Loyal School Board Hears COVID Update

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 -- 9:01 AM

The Loyal School Board heard a COVID update from the School Nurse.

As of last week, they had one COVID case with a staff member. They currently do not have any staff or student close contacts out of the building. Also, Kay Heiting gave the Board a presentation on the library consolidation project. The project proposal can be seen on the BoardDocs site, or you can talk to Kay for more information.

In new business, the Board approved several Spring Sports Coaches. For Baseball, Head Coach is Randy Montalvo, Assistant Coach is Derek Dieckman, Middle School Coaches are Kanyon Rachu and Kevin Rachu.

For Softball, Head Coach is Greg Brock, JV is Alyssa Suda, and Middle School is Angie Kollmansberger and Sam Lindner. For Track, the Head Coach is Jim Genteman and the Assistant Coaches are Bernie Stuttgen, Matt Kubista, Kyle Damask, Paul Ziebell, and Morgan Malm as a Volunteer, and Middle School is Rebekah Smith.

The decision on the 2022-23 School Calendar was tabled until next month. The District just received the approval from the DPI to begin school next year before September 1. They want to take an opportunity to review the calendar options with staff before going to the Board for the final decision.

The CWETN Consortium Agreement for 2022-23 was approved, so they will continue to offer additional course offerings to Senior High Students through the CWETN network.

Elementary Principal Nancy Popp reviewed the AGR Mid-Year Report. The Board accepted a resignation from Tom Holm from his position as custodian. His last day was on February 2.

The Board also accepted a resignation due to retirement from First Grade Teacher Susan Stelzer. Susan has been a valued member of the Loyal Elementary Staff since 1981, she will be greatly missed.

The Board approved the revisions to several policies including Graduation Requirements, Early Graduation, Early Graduation Request Form, Graduation Exercises, Student Awards and Scholarships, Faculty Procedure for Selecting Academic Excellence Higher Education Scholarship Designee in the Event of a Tie, and Technical Education Scholarship.

These policies needed slight changes to reflect the change from two semesters to a Tri-Mester school calendar and the recently increased Graduation credit requirements. They discussed the summer rec program and the Board decided to increase the fee per child from $18 to $20.

They also discussed a possible Cooperative JV Baseball program with Greenwood. Right now, the number of athletes projected to participate in the high school Baseball program is not enough to have two teams.

They anticipate around 4 or 5 younger and less experienced players would have to play with the varsity team and would not get much playing time or experience. Greenwood is experiencing the same problem.

A Cooperative JV Baseball team was approved by the Board, if necessary, so these players can have an opportunity to play on a JV team. If the number of players is higher or lower than expected, the Board will readdress this topic. The Board also approved early graduation requests.

Mrs. Popp reported on activities including:

• Parent teacher conferences held on Thursday, January 20th: These were done either in person or via a phone call, which has allowed parents and staff to choose the method that they feel is most comfortable for them.
• The District Spelling Bee was held on Thursday, January 27th: Congratulations to Sagia Kubista who moved on to the Regional Spelling Bee that was held virtually on Tuesday, February 22nd, also congratulations to Cloey Bell for being the runner up.
• The Spanish Club held a Spanish camp for students in grades 1-5 on Saturday, February 5th: Over 20 students attended that day. This was done as both a fundraiser for the students who will be going on the Spanish Club trip and for the students to have exposure to a different culture.
• Kindergarten students enjoyed the 100th day of school on Wednesday, February 9th: The students participated in a variety of activities where they practiced counting to 100.
• The 4th grade class was chosen to do National Assessment of Educational Progress testing this year: Half of the class did the reading test and the other half did the math test. This is known as the Nation’s Report Card and is the only national assessment of what America’s students know and can do in school. It provides results for populations and groups of students rather than individual student, school, or district results. The proctors of this test said that Loyal students were well behaved and well prepared.
• Seal a Smile came February 24th to address the needs of our students.
• Students will participate in Read Across America Week February 28th – March 2nd.
• SOLES will have a Family Bingo Night on Friday, March 11th from 6:30 to 7:30 in the cafeteria.
• Lions Club Vision Screening will take place on March 23rd and 24th for 4K-6 th grade students.
• Also, a staff development day was held on Friday, January 21st and again on Friday, February 11th. On the 11th, the discussed State Report Card, UDL implementation, and Data Day.
• They also dissected Reading and Math standards to find the barriers for students and to create assessments that match the skills, discussed how to incorporate UDL learning from last week’s in-service into a current lesson/unit, continued ARC Curriculum review, the middle and high school meeting with the company on February 11th, and elementary meeting with the company in March.

High School Principal Doug Dieckman reported on items from the past 30 days:

• They completed student registration meetings with grades 8-11, most course requests have been submitted by students, reviewing requests and will begin looking at the number of sections needed along with staffing for 2022-23;
• Staff professional learning day on Feb. 11th where they reviewed the state report card and conducted a UDL soft start with teaching staff and para’s;
• MS/HS ELA teachers conducted a Q&A session with American Reading Company reps;
• Parent teacher conferences conducted Jan. 20 (3:30-7:00 p.m.) - 95 contacts;
• Fastbridge mid-year screening for those 25% and below finished;
• Managing Challenging Behaviors workshop with a select group of staff on Feb. 5 and Feb. 16th as they continue to look at ways to improve responses to challenging behaviors and support a school wide plan;
• Staff have been challenged to pick one lesson over the next two weeks to “try” something different with. This is based on what they learned with the UDL kick off;
• Staff encouraged to provide more student choice/ownership and identify barriers to learning;
• The District leadership team finalized the draft of school vision and goals.

For the next 30 days, he reported on:

• FFA week was Feb. 21 to 25;
• Hypnotist for HS came Feb. 25 during period 3;
• Map out 2022-23 master schedule for identify section assignments and staffing;
• MS/HS Band Concert was on Feb. 28th;
• End of term 2 on March 2;
• Feb. 28th was a high school celebration day for term 2 (skiing, tubing, and ice fishing);
• March 8: ACT day for Juniors, grades 9 and 10 college/career readiness day at Mid-State Tech College and UW-Stevens Point, seniors will have scholarship work, job shadowing/school to work day;
• MS will be going to Action City on March 8 for their term 2 REACH activity;
• Spring sports practices will begin with track on March 7th. Softball and Baseball starting on March 14th;
• Teacher budget packets for 2022-23 will be sent out. Looking to order items on this year’s budget for early arrival this summer;
• Will continue work with staff on the Managing challenging behaviors workshop, and planning for our first CTE and Fine Arts showcase nights;
• CTE night on March 31 and Fine Arts night on April 4.

Some challenges they face is they continue to look for ways to educate our families on internet safety/technology use/social media and technology use/abuse/restrictions.

Superintendent Chris Lindner reported on:

• Bus Driver Appreciation: The drivers were invited to breakfast and received an apparel item from the school store.
• The 4YK Survey: They have received 82 responses so far. 55 people have responded that they approved of a 4 day all day program.
• The ARC Curriculum: Meeting with staff and administrators on the new proposed reading program.
• The Vision and District Goals: Working on the CESA Contract for 2022-23;
• Trying to find ways to cut costs;
• The color combination for the new playground equipment will be maroon and gray, they will be getting a color picture from the company soon so they have a better idea of what it will look like;
• They are getting bids and final proposals for the summer maintenance projects;
• They plan on attending upcoming organization and town meetings to discuss the upcoming referendum. They also have Open Houses scheduled for March 7 and March 21 at 7:00 p.m. each evening for people to come and get school tours and have any questions regarding the proposed school remodeling plan answered.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.