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Board meets
Two resignations and one hiring were approved at the January meeting of the school board Monday, Jan. 17. Resignations accepted were from varsity baseball coach Pat Holthaus and from the GEAR-UP position. Both positions are being advertised. At present they have one application for the coaching position with one other person also having expressed interest. Cheyenne Hudson was approved for hire to the second grade substitute position. She will take Krystal Ellis’ place at the Elementary School as Ellis has been moved to the Middle School to cover Colleen Sonnen’s math classes. Also approved was the revised drug testing policy for bus drivers that was presented to the board for review last month. The school calendar for 2011-12 was presented. High School principal Randy Brown drafted 4 different options. The one the board members liked best had school letting out May 25 with a shorter Christmas break. Gus Hoene suggested presenting that one plus an option off of that of moving the Friday day off at the end of the semester in January to January 2. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann will present these to the staff for their input and report back next month. In facility updates, Forsmann reported the bid was accepted for the lower level work at the high school, which should get started about Feb. 1. They had 6 bidders for that project. She said their architect feels the next project in line may cost more per square foot due to the fact it would be done when contractors are busier. Forsmann said there was also concern about having to rebid the architect as they are doing these projects as individual projects instead of one all-encompassing project. She reported the district lawyer said there might be a way around that. There was a problem with the gym annex project with the stack for the art department kiln. Ice coming off the main gym roof bent it over. This was a concern when the work was being done and will be fixed under warranty. The deadline set to be out of the Elementary School classrooms is July 27. This will be done in stages as the 7th-8th grade classrooms will need to be moved to their new rooms at the high school before the elementary classrooms can be moved to the Middle School. In administrative reports Brown noted that attendance is running at 93.9% this year, up from 92.6% last year at the same time. He reported they switched the student accounts from Quicken to QuickBooks which gives them easier access to the information needed. Greg Deiss reported that the elementary school received $557.50 from Boxtops for Education, largely through the efforts of Megan Rambo. Anna Kaschmitter was the December attendance winner. She was chosen from 109 students with perfect attendance. He also reported they are hosting the PeeWee volleyball clinic and will soon host the PeeWee basketball clinic. The school held a going-away party for Krystal Ellis on Jan. 13. She is moving to the Middle School. He also reported that Mrs. Ellis was named the State of Idaho VFW Teacher of the Year. She received the award Jan. 15 in Boise and will be submitted for national competition. Forsmann reported that the Middle School/High School concert Dec. 15 was very well done. The District had a float in the Christmas parade with Janet Richardson and several elementary students riding it. Middle School attendance is at 96.1% this year, up from 94.4% last year. Junior high volleyball started with 17 eighth graders and 11 seventh graders turned out. This is nearly all the girls in those grades. In her superintendent’s report Forsmann compiled information on what the district is already doing regarding the recommendation State Superintendent Tom Luna is advocating. She also presented a report where the State Department of Education answers questions from the Idaho School Board Association on Luna’s proposal. She highlighted a couple of the SDE’s answers for the board. The board adjourned to an executive meeting for the Superintendent’s evaluation at 8 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. |
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