Loyal School Board Discusses Sports Co-ops, Financials, New Programs, and More

Thursday, April 27th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

The Loyal School Board began their meeting on Monday by administering the Oath of Office to their new and re-elected members.

The Oath was given to re-elected member Tom Odeen and newly elected member Derek Weyer. The District Administrator Chris Lindner also extended his best wishes to outgoing Board member Kim Bremmer. He thanked Kim for all her hard work on the Board these past three years.

During the Public Communications portion of the meeting, there were seven community memes who wanted to speak:

• David Ostermann spoke to the Board about the Cross-Country program feeling that there is a negative culture in the program and wants to see changes in the program;
• Brian Duell spoke to the Board about the Summer Rec program stating he is involved in Youth Baseball and is not happy with the cooperative summer program with Greenwood;
• Tara Scheel spoke to the Board about the football program and wants to see changes in the coaching staff as her son is not happy and is not having any fun in the program;
• Sue Roehl spoke to the board about the Fall and Winter sports coaches feeling there should be changes in the coaching staff as her kids are not having fun;
• Jared Loos spoke to the Board about the football coaching staff and wants some changes in the program as the kids are not having fun;
• Kim Bremmer spoke to the board about the CESA contract, the micromanaging that is going on, the use of closed session by the Board, and would like to see the Board go back to more committee meetings with public input and she thanked the community for allowing her to serve them on the Board for the past three years;
• Jim Genteman spoke to the Board about the possibility of a Loyal/Greenwood track cooperative program, stating he is not in favor of it as he feels Loyal’s numbers are good and that such a cooperative would move them up to Division II.

During the Financial Reports section of the meeting, there was a question from the Board regarding a cash receipt of $134,862.42 from the City of Loyal. They received this explanation from City of Loyal Clerk Shannon Toufar regarding this payment. In 2003, the city created a TIF 2 district.

Over a period of 20 years, a portion of all taxes go into this account. This money is specifically used for projects to be used around the City of Loyal. Some projects included street construction, purchase of vehicles, water and wastewater infrastructure, water tower, but mainly street work.

The TIF can only be open for 20 years and then the city must do a closeout and have an audit done with all the money received and spent.  Any money left over must be divided by a formula (which the auditors do) and sent to Clark County, the Loyal School District, NTC, and the City of Loyal.

The total over the 20 years left $458,807.16 that the City did not spend.  The payout amounts were:

• City of Loyal-$175,040.17;
• Clark County-$128,380.23;
• Loyal School-$134,862.42;
• And NTC-$20,524.34.

This is all money over 20 years that was taken out of the portions on tax bills. They also reviewed the results of the recent elections. For the City of Loyal Board of Education seat:  Derek Weyer -546 votes and Kim Bremmer 459 votes.

Tom Odeen ran unopposed for the Area south of Hwy. 98 Board of Education seat and received 935 votes.  In the operational referendum election, the votes were 600-Yes and 495-No.

They also hired Joe Treffinger from Rib Lake, Wisconsin for the Middle/High School Science Teacher position starting the 2023-24 school year. They also heard a letter of resignation from Crissy Bauer from her position in the foodservice department.

Crissy has joined the Dashir staff doing night time cleaning in the elementary. They also approved Julia Hubbard as JV Softball coach and Paul Kayhart as JV Baseball coach. The decision on the fall/winter coaches was tabled.

They also approved the Shared Service 66.0301 Agreement with Granton for Library Media Specialist (Kay Heiting). The M3 Health Insurance Consortium insurance proposal with Aspirus Health Insurance was approved.

A 3% salary increase for teaching and support staff for 2023-24 and a 1% stipend for teaching staff at 20 years or over (longevity) was approved; and the 2023-24 Letters of Intent with the 3% increase will be issued by May 15th.

The JV Baseball cooperative with Greenwood for Spring of 2023 was not approved. The Student Accident Insurance renewal proposal was approved. The premium will remain the same as last year ($9,785.00) and there will be Catastrophic Accident coverage which will increase the coverage amount from $25,000 to $1,000,000 for an additional $613. Revised Policy KG was approved.

The Technology department requested a change to Policy KG.  They wanted an additional technology request form to be added to the policy for requests for technology assistance for meetings and presentations.

The Board discussed a possible Track and Varsity Baseball cooperative with Greenwood for 2023-24 school year.  If they wanted to co-op with Greenwood for either Track or Varsity Baseball, they would need to submit a request to the WIAA by June 1.

Track Coach Genteman and Baseball Coach Montalvo are not interested in cooperative programs at this time. The Board approved the contract with Marzano Resources for their High Reliability Schools Certification Package.

The program will be funded with ESSER III funds.  The program is designed to help improve the school report card and help close achievement gaps.  It will also help with the Professional Learning Communities, collaboration within the district, and collaboration efforts with Greenwood.

Eleven teachers, High School Principal Doug Dieckman, Elementary Principal Nancy Popp, and District Administrator Chris Lindner will be going to Iowa this summer for training.

This year, they will be naming both a Teacher of the Year and a Support Person of the Year.  Harlan Hinkelmann and Holly Lindner will serve on the selection committee.

The Board also heard the Administrators’ Reports. Elementary Principal Popp reported that Seal-A-Smile was there Monday, March 27th to do fluoride treatments for the students whose parents choose to take advantage of this program.

This is a great opportunity to have some basic dental work done right at school. She thanked the ladies who came and to Christy and Christine for managing the paperwork and the schedule.

4K had an open house on March 28th. The event was well attended with the program ending up with 16 4K students now being registered.  If there are parents who have children who will be 4 by September 1st and have not registered their child for school yet, she encourages them to do so at their earliest convenience.

Having an accurate number as early as possible, helps them have the necessary staff and supplies ready for the beginning of the school year. Thank you to Mrs. Schley, Mrs. Weyer, Mrs. Dillenbeck, and Mrs. Smith for meeting the new students and their parents.   Also, thank you to Mrs. Odeen’s FACS students for making snacks for the event.

Officer Nathan from the Clark County Sherriff’s office was here on March 29th to do a social media safety presentation for grades 3, 4 and 5.  They also have a new program called Qustodio that allows parents to monitor their children’s online usage.  If anyone is interested and needs some help getting into the program, please let them know and they can direct you to the appropriate person who can help.

The annual Easter Parade was held on April 6th. The kindergarteners put on a wonderful show.  Thank you to Mrs. Lindner and Mrs. Stratton for all the work that they did with the kiddos. Also, thank you to all the other people behind the scenes who made a memorable program too.  The program was streamed to YouTube if you would like to watch.

The Loyal Lions came to the school on April 11th to do vision screening for elementary students.  This is a quick procedure that alerts parents to possible vision issues that their child may have, and they are fortunate to be able to offer this to their families.  Thank you to the Lions members who were there that day. Another thanks to Christy and Christine for making the process so smooth.

SOLES hosted a Bingo night on April 14th from 6:30-7:30 and they had their monthly meeting. Mrs. Zarnke held a Financial Literacy Community night on April 18th. Parents and their children were able to have supper together and then participate in some financial activities. Many people took advantage of this program and a big thank you to Mrs. Zarnke and all her helpers. It was a great night.

Parent teacher conferences were held on Thursday, April 20th. The numbers were lower than usual, but there was still a decent turnout. The Title teachers hosted a Family Reading Night during conferences.  A supper was also served at this event so that kiddos could eat with their parents and then participate in activities while their parents met with their teachers.

This year “Elephant and Piggy” were guests at the event, so the kids were able to have their pictures taken with the characters and then do several activities that were centered on the characters too.  Thank you to Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Lind, Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Abel, and Mrs. Heiting for planning such a wonderful experience for the kiddos.

Mrs. Hamland, along with her Spanish Club students, held a Spanish Camp on April 22nd for students in grades 1-5. This is a fundraiser for the students going on the Spanish trip. AG Day was Wednesday, April 26th.

The FFA students bring in animals and tractors for the younger elementary students to look at and the older students attend field trips in the area that are Ag related. Thank you in advance to Mrs. Donnerbauer and her students for doing this for the elementary school children.

The Spring Music program will be on Tuesday, May 9th in the high school gym. Each class will be doing an individual number and then all 170 K-5 students will present a short musical about careers. A letter went home to all the parents about this. Thank you, Mrs. Genteman, for tackling this big project.

Middle/High School Principal Dieckman reported on:

• Nearly complete with student schedules for 2023-24;
• 2023-24 staff budget requests due April 14;
• State testing window has been completed;
• CTE/Fine Arts night on March 30 was a huge success and thank you to the students and staff that made it happen;
• Began planning for the next service learning project with the Leadership academy students - Community clean up day;
• Interviewed and hired a Science teacher for next year;
• State qualifying competitions for students in FFA, FBLA, FCCLA and Solo and Ensemble;
• FCCLA state competition was on March 27th and 28th in Wisconsin Dells and Hope Peroshek, Noelle Teschner and Parker Smith qualified for nationals in Denver;
• 6th grade trip to NTC on April 14t;
• FBLA state competition on April 17th and 18th;
• Term 3 midterm on April 17th;
• Financial Literacy night on April 18th;
• PT conferences on Thursday, April 20th;
• Family reading night on April 20th;
• 8th grade trip to Madison on April 19th;
• And Jazz Fest April 21st and 22nd.

In the next 30 days:

• Begin program budget reviews for 2023-24;
• Finalize student and master schedule for 2023-24;
• Finish term 3 observations;
• Collaboration work with Greenwood;
• AG day planned for April 26th;
• FFA state CDE judging on April 26th-27th in Madison;
• Student council blood drive April 27th;
• Middle school dance on Friday, April 28th;
• Prom at Rustic Occasions, Saturday April 29th;
• Clark County Expo on May 3rd;
• 8th grade career ventures on May 4th;
• Spanish field trip to Medford on May 5th;
• State Solo and Ensemble on May 6 in Stevens Point;
• FFA banquet on May 7th;
• And MS REACH trip to Action City on May 19.

Challenges include filling their Art position.

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