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board meets
The school board held their regular January meeting Wednesday, Jan. 18 at the high school. It was decided to move the approval of the 2012-13 school calendar to the February meeting as there were still some things that needed to be checked out on coordinating online courses with other area schools. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann said that next year she would like to get community members and teachers together to discuss the calendar. The water/sewer agreement with the Monastery for the Jr./Sr. High School was approved. Under new business the Title I Homeless policy, Appendix N was changed to meet state and national requirements. Resignations were accepted from the current head football coach and the GEAR UP/Careers teacher and GEAR Up Aide. Loretta Poxleitner was the aide and has been approved for hire as the new GEAR UP coordinator. A new aide will need to be hired. They are looking at making it more of a full time position. Safety busing was approved for 57 students. In the facilities update Forsmann said advertising is out for the Elementary Annex. Bids are to open Jan. 31. They had some sewer line problems at the high school that have been fixed. In administrative reports Randy Brown talked about the Response to Intervention program where they will try to identify problems with struggling students and address them. The new GEAR Up aide, when hired would be able to help with this. He also noted he has met with other principals and they have created a beginning plan to deal with the new online requirements for students. They are also in the process of creating an agreement with CEDA, LCSC and the University of Idaho to start a pilot program of integrating Solid Works (engineering program) into the high school curriculum. He also provided a copy of the number of seniors taking dual credits at PHS and how they stack up against other schools in the state. Prairie has had the third most over the past 4 years, behind only Lewiston and Orofino and are well ahead of many much larger schools. At a recent baseball meeting they had just 10 potential players attend. If they don’t get at least a couple more they may not have a baseball tam this year. 42 students have committed to track including a few that played baseball last year. Brown also noted that Steve Lamont and Pat McWilliams are serving as volunteer coaches for wrestling as he has back issues and cannot get on the mat with the wrestlers. A motion was made and passed to approve the volunteer coaches. In her Elementary Principal’s report Forsmann noted Brandon Anderson and Spencer Schumacher have advanced to the regional round of the Elk’s Hoop Shoot. The KC’s were at the Elementary Gym conducting their Hoop Shoot on Jan. 17th. A tentative ski day at Cottonwood Butte was planned for Jan. 27. She also noted that Colleen Sonnen has put together an anti-bullying club for grades 4-5-6. Parents will help out on activities. In the superintendent’s report she reported that Kim Schumacher introduced staff to the Common Core Standards and Schoolnet on Jan. 13. She and Brown will attend an e-conference meeting on Feb. 8 to listen to a presentation from Idaho Distance Learning Academy (IDLA). This is to deal with the new online credit requirements from the state. She will be presenting budget information when she has it. Projections are for salary increase for both certified and classified personnel. She noted numbers are down this year with 176 at the Elementary and 212 at the Jr./Sr. High level for a total of 388. This compares to 421 at the beginning and 413 at the end of last year. This is projected to drop again next year with 37 outgoing seniors and 24 projected Kindergartners. The board adjourned to an executive meeting at 6:45 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. |
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