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Board meets
The budget for the 2010-2011 school year was approved at the June meeting of the school board Monday, June 21. Sharilyn Kelly was approved for hire as the school psychologist. She also serves the Orofino and Highland School Districts and is working to work on an hourly basis. Reportedly she asked around before submitting an application and said the Cottonwood School District has a very good reputation. A one year leave of absence was approved for Elementary teacher Joan Riggers, who has been battling health problems. There were 3 applicants for the summer help position with Rene’ Forsmann, Jake Forsmann and Greg Diess interviewing the candidates. Kyle Uhlenkott emerged as the best candidate and was approved for hire by the board. Extracurricular assignments were approved by the board. Several of these will be paid positions only if enough players turn out for the sport. Travis Mader will be full-time high school athletic director. Teel Bruner and Kevin Chaffee return as boys basketball coaches. Lori Mader is the new girls head basketball coach with Sarah Walsh returning as JV coach. Mader will continue as head football coach with Bruner, Ryan Hasselstrom and Ron Sigler as assistants. Hasselstrom will continue as track coach. Pat Holthaus and Dustin Behler are the head and assistant baseball coaches respectively. Jeff Martin and Steve Wilson return as the softball coaches. Vikki Riener and Marlene Forsmann return as volleyball coaches. Steve Lamont and Dan Altman are the wrestling coaches. John Eynon will do band and choir. Hasselstrom is the yearbook adviser and is also the BPA adviser. Natalie and Millie Wimer will be the dance team/cheer squad coaches. Laurie Karel is the Knowledge Bowl adviser. Jerry Richardson is Industrial Technology advisor. Cara Duman is the Prairie League advisor. At the Middle School Jeff Martin will be the athletic director and also the 7th grade girls basketball coach. Steve Wilson is the 8th grade girls basketball coach. Bryan Higgins will coach the 8th grade boys basketball while Becky Higgins will coach the 7th grade boys. Kenny Mader is the junior high head football coach with Paul Schmidt as assistant. Becky Higgins will be the Jr. High Knowledge Bowl adviser as well as track coach. Vikki Riener is the assistant track coach. Marlene Forsmann will be Jr. High Volleyball coach with Denise Uhlenkott as assistant. Dan Altman will be the junior high wrestling coach. Laurie Karel will be the Youth Choir advisor. In the facility upgrade discussion Rene’ Forsmann said she looked into fixing up the third bay of the bus garage at the high school to be used as the shop storage shed. For around $8,000 new concrete can be poured and a new door installed as well as other fixing. It would have more than enough room for the shop supplies and would also provide storage for other purposes as well. Board members agreed fixing up a current building that can be used for more than one thing makes a lot of sense and voted to approve the project. Forsmann also suggested getting bids on some new lighting for the shop building and the kitchen plus a couple other areas so that all fixtures will use the same bulbs. It was reported they had sold all the surplus items for sale. Gary Blaz reported on the energy audit. The state has around $18 million worth of stimulus to spend and is looking at using it for energy efficiency projects. They will do some tune-ups this summer of the boilers and air conditioners. After the tune-up time, schools will be ranked in order of need to qualify for the overhaul portion of the funding. Blaz also recommended the board add some policies on what high and low temperatures should be for buildings and enforce these. He suggested installing computer shutoffs to save energy. He also suggested some other energy saving things that can be done. At the high school the gym annex work is proceeding but weather has caused some slowdown. The basement is close to ready for asbestos abatement. An estimate of $28,000 was received which is less than the $40,000 allowed in the project planning by the architect. The board voted to go out for bids on asbestos abatement. In the administrative reports it was noted that the football team traveled to Butte, Mont. for their annual camp with 19 players attending. Basketball camps and tournaments are planned for the summer. Coaches met with new principal Randy Brown to discuss program needs and expectations with the budget cuts. At the Middle School the K-6 teachers met to discuss spelling and voted to use the Rebecca-Sitton spelling curriculum. 7th grade students attended a science field trip at the South Fork Campground while 6th grade students were at Winchester Lake on a field trip. 4th graders visited the Middle School, were given their schedules for the upcoming year and met with new teachers. The board meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, July 19 at 7 p.m. and will be the annual meeting. |
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