The Kingsland School Board met in regular session on March 19. Members present were Doug Plaehn, Ann Oeltjen, Leah Stier, Jackie Horsman, Heather Betts, and Superintendent James Hecimovich. Tiffany Mundfrom was absent.
The board voted to decommission the Kingsland Intermediate School, effective at the end of this school year. This means the facility is no longer a viable option for Kingsland to use. Hecimovich described the Capital Outlay FY19 plan, which is for purchase of a variety of needs, including athletic uniforms and helmets, maintenance equipment, two vans, Apple lease, kiln equipment for the Art department, and Region 5 and copier fees. He added that Kingsland “did sell the old iPads, and have collected a little over $10,000 in the resale,” so that money can be used to help purchase equipment. The board also approved Capital Outlay FY19 as summarized by Superintendent Hecimovich.
Laurie Hendrickson spoke to the board regarding Kingsland yearbooks, specifically the difficulties in getting a yearbook done at all, and especially in a timely manner. She said, “Since your work meeting, I just wanted to update you on that we had an emergency meeting (with a representative from Jostens),… to try to get this wrapped up. And we’re talking now about last year’s yearbook, not this year’s… from what we understand, it was submitted last Thursday and it’s in production right now.” She said it is expected that the yearbooks will be available to distribute to students before the end of this school year.
Hendrickson thanked all of the students who have helped on the yearbook, and informed the board that, “Moving forward, I know the board is going to make a decision at some point what you’re going to do on the yearbook… I’ve been an advisor for two years, and what’s going wrong is it’s hard to get kids involved, and the ones that do get involved are so busy with so many other things, that it’s hard to keep them involved.” She also stated, “Linda Wangsness and I, we resigned last year. So I just want to publicly make sure that everyone knows we are not responsible for this year’s book.” Superintendent Hecimovich said he will be meeting with staff soon regarding this issue.
Superintendent Hecimovich gave public thanks to Kwik Trip for a donation of $100 to TeKnights Robotics, Midway USA for a $502 grant to the trap team, and to Maranda Emig for accompanying the Junior and Senior High Knowledge Bowl teams to all of their meets this year. He also stated, “I would also like to thank Amber (Herbrand) here today. Kingsland was awarded the school finance award for our 2017 finance reporting.”
The board approved the resignations of Jake Vetter (GBB head coach), Laurie Applen (fifth grade teacher) and Aaron Thauwald (JH boys basketball coach). The board also approved hiring of spring sports coaches Brent Kohn (varsity golf), Paul Eckheart (JH golf), Jamie Fenske (varsity baseball), Jacob Vetter (JV baseball), David Delaney (JH baseball), Dakotah Rostad (JH baseball), John Fenske (varsity softball), Al Williams (JV softball) and Laurie Hendrickson (seventh and eighth softball).
Students Cody Merkel and Jackson Rindels updated the board on recent and upcoming happenings of the FFA club.
The meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m. The next scheduled work session will be on Monday, April 9, in the elementary conference room. The meeting will begin at 5:50 p.m., to appoint election judges, and the rest of the work session will begin at 6 p.m. The next scheduled regular board meeting is set for Monday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the choir room. As always, the public is welcome.
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