| Prairie
schools closed until at least April 6
Prairie Schools will take it day-by-day in regards to whether they stay open or not in regards to the coronavirus pandemic. Though it wasn’t on the agenda, there was a lot of discussion about it at the March meeting of the School Board Monday, March 16. School districts were in contact with Idaho Governor Brad Little on Sunday and with input from the state health department it was decided to leave it up to local districts whether or not to stay open. Superintendent Rene’ Forsmann said there is not evidence at this time that the spread of the virus is either increased or lessened by closing schools. At this time they are staying open. Forsmann said she will stay in contact with the hospital and the health district. Of course if the Idaho Board of Education decides they need to close all schools in the state, they will close. Otherwise the local board members gave Forsmann and board chairman Aaron Hinkelman the authority to make that call if necessary. Update: Due to input from the Hospital, Prairie schools closed Wednesday, March 18 and will remain so at least until Monday, April 6. In other business a budget hearing date was set for Monday, June 15. The resignation of cheer coach Emily Cash was accepted. In the facilities report Forsmann noted they are purchasing a portable, gasoline-powered hot water pressure washer to be used primarily to keep buses clean. Cost is just under $5,000. They are also purchasing a new John Deere mower from Bell Equipment to replace the current mower. Jake Forsmann negotiated the cost of the new mower from just over $6,600 down to $5,999 with the trade-in value of the old mower bringing the cost down another $660. Added to the list of summer projects was some work on the high school restrooms, 4 in the main building and 2 in the gym. In here Elementary Principal’s report Forsmann said the Missoula Children’s Theatre performances mostly went well. Some work needs to be done on the sound system at the gym with the evening performance being better than the matinee. Board members asked that they look into it and get some costs on fixing the sound system. The MCT directors held a 45 minute workshop with the K-6 children on Tuesday, March 10 which went very well. She has interviewed 3 special education applicants and has offered the job to one but not heard back from them yet so couldn’t make a recommendation for hire at this time. 14 staff members signed up to attend a dyslexia conference in McCall this past Saturday but with illnesses only 8 were able to go. Andrea Brannan trained the staff on using a smartphone scheduler app for parent-teacher conferences and that has been well received. In her superintendent’s report she shared the letter of COVID-19 that she sent out to staff, parents and anyone else on their community email. In his report Jon Rehder shared photos of some of the decals printed on the new Epson S40600 printer by high school students Wade Goeckner and Evan Schwartz. He said he figured they wouldn’t be really up and running with the new printer until next fall but those two students have hit the ground running with it figuring out the software. The blood drive was still on for Tuesday, March 17. They had 37 signed up. All school sports are all cancelled until at least April 5 when things will looked at again. The board meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. The next regular meeting is set for Monday, April 26 at 7 p.m. |
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