| School
Board meets
Cheyenne Hudson of Grangeville was approved as the new varsity volleyball coach at the July meeting of the school board Monday, July 18. Hudson has been the head coach at Highland High School the past couple of years. Michelle Sonnen was also approved as a bus driver and will drive the Ferdinand route with the current Ferdinand driver to take over the River route. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann noted that with Sonnen taking the bus driver job they will need to advertise for her Center for Discovery position in the latter part of August. Much of the meeting was spent going through the list of items that need to be approved at the annual meeting. Della Gehring and Gus Hoene were both sworn in to 4-year terms. Roy Schumacher was re-elected as board chairman with Gehring re-elected as vice chairman. Denise Uhlenkott was approved as clerk-treasurer while Amy Sigler and Lynn Rehder were approved as assistant treasurers as they handle the student body funds at their respective buildings. Meeting dates and times were kept as is: third Monday of the month at 7 p.m. Hot lunch prices were modified to reflect that there are only 2 buildings instead of 3 this year. Prices for grades K-6 will be $1.60, 7-12 $2.00 and adults $3.50. Last year they were $1.50 at the Elementary School, $1.60 at the Middle School and $2.00 at the high school with adults costing $3.25. Bus rental, per diem and facility use rates were all kept the same as last year. High School principal Randy Brown recommended raising the student activity fee from $45 to $50. It has been a very long time since that has been changed. At this time this would still apply to grade 9-12 only. Extra curricular assignments were approved with just a couple that still need to be filled. (See below). Graduation policy was discussed. On this the policy manual defers to the student handbook which allows students to walk graduation if they are only 1 class short. Brown said this bothers him as some of those that do this never get that one class made up. He feels being able to walk graduation should be allowed only if the student has actually earned their diploma. The school board members agreed with Brown and approved making the change. The state’s new pay for performance program was discussed. The state has worked up their formula for how much this money will be dispersed and the local districts were to have a plan in place for a locally controlled piece of this funding. Forsmann said in discussion with the teachers that they would like this tied to how the building performs as “they are all in this together” in teaching the students of Prairie Schools. The state is holding back this funding from the salary moneys starting with the 2012-13 school year and will dole it back out to the districts based on performance. In the facility upgrade report Forsmann noted the junior high classrooms are nearly ready to go. There was a heating question but that is being taken care of this week. The old Elementary classrooms and district offices are now empty. All the building is being used for now is the summer lunch program which runs through August 12. Forsmann got a quote for separating the water lines so that the main building could be shut down while still having running water to the gym section. The quote was for $1369. By doing this they would be able to run off the current city water meter. An alternative would have been to get a separate meter at an estimated cost of $2000 and they still would’ve had to pay for separating the systems. The board passed a motion to go ahead with the plumbing work. Forsmann also reported some grader work has been done on the high school parking lot access, getting rid of most of the potholes and smoothing things out. They will be getting access to a city water truck and roller to finish up the job. When asked if things were still on track for the addition at the new Elementary School so that the K-1 and preschool and Center for Discovery can be moved in 2012-13, she said it will be going to bid in November and should be ready to move into by next summer. In administrative reports Brown said they are putting cellphone policy in place for the upcoming school year. They don’t want to ban them completely but let students know if they have them on during class time and they go off that they will lose it for rest of the school year. He said he also has to have another alternate graduation plan in place by Oct. 15 and will report on that at the next meeting. Forsmann reported 6 teachers started training in “Blackboard” on July 11 and will continue in August. This training is on how to blend curriculum and provide online access. The state is watching how the district is proceeding with this in interest of making Blackboard available to everyone in the state in the future. Forsmann also reported the district received an extra $114,670 in the dispersal from state from the budget surplus. Rezoning the district is proceeding with a hang up on approval from the state being the appeal on the 114 inmates at NICI. Once completed each trustee zone will be within 10% population wise from every other zone. She also reported that Denise Uhlenkott would like to get the accounting system switched over to 2-M from the current Cougar Mountain. 2-M was designed specifically for schools and is better in tune with the latest directives from the state. All the surrounding districts have already switched to 2-M so there is plenty of help available if any questions. Forsmann said this move was budgeted for with some of the general technology moneys. There were several other systems that would’ve worked but financially this was the best option. The board adjourned at 8:10 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, August 15 at 7 p.m. Extracurricular assignments approved Following are the extracurricular assignments for Prairie Schools that were approved at the July School Board meeting Monday, July 18. Boys basketball head coach-Teel Bruner. Boys basketball JV coach-Kevin Chaffee. Girls basketball head coach-Lori Mader. Girls basketball JV coach-Sarah Walsh. Football head coach-Travis Mader. Football assistant coach-Ryan Hasselstrom Football 2nd assistant-Ron Sigler Track boys and girls-Ryan Hasselstrom. Track assistant-Becky Higgins. Baseball head coach and assistant coach-undetermined as of yet. Softball head coach-Jeff Martin. Softball assistant coach-Steve Wilson. Volleyball head coach-Cheyenne Hudson. Volleyball assistant coach-Marlene Forsmann. Wrestling head coach-Dan Altman. Music-Band-John Eynon. Music-Choir-John Eynon. Yearbook-Ryan Hasselstrom Cheer Squad-Natalie Latimer Knowledge Bowl-Laurie Karel Senior class advisor-undetermined Junior class advisor-undetermined Industrial Technology-Jerry Richardson Ind. Tech. Travel for Materials-Jerry Richardson Business Professionals of America-Ryan Hasselstrom Prairie League-Mary Uhlorn 8th grade girls basketball-Steve Wilson 7th grade girls basketball-Jeff Martin 8th grade boys basketball-Bryan Higgins 7th grade boys basketball-Becky Higgins Jr. High Football-Kenny Mader Jr. High Football assistant-Paul Schmidt Jr. High Knowledge Bowl-Becky Higgins Jr. High Track-Vikki Riener Jr. High Track Assistant-not determined Jr. High Volleyball-Cheyenne Hudson Jr. High Volleyball assistant-Marlene Forsmann. Music-Youth Choir-Laurie Karel P/T Media-Sonesa Lundmark P/T Business-Ryan Hasselstrom P/T Industrial-Jerry Richardson P/T Health Coord.-Sheri Daly P/T Attendance-Denise Uhlenkott Drug Free Coord.-Renee Eckert/Krystal Ellis Tech. Coord.-Ryan Hasselstrom Food Service Dir.-Lynn Rehder |
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