| School
Board meets
The school board held their regular November meeting Monday, Nov. 17. A leave of absence was approved for the rest of the year for Sarah Remacle. David Young was approved for hire to fill her position. High School principal Todd Shumway said they were very fortunate to get Young on such short notice. His biggest concern with Remacle’s request was the dual (college) credit courses but by shuffling some teachers around with the start of the second quarter they were able to cover all the dual credit courses with teachers certified to teach those courses as Young’s certifications didn’t quite match Remacle’s. The board also approved for hire Beth Zollman of Kamiah to fill the school nurse position. Yvette Wilde appeared with concerns about a couple of football players who appear to be getting varsity playing time despite flouting the drug and alcohol policy and not keeping grades up. Board chairman Roy Schumacher said he is aware of some of her concerns and the board would discuss them during their executive session. The board also decided to discuss their drug testing policy in executive session. The Crisis policy was discussed. Particularly the part about no funerals in school district facilities. Gus Hoene said he talked at length with the state’s legal counsel at the Idaho School Board Association meeting and feels as long as they fill out the rental application and provide a certificate of insurance (not just verbally saying you’re covered) to the district he sees no problem. Della Gehring said he feels you need to keep the possibility open as there are sometimes that they have the only facility large enough. Superintendent Gary Blaz said he would add some language to the policy and bring it to the board next month. The Early Graduation policy was discussed and Blaz provided a checklist of the steps to follow. Gehring asked if they could add the student information and possibly a space to state why they are making the request to the form. Blaz said he sees no problem in doing so. In other business a grade promotion request was discussed. Blaz said the request had been denied but the family asked to appear before the board. They didn’t appear so the denial stands. Blaz also suggested to the board that grade promotion amounts to the same thing as early graduation. He said they could easily slip grade promotion procedures into their early graduation policy. Board members reported on the forums they attended at the ISBA convention and reported that overall they were very informative although there were a few that weren’t so good. The board also discussed rotating the board meetings among the buildings in January, February and March. The January meeting will be at the Elementary School, the February one at the Middle School and the March meeting at the High School. They will further discuss how they want to set these up at the December board meeting. In administrative reports Rene’ Forsmann reported they had very good attendance at the parent-teacher conferences. Kelli Bruner said she ran in to a problem that needs to be addressed in that she wasn’t able to visit with all the 7th grade teachers due to some sessions with other students running long. Blaz said one place he was at they rang a bell every 15 minutes and the teacher had to go on to the next set of parents at that time. Forsmann said it’s something to look into. She reported the Veteran’s Day event went very well. Jr. High Knowledge Bowl has started and it looks like they’ll have 3 or 4 teams competing at each meet. Boy’s basketball also started with their first game held last week. Shumway reported they are working on the wiring, lighting and sound system for the stage for their play/musical productions. Their first one will be “Gift of the Magi” which is set to be performed Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. Grade checks were completed and coaches informed of player eligibility. Girls basketball’s first games are this week. Boys basketball practice started Monday, Nov. 17 and wrestling practice starts Monday, Nov. 24. Regarding dual enrollment, UI has opted not to offer the geology credit so they are pursuing a potential earth science credit through LCSC. He also reported that Mr. Richardson took 13 students to Uhling/Militec on Nov. 5 for hands-on training experience. Prairie’s seniors were chosen by the state to take part in the National Assessment of Educational Progress testing. It will be given in January. Scores will be compared to others taking the test both state-wide and nation-wide. Blaz reported the Elementary School parent/teacher conferences had over 98% attendance. They were to have their student awards assembly Tuesday, Nov. 18 and handed out attendance awards and selected the students to have lunch with the principal. Blaz reported that 4 times already they have had school-wide perfect attendance, where every student and teacher were present. They’ve installed bulletin boards in the hall with trim added. The whole staff helped put them up. As superintendent he is still working on the assessment of Fuels for Schools program. He felt the Veteran’s Assembly went off without a hitch thanks to Mrs. Forsmann and Mr. Shumway. The board adjourned to an executive session at 9:45 p.m. The next regular meeting of the board will be Monday, December 15 at 7 p.m. |
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