School Board meets
Aaron Hinkelman was re-elected as school board chairman at the January meeting of the school board Monday, Jan. 15.
Pat Alfrey was also re-elected as vice-chairman.
Gus Hoene and Tara Klapprich recited the oath of office as theirs were the two positions up for election in November.
Check signers will continue to be Hinkelman, Alfrey and clerk-treasurer Denise Uhlenkott, who was re-appointed to her position.
Meeting dates will continue to be the third Monday of each month at 7 p.m.
Agendas will continue to be posted at the District office as well as the two Cottonwood Credit Union locations.
Jon Rehder was reappointed as civil rights officer.
The emergency school closure of Friday, Jan. 12, was officially approved by the board.
Marianna Kerley of Grangeville was approved for hire as a paraprofessional at the high school. She has over 20 years of experience and had worked at Twin Falls and most recently Lapwai.
Jamie Scheffler was approved for hire as the new Jr. High girls basketball coach.
A transfer of funds totaling $42,915 was approved from the MAFA fund to the bus fund to complete payment of the new bus that arrived last month.
The policy updates discussed at the last couple of meetings were approved.
In the Jr./Sr. High report Matt Elven reported on the stock market game that was reported on a couple weeks ago in the Chronicle.
They sent off 31 football helmets to be reconditioned.
Alli Geis was honored at the girls basketball senior night last week.
They have ordered 22 girls junior high basketball uniforms for the upcoming season. Elven said they had been using hand-me-downs from the high school program but those uniforms were too big for most of the junior high players.
FAFSA night is set for Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 5:30 in the cafeteria.
Jr. High girls basketball has 20 players turned out, 13 eighth graders and 7 seventh graders. They are looking at restructuring the 7^th and 8^th grade teams to A and B teams to even out the number of players. This is something most other area schools have already done.
Ski day at Cottonwood Butte was originally going to be this Friday but since the Butte doesn’t open for the season until Saturday they are now looking at February dates. February 2 is a good possibility. The schools will be sending paperwork home once they decide on a date.
Elven reported they are losing 5 students at the end of the semester but are picking up two others.
The next Knowledge Bowl meet is Monday, Jan. 22 which will be a virtual competition hosted by Timberline. The team will be hosting a haystack and dessert fundraiser during the meet and are inviting parents to attend and compete with their students.
Ryan Hasselstrom will be attending a meeting Feb. 8 in Boise to apply for funding for the installation of a fiber optic Internet cable to service the elementary school from the high school server.
Jon Rehder reported he took 3 students to Rodonna’s for Lunch with the Principal.
The next R3 assembly is set for Friday, Jan. 26.
Andrea Brannan’s former classroom is being used as a multipurpose room. They have the Chess Guy coming on Mondays for non-release time students. Shawn Kaschmitter installed a large fish tank for the 4^th-6^th grade fish experience. It was received through a grant. Rehder also said he purchased numerous games for the kids to play during bad weather during recess. They used donation money to purchase the game and bought them at Arnzen Drug to keep the money local.
The new classroom addition has some finalizing to be done. Rehder said he wants architect Rhonda Wemhoff to do a final walk-through and make sure everything is as it should be before making the final payment to the contractor.
Continuing and future projects include:
New windows for the high school-he’s looking into rebate possibilities to reduce costs.
Enclosing the breezeway between the K-1 building and the cafeteria. Safety and security grant funding opens Jan. 24 and he plans to apply for some of that to fund the project. He is also looking at costs.
Membrane replacement on the high school gym roof. Andrew Miller thinks they can make it another 2-3 years before it is needed.
Complete the paint job at the Elementary School this summer. Paint is estimated at $4500-$5000. They are looking at doing the painting themselves. Rick Forsmann, Dave Shears, Rehder, summer help, possibly Jerry Richardson and maybe reach out to NICI for offender labor.
Replace 5 doors on the lower classroom going out to the recess field. They are seeking quotes and would prefer local if possible so they wouldn’t have to pay for shipping.
Paint the siding on the high school.
In his superintendent report he report on getting radios for the bus fleet. They got a quote of $7,649.72 from Davis Communications. They removed the 2.5% yearly increase from the quote. Dave Shears submitted to the state to get 85% reimbursement. They would have 2 handhelds in the office as well as one on each bus while buses are on routes. This would avoid cell phone use.
He reported they have one teacher planning to retire. He sent a letter to staff to see if anyone else is planning on changing employment or retiring. It would be nice to be able to start looking for replacements in March and April rather than in June and July.
He will be attending the Day on the Hill Feb. 19-20 and then the Superintendent networking meeting on Feb. 21. This is why the February school board meeting has been moved to Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.
The board adjourned to an executive session for superintendent evaluation at 8:11 p.m.