| School
Board meets
The school board held their regular October meeting Monday, October 17. They are looking to put the for Prairie Elementary building up for bids. The appraisal on the building alone is up a little from the 2009 appraisal. The land’s commercial value is appraised at $238,393. Information was sent to a business woman in Spokane who is looking through the information. Her company is looking to see if this area has potential for an assisted living facility and possible phases beyond such as a nursing home. An advertisement for sealed bids was approved for the next two weeks with bids to be opened at the next board meeting. It was suggested to send them out to nursing homes and assisted living businesses. Dan Goeckner’s resignation as a bus driver was approved. Angie Latimer is working on training as a bus driver and will be fully trained by mid-November. Currently Julie Schumacher and her are driving the full route. A motion was made and approved to hire Latimer as a bus driver provided she passes all the testing. An early graduation request was submitted for Shaney Perrin. She is on track to finish all required credits by the end of her junior year. This is highly recommended by both high school principal Randy Brown and counselor Lydia Deiss. A motion was made and passed to approve the request. Brown, who was at the District Volleyball match, submitted a request that the 90% attendance rule be extended to the junior high starting with the next school year. A motion was made and passed to do so. The Alternate Graduation Plan was tabled to the next meeting as Brown was not in attendance. The auditor’s report was submitted by Mitchell Marx of Presnell & Gage. The board passed a motion to approve the report. In the facilities update report, Rene’ Forsmann reported the cement work is complete in the back area of the current Elementary School. It was also reported that the lights in Jerry Richardson’s shop were replaced with stimulus money. They also put in some new lights in the kitchen at the high school at a cost of $600. This cost will be shared by the District and Food Service. The classroom addition at the elementary was looked over with the plan to go to bid by January. The center and band rooms will be switched from the original plan. In administrative reports Forsmann reported school pictures were taken Sept. 22 & 23 and progress reports went home Sept. 22. Cookie dough sales ended Oct. 12 with the scooter to be given away at the next attendance assembly. In her superintendent’s report Forsmann said she spent a number of hours looking into water options for the high school. Putting in their own system would require a holding tank 50 feet uphill form an actual well plus a sewer system. They do not have enough property to house their own sewer system. They would also need a water quality certified person to test the system. The project would need to be engineered and plans approved by the state Division of Environmental Quality. She met with Sr. Janet Barnard from the Monastery. Their $30,000 request was made after all of the arrangements were made without any input or conversation from the District. Forsmann is working on negotiating some of the items in the Monastery’s request and will report back at the next meeting. It was also reported that Prairie High School has earned the Additional Yearly Growth Award for 2011 from the Idaho State Board of Education. PHS is one of just 8 in the state to earn this honor. The presentation was made on Oct. 14 by Mark Browning from the State Board. She also reported that Prairie Elementary, Prairie Jr./Sr. High and the Professional Technical Academy have teams that will participate in the annual Lottery Scratch on Oct. 18. The board adjourned to an executive session at 8:24 p.m. The next regular board meeting will be Monday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. |
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