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Board meets
A video presentation by Keely Schmidt with in-person help from Ryan Hasselstrom convinced the school board to approve a drainage project for the track/football field at their regular February meeting Wednesday, Feb. 19. Schmidt is on the girls basketball team, which was in Boise and unable to attend in person. Her senior project was to study the drainage problems with the field and come up with solutions. She had a survey done, which was paid for with high school funds and got estimates for the work that would be needed. At issue is the standing water that doesn’t ever seem to drain away. Brennan Duclos of Summit quoted approximately $18,000 with his equipment use donated for the project. Hasselstrom said the hope is to eventually put in an all-weather track. The light pole locations limit the size of a possible track to 6 lanes, which is what Orofino has. The board approved the project with funds to come from the MAFA account. If nothing else it would improve the spectator experience during football games by getting rid of the standing water. Tabitha Roach’s resignation as junior high track coach was accepted as was the retirement of a special education aide at the jr./sr. high school. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann discussed the budget. The state is proposing a 1% increase on the base for teachers plus a leadership awards program that would amount to a total 2% increase. The state is also proposing 2% for classified and administrative positions. They are figuring an insurance rate increase of 15-20%, hoping that is high. $387,000 is needed to balance the budget. They could take some money from the old K-1 building sale and apply that to drop the proposed levy to $350,000, which would be 10% below last year. Forsmann presented the board options of a 20% increase for insurance and 2% for salaries and another of a 15% insurance increase and 3% for salaries. She recommends the latter. A final decision will be made at the March meeting. They received one proposal for cabinets. That came from Pacific Cabinets, Inc. The bid came in at $123,966 for the 7 elementary classrooms and the science room at the high school. Forsmann said the science room is long overdue for an upgrade. She figured about a 2-week time frame to remove the old and put in the new. A motion was made and approved to do this project. There was discussion about outside fundraisers, such as raffles and the like, at the school. It was decided to leave this to the discretion of the building administrators. In administrative reports, Forsmann said the 4th through 6th graders had a ski day at the Butte on Feb. 13. Progress reports went out Feb. 19. Andrea Brannan, 1st grade teacher, would be going on maternity leave starting April 7. Julie Schumacher will take her classroom while Emily Lerandeau will cover Schumacher’s K-1, early childhood assistant job for the remainder of the school year. So far they have received 7 applications for the elementary 1st grade position that was advertised. Garrett Crenshaw won the district spelling bee and will now compete at Lewiston. Forsmann, Carrie Nygaard, Sherry Holthaus, Jeff Martin, Patty Hinkelman and Kim Schumacher attended an Idaho Leads meeting in Coeur d’Alene recently. Nygaard reported that Beka Bruner was selected as an Academic All-Star and was featured on KLEW TV on Jan. 30. The junior high and high school bands would be attending the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. The Jazz Dessert Concert is set for Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. The 7th-8th graders also went to the Butte on Feb. 13. 10 seniors are ready to present their senior projects. The annual showcase night at the high school will be March 26. The high school drama department did an outstanding job performing “Pirates of Penzance” Tuesday, Feb. 18. Missoula Children’s Theatre will be here the week of March 17-22 with performances March 21 and 22. Junior high volleyball will host a tournament March 1. Prairie will host Knowledge Bowl Monday, March 10. State BPA and FFA competitions are March 6-8 at Boise. Boys state basketball is in Caldwell those same days. The next regular board meeting will be Monday, March 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Elementary School. |
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