School Board meets
The school board held their December meeting Monday, Dec. 16 and approved the school calendar for the 2025-26 school year.
On the approved school calendar, school would start Tuesday, Sept. 2 and end Thursday, June 4. Christmas break would be 2 full weeks again starting Monday, Dec. 22 and running through Friday, Jan. 2.
Spring Break would be March 30 through April 3. Graduation is set for Friday, June 5, 2026. The full calendar is shown below.
The January and February meeting dates were changed due to the holidays on the regular dates. The January meeting will be moved to Wednesday, Jan. 22 and the February meeting will be moved to Tuesday, Feb. 18.
There will still some questions during the second reading of the policy updates. Superintendent Jon Rehder said he would check with the Idaho School Board Association on some of them and get back with the board at the January meeting.
The superintendent evaluation will be held at the January meeting.
In his Elementary report, Rehder provided copies of the iStation K-3 monthly tests. The next R3 assembly was set for Tuesday, Dec. 17. Progress reports went out Monday, Dec. 2.
The Elementary concert is set for this Friday, Dec. 20, at 1 p.m. The school has been having dress up days this week. Also Christmas parties for teachers with their students are being held this week.
In his facilities report Rehder noted that an appraiser from Valuations Northwest. Based on their evaluations the replacement costs on some of the buildings are listed extremely low in their insurance policy. He and Denise met with Don Solberg on Dec. 5 to look at those values. Solberg will be contacting ICRMP in regards to those discrepancies and getting the coverage up to date. The auxiliary building, the elementary school, the high school and the high school ag shop had the biggest discrepancies. The newer buildings such as the Elementary art building, the bus barn and field house were okay.
New propane heaters were installed at the high school shop building by Rocky Mountain HVAC. They went live on Dec. 2.
They will call for bids for the high school window project at the January meeting.
They are looking at bringing in some pit rock and gravel for the northwest corner of the parking area at the football/track complex to fix the muddy conditions there. Once it is fixed there would be more parking area available.
They are updating the thermostats in all the high school classrooms. Nick Ackerman from Rocky Mountain HVAC quoted about $15,000 to do so. They are looking at getting this done by the end of Christmas break so that they will be online when class resumes Jan. 6.
In his superintendent’s report he said he is looking to meet with local legislators. He visited with Cindy Carlson for over an hour with good conversation on various topics. He is hoping to get together with Charlie Shepherd.
Matt Elven reported that Grangeville and Prairie combined to raise $27,450 for the food bank during the Idaho County Shootout.
The ASVAB test was given to juniors on Dec. 4.
The Christmas concert is set for Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
Regional BPA competition was held Dec. 4. 12 students qualified for state competition.
He discussed School Pulse wellness program that is offered by the Idaho Dept. of Education at no cost this year. He would like to implement some of it with students.
The junior high drug free party was held Nov. 21.
In upcoming events, the PHS Alumni basketball games were set for Thursday, Dec. 26 at 6 p.m.
The meeting adjourned to an executive session at 7:56 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m.