The school board held their December meeting Tuesday, Dec. 20, and voted to call for bids for the high school gym foyer remodel.
Bids will be opened on January 25 at 2 p.m. with a special meeting set for January 30 at 5 p.m. to review the bids with the architect and answer any questions that may arise.
It was decided to move January’s meeting to Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 5 p.m. as the regular meeting date would be Martin Luther King Day.
The February meeting date will be decided upon at the January meeting. The regular meeting date falls on President’s Day.
The school calendar for the 2023-24 school year was approved. School will start Wednesday, Aug. 30 and end on Thursday, May 30. Graduation would be Friday, May 31. See below.
Policy #2310 was reverted back to the former policy.
The Maintenance Inspection Report was discussed. Superintendent Jon Rehder said the inspector made several recommendations that, although they are required to act upon them, the district has been working to correct those anyway for safety reasons.
In the Jr./Sr. High Principal’s report Matt Elven reported that over 1300 canned food items and over $6,400 in donations were brought in by the students and community. This, combined with the gate, business and Grangeville’s donations set a new record of $21,240 for the area food banks.
The concession managers resigned on Dec. 8. Elven said he has opened this job up to groups and teams as a fundraiser for the remainder of the basketball season. They will pursue hiring a new manager for next year.
The junior class took the ASVAB test on December 7. ASVAB representatives will return to go over interpretation of the results with the students on January 18.
PSAT results came back December 9. Mrs. Quintal went through the results with the sophomore class and logged them into Khan Academy to create a customized study guide for the SAT that they will take as juniors.
The ACT was held Dec. 10 with 11 students in attendance.
The Christmas Concert was held Dec. 12 with over 30 parents and community members in attendance. It was followed by a dessert social.
Regional BPA competitions were held Dec. 13 and all 10 students who competed qualified for state competition in multiple categories.
PHS Alumni basketball games were set for Monday, Dec. 26.
They are looking into purchasing a new vending machine through a variety of funding options.
The Champions Hall project is progressing. They are down to 9 teams left tome finish the project.
Prairie League had a Dynamic Duo Dance for their Christmas party on Dec. 17.
Elven said they are still seeing a lot of issues with attendance. Currently there are 3 students who may have credit withheld due to excessive unexcused absences with a couple more getting very close to the limit.
Prom has been moved from May 6 to April 29 to avoid baseball and softball conflicts.
A school ski day has been tentatively set for January 20 pending availability of ski hill workers.
In his Elementary principal’s report, Rehder said they combined the November and December R3 assemblies into one on December 13. It went very well.
Progress Reports went out December 7. They also attached negative lunch balances with about 20 students showing lunch balances ranging from $3 to $100+.
The Elementary student council ran a coins for a cause fundraiser and were able to purchase gifts from the Angel Tree at St. Mary’s Hospital. They were able to purchase 6 gifts and used the remainder of the money raised to assist local families with utility bills.
The Elementary Concert went very well. Rehder praised Mrs. Karel and Mr. Eynon for the job they did. Santa Claus also put in an appearance.
In his facilities report, Rehder said Compunet will be coming in Dec. 21 to install battery backups for the server at the elementary school. Ryan Hasselstrom is replacing the batteries at the high school. Compunet will also be pulling wires for 2 cameras at the Elementary School but will probably have to come back at a later date to install them. They are adding a camera for the K-1 recess field as well as the breezeway between the cafeteria and the K-1 building.
Possible future projects: new windows for the high school; a portable classroom for the Elementary; enclosing the breezeway between the K-1 building and the cafeteria; elevator at the high school. Any others?
In his superintendent’s report Rehder reported a local business adopted one family at the Elementary and one at the high school to assist with gifts. They also used anonymous donations to provided $100 gift certificates to a local grocery store for 5 families. The families were very appreciative.
Rehder met with new state senator Cindy Carlson on Dec. 7. She stopped by and visited for a little over an hour. He reached out to Charlie Shepherd who will come for a meeting in the next month or so. He left a voicemail for Mike Kingsley but hasn’t heard anything back as of yet.
The meeting adjourned at 8:12 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 5 p.m.