The Chatfield School Board met on April 16, 2018, in room 122 in the high school. Board members present were Jerry Chase, Scott Backer, Amy Jeffers, Katie Priebe and Matt McMahon along with Superintendent Harris, administrative assistant Lorri Lowrey, business manager Karyl Lyons, Craig Ihrke, elementary principal; Randy Paulson, high school principal; and Community Education Director LuAnn Klevan. Also present were student council members, Jack Tuohy and Nathan Goldsmith.
Reports
Under board committee reports, Jerry Chase reported that the principal contracts have been negotiated. Scott Backer, the board’s representative for HVED (Hiawatha Valley Education District), discussed the possible reentry of the Winona School District to HVED. This would have to be a vote by all district members.
Student senate representatives said their main goal at this point is to get ideas and plan for the next school year. LuAnn Klevan said that the pre-school spaces for next year are filling up and Valleyland applications started on April 1. She has been working on the new regulations that are required for child care assistance rules for this program. The play “Alice and Wonderland” will be given on May 17. The summer recreation program has many offerings this year with fishing, basketball skill building, bowling and Camp Invention being offered. T-ball will not be offered this year because of lack of staffing. She encouraged interested people to go to the district website and register online. Paper registration copies are also available at the elementary school or her office. Since driver’s education is no longer offered through the high school, she is working with a company to provide this service. This should be available this summer and fall.
Craig Ihrke, elementary principal, congratulated Kaitlin Tuohy and Sara Duxbury for securing a $5,000 grant to purchase STEM materials. He also thanked Tiffany Wilkie for her six years of service and wished her well in her new endeavor. MCA testing is in progress and will continue until the first week of May. The teaching staff recently completed Love and Logic training. The primary goal of the Love and Logic program is to give parents, educators, and others working with children practical strategies for reducing behavior problems, increasing motivation, and building assets which contribute to life-long responsibility and resiliency.
High school principal, Randy Paulson, commended Tom Hilgren and Angela Wiegmann for their service to the district as Tom is retiring after 25 years and Angela is relocating. He congratulated Isaac Rain, who is a History Day finalist and will be representing Chatfield at the state contest. The seniors had another successful trip to Disney World and enjoyed the warm weather. Prom is scheduled for April 28 so the gym will be unavailable starting April 22.
Superintendent Harris requested permission to change the May meeting to May 22 at 6 p.m. because of scheduling issues. He also addressed the retiring of Rex McGraw, evening custodian and thanked him for his nine years of service, along with the others who had been previously mentioned in the principals’ reports. Under facility reports, the kitchen/commons area is ahead of schedule and the media center demolition started today. Work on the exterior should begin in the next few weeks. The baseball field maintenance project has started and the shed that needs to be removed was sold to the highest of six bidders. Principal contracts have been negotiated with a 5.95% increase over two years. The updated budget projects a $200,000 deficit but with some under expenditures it likely will only be about $100,000. He discussed the budget for next year and will be setting up meetings with the facilities and finance committees to go over the budget in detail and to lay out anticipated possible cost saving options that would continue to provide relative stability in the near future.
Under the consent agenda, the date and time change of the May meeting to May 22 at 6 p.m. was approved. Also approved were the varsity head coaches for the next school year: Jeff Johnson, football; Chris Frye, cross country; Brian Baum, girls basketball; Jeff DeBuhr, boys basketball; Travis Bartels, wrestling; Danielle Hampel, dance. The following job postings were approved: high school Social Studies/STEM instructor; high school custodian, junior high English teacher, lower elementary teacher, junior high football coach. The following resignations were approved: Rex McGraw, high school custodian; Angel Wiegmann, junior high English teacher; Tiffany Wilke, kindergarten teacher; Scott Backer, junior high football coach. Scott will be a volunteer coach. Taylor Salisbury was approved as the varsity volleyball coach.
The first reading of district policies was given and two second readings were approved. Under new business, the principal contracts were approved, along with the revised budgets in Fund 01, Fund 02 and Fund 04.
The meeting was adjourned. Upcoming board meetings are May 22 at 6 p.m. in room 122 (note time and date change), June 18, July 16 and August 20.
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