| School
Board meets
The school board reaffirmed going ahead with closing of the Elementary School building at their November meeting Monday, Nov. 15. They stated that nothing has happened to considering canceling that move and in fact with the way things are going it makes more sense all the time. With class sizes at that level being what they are and are projected to be they would be looking at using just half the classrooms while with closing a building they would save at least some of the electricity and other utilities as well as the part-time secretary and administrator positions. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann met with architect Rhonda Wemhoff earlier in the day and had copies of the plans at the meeting. She wants to set up a meeting of the board with Wemhoff so that she can take them through everything. A meeting was set up for Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. Once the board has reviewed everything at that time they could approve going out to bid. The timeline looks to have the lower level of the high school building finished by mid May. In other business Dan Altman was approved as the new high school wrestling coach replacing Steve Lamont who retired. Altman has been serving as the assistant coach. Also Chuck Mader was approved as a volunteer assistant coach for the girls basketball team. A change to the appeals process for the school drug policy was approved. The main change is that the verifying test would be taken at the hospital. The revised version of the teacher evaluation policy has been approved by the state and Forsmann asked that the board officially adopt the changes to the policy. In administrative reports Randy Brown reported on the Region 2 Professional-Technical Academy. He reported Shari Daly’s program is growing by leaps and bounds with 203 students around the area involved. She has also picked up 3 schools in southeastern Idaho for a total of 22 schools that have signed on. Forsmann reported that Prairie Middle School brought home $168 in the lottery scratch program. She had 85% turnout for parent-teacher conferences. The Veteran’s Day program went over very well. They also had a Drug Free Assembly on Nov. 10. In her superintendent’s report she noted the football field, track and new baseball field have been worked on with lots of local help and donations. Greg Diess reported they had parents of 127 of 129 students participate in parent-teacher conferences. The Book Sale held in conjunction with the conferences netted $632 for the school. He also reported lunch with the principal continues to be popular as does the perfect attendance monthly award. 104 of 129 students had perfect attendance in October. The cookie dough sale raised $3700 for the school alone. Profits were split with the Center For Discovery. Forsmann, Denise Uhlenkott, Della Gehring and Pat Alfrey discussed the forums they attended at the Idaho School Board Association Convention. Some were better than others. The board adjourned at 8 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Dec. 20 with a special meeting set for Nov. 29. |
 |