Loyal School Board Discusses Employment Matters, Hears Reports, and More

Monday, July 3rd, 2023 -- 11:00 AM

The Loyal School Board heard some public comments to start their recent meeting.

Public comments were about the ARC reading curriculum and about the proposed changes to Policy KMD - Relations with Churches. In employment matters, the Board accepted the resignations of McKenzie Hand, Cross Categorical Teacher; Rhonda Clark, Title I Teacher; Zach Zarnke, Custodial/Maintenance Supervisor; and Lisa Waldhart, DAC/Tech support.

They hired Jeff Bell as the Assistant Principal/AD. Also, they hired Seth Schilling for the MS Social Studies teacher position recently vacated by Cindy Campbell. The decision for the Loyal/Greenwood Co-Op Head Football Coach was tabled until later this fall.

Hannah Olson was approved as the Loyal/Greenwood Co-Op Head Cross Country Coach. The District will not be charging any consumable product fees for the 2023-24 school year and all Athletic Fees will be waived.

The decision regarding admission to games was tabled until they talk to Greenwood to see what they are charging as they are running several co-operative teams. They should be charging (or not charging) the same amount.

Drivers Education/Behind-the-Wheel fees will remain at $300 for Behind-the-Wheel training.  The School Banking Program that was presented by Jessica Zarnke last month was approved. Loyal will join with Simplicity Credit Union of Marshfield to provide student banking services. This will greatly enhance the District’s financial literacy program.

The decision on the ARC Curriculum was tabled. The District’s Seclusion and Restraint report for 2022-23 showed that they had one case of seclusion/restraint in the 2022-23 school year. The Board reviewed the AGR report for the 2022-23 school year.

The Board also approved the WIAA Membership contract for 2023-24 and approved a 3% salary increase for the administration. The Board heard an update on this past school year’s budget. The school financial audit is scheduled for July 17-19.

They are working on finalizing their end of year expenses and anticipate that there will be a surplus of funds left which will be put into the District’s Fund 46 account. The Board also approved the School District of Loyal Operational Plan (COVID).

The Board reviewed the progress of the summer maintenance projects. For air handlers, they are waiting for four of the air handlers to be shipped. They were scheduled for June, but now they’re saying August. Three rooms are completely installed and four rooms are currently being worked on.

For univents, all of the new Univents have been installed.  They need to be sealed and blocked. For the 4YK Room. The 4K will be moving down to the former elementary library this summer but they will wait till next summer to remodel the rooms.

For the Band Room, the band room will be getting a new ceiling, LED lighting, flooring and acoustical panels for the walls.  The ceiling and floors will be done before school starts, but the acoustical panels may not be in until after the start of school.  They will be installed during a break.

For room 99, they will be getting new flooring, LED lighting, and ceiling. The HS/MS staff room got new ceiling tile and LED lighting and AC in both staff rooms. Froeba Construction will be leveling the area by the bleachers at the baseball field.

Room 13 will be remodeled and the moisture problem (venting hood) will be addressed. For the golf course, they have heard concerns about the greens. They have met with Reinders and a maintenance plan to fix the greens has been adapted.

For the water line, the water line by the circle drive which goes to Westside Park was snagged during the baseball field work, but has been replaced.  The water line on the golf course was leaking and has been repaired as well.

In regards to cleaning, all of the middle and high school rooms will be cleaned by next week. Once summer school is finished (Friday, June 30) the custodians will start working on the elementary room.

For the Elementary parking lot, they’ll be addressing the drain pipe and asphalt will be a very high priority for next summer. For handbooks, work is being done on the employee handbook.  The current handbook has different sections for teachers and support staff.

They are separating the material so they will have a Support Staff Employee Handbook and a Teacher Employee Handbook.  There was much confusion as employees were finding information in the wrong section of the books.

The District would like to revise the sick day payout for retirement ($15 per day) to match the sick day payout for teachers who end the year with more than 110 days of accumulated sick leave ($40 per day).  The plan is to have both employee handbooks ready for approval at the July Board meeting.

Due to the increasing number of Spanish speaking students entering the Loyal school district, the administrative team would like to create an EL Paraprofessional position to help with translation and teaching these students English.  Not sure at this time if it will be a full or part-time position as it would depend on needs.  The Board approved the creation of this position.

Due to the resignation of Rhonda Clark from our Title I position, they have an opening for a Title I -Interventionist which they have not yet received any applications for.  As an alternative, if they are unable to fill the position, the administrative team would like to hire a Title I paraprofessional to work with the two Title I teachers we do have to help fill the vacancy.  This position would be mostly for MS math.  The creation of this position (if needed) was approved by the Board last night.

Also, there is federal funding available to schools to use for a social worker internship. This position would assist the guidance counselor; and serve as a liaison between families and county/state services.  This internship position was approved by the Board.

Greenwood Administrator Joe Green and Loyal Administrator Chris Lindner met with the One-Act Play directors to discuss the possibility of collaborating/co-oping the One Act Play. The directors were on board with a joint One-Act Play and have already worked out some of the details. There will be a student/parent meeting on Thursday, July 13th at 6:30 pm in the Greenwood Cafetorium for students that are interested in participating. The One-Act Play Co-op with Greenwood was approved last evening by the Board.

The Board approved the purchase of a new Vulcan Combination Oven.  The quote from Streich Company for the Vulcan ABC7G-Nat model was $25,013.73.  The Foodservice Director would also like to have the reverse osmosis system which will cost an extra $2,713.59.  There is enough money in Fund 50 (Foodservice) to cover the cost of the new equipment. There was also discussion about the dishwasher system needing to be replaced. The District will apply for a grant from the State to help cover the cost for that.

The Board also approved the first reading of several policies including:

• Policy DFE - Gate Receipts and Admissions;
• Policy EEA - Student Transportation Services;
• Policy IKFB - Graduation Exercises;
• Policy IKD - Honor Rolls;
• Policy KMD - Relations with Churches, after some discussion it was decided they would have the Policy Committee review this policy;
• Policy KH - Public Gifts to the Schools;
• Policy JFCK - Personal Communication Device Policy;
• Policy BD - Board of Education - Meetings;
• Policy BDC - Board of Education - Executive Session, this is a new policy;
• And Policy GCLB-R/IDGJA-R - State Tournament Attendance Rules.

The Board heard the Administrators’ Reports. Principal Doug Dieckman reported, in the past 30 days:

• They wrapped up another great school year;
• ES master schedule is finalized;
• AP/AD interviews and recommendation made;
• MS SS interviews and recommendation made;
• Calling candidates for MSHS SPED and MS interventionist positions;
• 4K interviews and awaiting final confirmation on 4K programming;
• Art candidate on site for tour and meeting;
• Student, teacher and parent handbooks proofed for 2023-24 school year;
• Athletic code updated for 2023-24 school year;
• Scheduling/programming meeting with Greenwood;
• And Worked on updating some policy language related to academics.

In the next 30 days:

• They want to Fill all vacant positions;
• Have employee and support staff handbooks finalized;
• Finalize duty schedule for ES and MSHS.

Principal Dieckman also wished the National FBLA and FCCLA entrants best of luck in their upcoming national contests.

Finally, Administrator Lindner spoke about the joint collaboration progress, notified the Board that the Ford 801 Powermaster tractor had been sold, and updated the board on where we are at with an athletic trainer.

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