| Community
levy meeting set for May 12
A community meeting to discuss the proposed school override levy has been set up for Wednesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Elementary Gym. Well pump is installed It was reported at the April school board meeting that the pump has been installed at the school district’s new well near the Middle School and it should get electricity to it this week. Superintendent Stan Kress reported that it should soon be up and running. He figures that it should pay for itself within 2 or 3 years in the money they’ll save from having to buy water from the city for the football field. They also hope to use it to water the Middle School lawns as well as the baseball field. He reported that the well is costing about $23,000 including drilling, pump, electrical, etc. He figures they’d pay about $11,000 per year to the city for water for the football field based on the most recent billing. Ken Frei was in attendance at the meeting. He is interested in the vacant zone #5 position that Steve Frei resigned from when he moved out of the district. The board will make their selection from among the candidates at the May meeting which has been moved to Tuesday, May 18. Other candidates were interviewed at the board’s special budget meeting. Also in attendance at the meeting was Della Gehring, who will be opposing Dan Forsmann in the zone #4 trustee election. Results of the Direct Math and Direct Writing tests were presented to the board. The district’s numbers compare well with the state averages. A leave of absence was approved for Sherry Holthaus, who is pursuing and Elementary Education degree. She is currently the Title 1 assistant at Prairie Middle School. She would be able to return to her position by the end of the first semester of next year’s school year. The board decided to sell bus #93-6 and will be calling for sealed bids. They held on to the bus to look at possibly using it to transport firefighters. It appears the detriments outweighed the benefits of doing that and it was decided to go ahead and sell the bus. John Nida will again be the school board representative to the committee that decides the recipient of the Kantola-Morgan scholarship. With the low interest rates this past year the scholarship amount was set at $100. The driver’s ed car was discussed. The old one has quit on them a couple times and had to be towed in. They are currently renting one from Hall-Copeland Ford. The rental cost is being covered by the Driver’s Ed account. Denise Uhlenkott reported they receive $125 per student from the state and this more than covers the rent. In administrative reports Rene’ Forsmann reported the Elementary Spring Concert has been moved up to May 18. She also reported the students have started with the ISAT testing and early results are looking very good. The ISAT is taken by computer and they can get results almost immediately. She reported that she and some of her staff attended a meeting put on by the state Dept. of Education on testing that also had some information in ISIMS. They will also be attending a regular ISIMS meeting. ISIMS is a computer based student tracking program that is being required by the state. The Elementary and Middle Schools are looking into a Character Education grant. A meeting will be held June 14-16 and they will go check this out. Dave Snodgrass reported that they will start ISAT testing at the Middle School next Monday. Upcoming events include a Job Fair, a Science Fair, Junior High Band Fest and several field trips in May. The Job Fair is for 8th graders and is part of a program being pushed by the state to get 8th graders thinking more about what they might do after graduation and making a plan for the courses they’ll need to take in high school to best be prepared for that job. The board adjourned to an executive session at 9:40 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. |
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