is still looking at grant opportunities. If we move forward with this it would be a Spring/Summer 2027 project.
In his superintendent’s report Rehder reported they will need a special education teacher for the Elementary School for next year.
He is waiting to see what happens with educational funding from the state legislature. Governor Little prioritized education in his State of the State address.
They are looking at Feb. 2-3 for installing the new phone system. The previous company had been nickel and diming them for years and increasing rates quite a bit.
Rehder said he has discussed non-lethal protection devices for the school since there is no local police officer at this time and they would be dependent on Sheriff’s Dept. response which is subject to how close an officer might be.
He noted they will want to discuss a levy amount at the February meeting. He is not sure what the legislature will do. Regardless, it is likely state support would come up short of needs, necessitating a levy.
Matt Elven reported Jr. High Girls basketball started with 20 players signed up. 11 in the 8^th grade and 9 in the 7^th grade.
ASVAB test coordinator Suzi Quintal met with juniors to discuss the results of their tests.
Girls basketball senior night will be January 27 against Logos with 4 seniors to be recognized.
Prairie will be hosting their first high school wrestling meet in many years on Jan. 28 at the PHS gym.
Some updates were made to the CNA classroom. They received a third medical mannequin and added a third hospital bed. These additions help them accommodate the growing class which is currently at 8 students.
The board moved to an executive session at 8:26 p.m. for the superintendent evaluation. After reconvening into open session it was voted to approve a 1 year extension to Rehder’s contract making it a 3-year contract.
The meeting adjourned at 9:43 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 5:30 p.m.