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School Board meets The school board held their regular October meeting Monday, Oct. 19 and the first topic of discussion was the District volleyball tournament. With Genesee opting out of Monday’s football game after a positive test several parents expressed concern about sending out volleyball team there. Jon Rehder and Rene’ Forsmann both talked to their counterparts at Genesee. Rehder said he was informed by Genesee athletic director and principal that the Covid test wasn’t the full reason they cancelled the football game. That player and other student that had tested positive had both gone into quarantine early last week. The issue was that due to Washington protocols, the 5 Colton athletes had to quarantine for 14 days and that left Genesee with only 12 to 13 able bodied players. So it was lack of players that led to the cancellation. Caldwell assured Rehder that they have done everything possible to insure a safe, clean environment for the volleyball teams coming in. Rehder said he also talked with the IHSAA officials and after all consideration felt they were okay to play at Genesee. Rehder said Genesee has been the one area school that went over and above as far as following the recommended protocols. Their students wear masks to school and their volleyball players and coaches are always masked up on the bench with one or two even masked up when playing. Kamiah and Prairie were to play at 4 p.m. Once their match was done the gym would be cleared and cleaned and the gym would be reopened at 6 p.m. for the 7 p.m. match between Genesee and the Prairie-Kamiah winner. In other business, Forsmann reported the current student enrollment is 407, up 15 from last year’s count of 392. This despite not taking any new open enrollment students. Safety busing was approved. This is something that needs to be approved by the board every year and allows for in town students to be picked up by bus at The Hangout and the old elementary school. The updates for one policy manual section were approved with another section give to the board members for their review with action taken next month. Expenditures of the Coronavirus Relief Fund were discussed. They received $316 per student based on the Fall 2019-20 enrollment. This amounts to about $120,000. Forsmann suggested giving the staff a one time Thanksgiving stipend of 2% since they were unable to give the staff the intended 3% salary increase due to the holdbacks in state funding the last two years. They had looked at using some of the rest to pay insurance premiums but that wasn’t allowed so they are using some to pay for their security systems. The rest would be used to lower the May levy request by $75,000. These proposals were approved by the board. In the facilities report, Forsmann said she is looking at adding 4 more door security locks. Two at the Elementary and two at the high school. She also said David Shears is suggesting we look into getting a new bus this year. He will come to the November meeting with some specifications as to what he would like to get. In her principal report Forsmann said they are discussing how to present a winter concert. They are looking at spacing out the crowd more by having the students only in the gym when they are on stage performing, thus freeing up a lot of bleacher space. She said nobody really wants to do a Zoom or Facebook Live concert. The Elementary staff scratched 300 lottery tickets are earned $190. Parent-teacher conferences are set for Nov. 3 and 4. She also reported the free lunch program for all students has been extended by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture through the end of the school year. Rehder reported an LCSC representative visited with the seniors on Oct. 6. They are not doing the usual campus visits this year to LCSC and the U of I due to Covid restrictions. Senior nights were celebrated for volleyball, crosscountry, football and cheerleading with a total of 20 athletes honored. The high school has not yet scratched their 300 lottery tickets yet. This year the tickets were sent to each school instead of having representatives go to Lewiston for a scratch-off. The high school is looking to fill a paraprofessional position. He was to make an offer to a candidate Tuesday. Parent-teacher conferences will be from 3:30 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 and 4 and limited to 10 minutes. Lots of testing is going on. The FAFSA night was moved to Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. |
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