Loyal School Board Welcomes New Members

Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 -- 10:01 AM

The Loyal School Board began their recent meeting by welcoming their new members.

They welcomed Dennis Roehl and Holly Lindner to the Loyal Board of Education. The Oath of Office was administered to Dennis Roehl, Holly Lindner and David Clintsman.

They gave outgoing Board members Jen Kadolph and Cara Prior their thanks for their years of service to the Board and best wishes for their future endeavors. Their hard work and dedication to the Loyal Board of Education will be greatly missed.

During Public Comments, Principal Doug Dieckman took an opportunity to introduce the Board to the 2022 Valedictorian Abriel Kubista, and Salutatorian Micah Kayhart. Both students were at the meeting. They congratulate Abriel and Micah on a great school career and wish them the very best in their continuing education and careers.

They also reviewed the Spring Election Results. In the school board election the following results were Area North of Highway 98 was David Clintsman with 728 votes, area South of Highway 98 was Cara Prior with 287 votes and Dennis Roehl with 500 votes. The Area at Large was Jen Kadolph with 213 votes and Holly Lindner with 597 votes. On the building referendum question the results were 305 Yes votes and 514 No votes. The referendum question did not pass.

They also accepted letters of resignation due to retirement from elementary library assistant Sharon Briceland; and Maintenance Supervisor Dan Lindgren. Sharon and Dan are dedicated, longtime employees of the district and they will be very greatly missed. They wished both of them a very long and happy retirement.

They also accepted a temporary, due to family medical issues, resignation from JV Softball coach Alyssa Suda. Kayla Harder will be transferring from the Title I department to the first-grade teacher position that was open. They know that Kayla will continue doing a great job in that capacity.

They hired Austin Haselow for the night-time custodian position vacated by Tom Holm. After some discussion, the Board approved increasing the four-year-old kindergarten program to a four-day all day program. Thank you to Alison for your insight and help gathering information on the program.

They also approved another two-year contract with the M3 Health Insurance Consortium. By combining forces with 13 other schools, they are able to negotiate a better health insurance premium than they would be able to do alone.

They have not yet made a decision on the Teacher and Staff salary increases for 2022-23. They will be meeting again in early May as a Board to discuss this further, and hopefully have a decision made.

The two revised policies (AD-Educational Mission Statement and IIBGC – Digital Learning Acceptable Use Policy) were approved as presented. They will be sending out the Teacher of the Year nomination forms and information shortly. They will be honoring the Teacher of the Year and the retirees at the Staff Appreciation Breakfast on June 6.

There was nothing new to report on inclement weather days. They currently are at 2.5 days, which is covered by the 2021-22 school calendar. They also hired Julia Hubbard as a temporary JV Softball coach to replace Alyssa Suda for the remainder of the 2022 season.

Elementary Principal Nancy Popp reported that Members of Loyal and Spencer’s Lions Club did vision screening for the Kindergarten – 5th graders on March 23rd . The four volunteers were treated to lunch with the students after the testing was complete.

The Title I teachers hosted a Family Fun Night on Monday, April 4 th for grades 4K-5. The evening started out with a pizza supper for families and activities for the children afterwards. Many families attended the event and thank you to the Title department for a very successful evening.

A Financial Literacy Fun Night was held on Tuesday, April 5th from 3:30 to 4:30. Mrs. Zarnke, along with student volunteers, led elementary students through a variety of financial activities. The event was well attended and big thank you to Mrs. Zarnke and her helpers.

April is Autism Awareness Month. They recognized this on April 13th by wearing blue that day. The Annual Easter Parade was held on Thursday, April 14th in the high school gym. Thank you to Mrs. Lindner and Mrs. Roscoe and their classes for a wonderful program.

The final Parent Teacher Conferences for this year were held on Thursday, April 14th . Teachers met both in person and via phone calls for these conferences.

Grades K, 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be going to the LuCille Tack Center on Wednesday, April 27th to see a play. Grades K, 1, 2, and 3 will be going in the morning and grade 4 will be going in the afternoon.

The last data meeting for this year will be on Wednesday, May 4th . These meetings will determine student groups for Title services when we start the new school year in the fall.

Grades 4, 5, and 6 will be going to Madison on Thursday, May 5th . For the last two years, the 4th grade class has not been able to go on this trip, so this year, all three grades will be going for the day. They tour the capital and the Wisconsin Historical Museum and then they go to the Cave of the Mounds.

Ag Day will be on May 13th. Mrs. Donnerbauer and her students will be leading elementary students through activities here at school as well as helping with local field trips.

Final Professional Learning Day is May 6th. Cory Welke and Kim Hill will be with us again as we finish our first year introducing UDL with the staff. The staff book study focusing on UDL will also be finishing on that day.

They continue to revise and update the Educator Effectiveness program per the pilot program that we have been a part of this year. We will continue to receive support from CESA next year too so that we can make district revisions to this system.

Mr. Dieckman reported on:

• The 1st annual CTE and Fine Arts night was a hit, brainstorming ideas for next year;
• Professional Learning Day with staff, defined “Learning.”;
• Family reading night went over very well;
• Hosted the Cloverbelt Scholar Athlete banquet on Wednesday, April 6th, received many compliments, job well done by so many adults and students;
• AD’s, food service, FCCLA, custodians, Jazz band;
• Abrial Kubista and Kaiden Hagen recognized;
• Cloverbelt Scholar banquet on Wednesday, April 13 in Spencer, Micah Kayhart and Abrial Kubista with families attended to be recognized;
• 8th grade trip to Madison on April 12, many compliments on our students and how nice they looked and how well behaved they were;
• P/T conferences on April 14 - 3:30-7:00 p.m;
• 8th graders will be attended a reality store in Spencer on April 19;
• Master schedule complete - working through individual student schedules;
• Visited Greenwood 7th and 10th grade ELA classrooms with our MSHS and SPED staff to see ARC in action, great visit with teachers and they plan to network with them and develop some collaboration time prior to the end of the year;
• Abrial Kubista - 2022 Valedictorian;
• Micah Kayhart - 2022 Salutatorian;
• Jane Koopman qualified for Nationals in the FCCLA Competition;
• And Four teams qualified for the state FFA Competition.

In the next 30 days:

• They hope to Review all budget packets for 2022-23;
• Looking to start a Principal Advisory Committee (PAC) to consist of parent, teacher and support staff reps;
• Finishing up all Forward and ACT aspire testing; Finish up end of the year FastBridge screening;
• Final professional learning day with staff on May 6; All MSHS students should have their 2022-23 schedule finalized;
• Career expo trips for grades 8, 9 and 10 (Apr. 29, May 4 and May 5);
• Budget expenditures for current school year closed by 29 April;
• Continuing our Behavior Management workshops with CESA partner for April 19 and a final date in May;
• Prepping for a school wide plan for next year;
• Meeting with ARC reps and teachers to develop a “kick-off” plan for next year’ pilot, this will include some summer PD time, but staff is excited and anxious to get going.

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

Special Education Director Megan Dieckman reported on:

• K-8 Family Reading night was a huge success, a special thank you to Kayla Harder, Pam Smith and Heidi Michaelis for all their hard work and thank you to the staff that help make it successful and to our families for their attendance and participation and they are looking forward to the possibility of having a fall and spring family night next year;
• Finishing up budgets with the special education staff;
• Researching new intense direct instruction interventions for Title 1;
• Visited Greenwood 7th and 10th grade ELA classrooms with our MSHS and SPED staff to see ARC in action, it was a great visit with teachers and they plan to network with them and develop some collaboration time prior to the end of the year and are hoping to connect our Title teachers yet this year to discuss how interventions are done within the ARC program.

In the next 30 days:

They will review all budget packets with the Principals for 2022-23;

• Finishing up all DLM (Dynamic Learning Maps) testing with our students learning from the Essential Elements (Wisconsin Alternate Academic Achievement Standards);
• On April 28 the area Clark County schools will hold our first Job Olympics at the Loyal Legion Hall and this event is specifically designed for some of our high school students with special needs;
• Meeting with the MS/HS special education teachers to set aside some time in the summer to develop our own effective life skills program;
• Meeting with ARC reps and teachers to develop a “kick-off” plan for next year’s pilot and this will include some summer PD time and the staff is excited and anxious to get going.

Challenges they face include continue to find new and innovative ways to meet the unique needs of each and every student in the general education setting through a team-teaching approach.

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