At the November 13 school board meeting, board members Jill Harstad, David Sovinski, Katie Priebe, Mark Johnsrud and Tom Keefe were present as well as Superintendent Ed Harris, elementary Principal Shane McBroom, and high school Principal Eric Nelson. Student council members present were Aspen McBroom and Amelia Sladek. Board member Josh Thompson attended remotely from the intersection of Highways 14 and 36 in Mankato, Kansas.
Reports
Student council repre-sentatives were asked their perspective on the 4DW (Four Day Week) proposals. Some of them thought the school day was too long and they preferred having Mondays as the off day because Fridays are usually game days that they enjoy.
Principal McBroom appreciated the opportunity for the elementary to be involved with the fall sports teams and individuals that went on to state. He said, “I think the athletes like coming back to their elementary, too.” Other activities in the elementary were the Veterans Day assembly and the upcoming planting of seeds on the native prairie in the Outdoor Learning Space. Tim Gossman and Greg Ruskell are coming to help out. They have collected the seeds and each class will be given a bucket of seeds to sow. The event will be captured by a drone overhead!
McBroom related how a 4DW would look at the elementary. He showed a draft of what the start and end times would look like and what would be different from the regular school week. At this time the 4DW is only being looked at as a possibility.
The PLC (Professional Learning Communities) Leadership Teams have met and determined goals for the spring of 2025. The goals are:
- Reading – increase proficiency from 65.5% to 68.5%;
- Math – increase proficiency from 69.6% to 72.6%;
- Science – increase proficiency from 48.8% to 51.8%.
Principal Nelson con-gratulated the fall athletes on their successes. Lexi Kivimagi participated in cross country at State for the fourth time. The volleyball team made their first trip ever to State and came home with a fourth place trophy and the football team will compete on Friday in the State semi-final with hopes of playing for the State title a week later. He stated that it was fun to see the whole community really support the students and school with their enthusiasm and goodwill. The new parent-teacher conferences with a signup format was well received by both parents and staff.
Nelson also met with his PLC leadership about the 4DW and they discussed what the schedule would look like in the high school. He and Superintendent Harris will be meeting with the CHS Student Senate and the CHS Middle School Student Council to share potential details of a 4DW, collect student feedback and engage in a question and answer session.
Lastly, he said that the first trimester will be over for students on November 26. Teachers will be in the building the following day and trimester two will begin on December 2.
Superintendent Harris congratulated Jill Harstad, Katie Priebe and Tom Keefe on their re-election to the board. He then recapped the meeting held before the board meeting on the 4DW proposal. He was happy that the informational meeting was very well attended and some good questions were asked. There will be another information and discussion meeting before the next school board meeting.
Consent Items
Under the consent items the following were approved:
- Minutes of the 10/9/2024 board meeting;
- New hires: Jovie Dundore and Ava Conway, Valleyland child care assistants; Rinnea Kreter, SADD co-advisor; RayAnn Hirzel, PCA; Grace Himli, preschool assistant; Josh Berhow, eighth grade boys basketball coach;
- Resignations: Jim Sawyer, junior class concession advisor; Daysha Borst, para; RayAnn Hirzel, PCA.
Action Items
The FY 24 audit was presented to the board by Jason Boynton of SmithSchafer and stated that it issued an unmodified “clean” opinion. The board voted to accept the audit. After the acceptance, Harris introduced Dan Schroeder of School Management Services who is now contracted to work with the district as a business manager. He stated that Dan has brought stability to the position and appreciates his helping in the audit.
Solar energy was again on the agenda and both Ideal Energies and Solar Connections presented information on their bids. The board voted to table the decision until the December meeting because they felt they needed more time to look at all the technical information. Several board members agreed to go through the information and bring back a more detailed report for the board to make a decision.
The Resolution Canvassing Returns of Votes of school District General Election was approved by the board.
The last action item was whether to proceed with a facility bond election for a high school gym addition. Thompson stated that we have the smallest gym in the area and there are events we cannot hold because of size. Other board members addressed the lack of space for practices causing some practices to be held late in the evening. Katie Priebe said she didn’t see the need going away and that youth programs are essential. Tom Keefe said he had mixed emotions and that he felt it should be brought to a vote. Mark Johnsrud concluded that we have been talking about this for a year and that the board discussed this fully at the last meeting. He felt that they are at the point that they need to put it to the voters to decide. Finally, the board took a role call vote on whether to go forward with the facility bond election. The vote was 5-1 with Sovinski voting no.
The meeting was adjourned.
Todd French says
How is it that a school board who is so concerned about saving money that they’re even considering cutting classes to only four days a week, but then thinks it’s a good idea to have a referendum to spend even more money? I’m willing to support a referendum for school education, but not because the gym there is too small.