Loyal School Board News

Monday, July 31st, 2023 -- 11:25 AM

The Loyal School Board filled some vacant positions at their recent meeting.

They hired Mary Krause as Middle/High School Art Teacher, Kristin Ikert as a Cross Categorical Teacher, Amanda Rohloff as a Title I Interventionist, Shannon Funston as a Kindergarten Teacher, and Brianna Dyre as Foodservice assistant. The Board approved the creation of an Instructional Coach/District Assessment Coordinator position.  The position will handle district wide testing (DAC) which had previously been handled by Lisa Waldhart. They will combine this job duty with an instructional coaching position to work with teaching staff; there may be other duties assigned depending on overall workload. The Board also approved Seth Schilling as a football coach. Loyal will be using the Wisconsin State Standards for 2023-24. For Summer Maintenance Projects, there are many projects underway at the School District of Loyal this summer. For Room 13, there has been a moisture problem (condensation in the room behind the wall) and now there is mold. The actual problem is being addressed and ServPro of Wausau/Stevens Point has been hired to clean the room and remove the mold.  They will test the air quality when finished to make sure it is to the correct standards. For Room 99 and the Band Room, they installed LED lighting and will be replacing the flooring with luxury vinyl planking in both rooms.  In the band room, they also took out the wall between the office and storeroom next to it and filled in the second door. They are looking at acoustical panels for the walls to help with the sound in the room now that the carpet is being taken out. Asbestos was found in the glue under the carpet in both rooms and will need to be removed. Work has been done on the former 4YK room. A door from the current art room into the 4YK room was added. All of the 4YK materials will be moved down to the former elementary library and the former 4YK room will now be used for elementary art. The former elementary library/computer lab is being transitioned into 4YK classrooms. They will get state approved plans this year and begin work on remodeling this area for the 2024-25 school year. They will be cutting down the big pine tree next to the concession stand; trim back the three maple trees in front of the high school; trim the flowering crab trees on the east side of the high school building; and remove two trees from the elementary playground. They received a quote from Berens Tree Service for $3200 for the work. The air handler project is very nearly completed.  There are 3 units that will not be here until September, one of which is for the HS Gym.  When this project is completed, everything in the building except the hallways and cafeteria will be air conditioned. For summer cleaning, all of the cleaning is done except for 3 or 4 rooms in the elementary and the high school restrooms. They will be purchasing a Tennant Model T350 auto scrubber for the maintenance department. Employee Handbook Revisions.  As there are still issues regarding the teaching staff PTO, the Employee Handbook revision were tabled. Game admission for 2023-24 will be free. This topic will be reviewed again next year. The updated policy for Athletic Code of Conduct was approved; the first reading of the policy regarding relations with churches was approved with some changes; several other policies were approved. Copies of all of these policies can be found on the Loyal BoardDocs site. The 2022-23 audit was completed last week and they are waiting for the final account entries to finalize the year. They anticipate that there will be some remaining funds that will be transferred into Fund 46 (Building Projects Fund); but will not know the final number until the audit is finalized.  On the 2023-24 Budget almost all of the textbooks and supplies have been ordered. They will have a better idea of where they are financially when they have made the rest of their hiring choices; and see what the 3rd Friday of September pupil membership count is.

The Board also heard the Administrators’ Reports. 4k-12 Principal Doug Dieckman reported that, in the past 30 days: Main focus on filling vacant positions and hiring actions; Athletic code updated for current school year; Handbook (staff, student, parent) updates; and Attended HRS institute with Greenwood and our guiding coalition teams. In the next 30 days: they will fill any remaining vacancies; Confirm all room set ups are complete and ready for students; Finalize duty schedule for ES and MSHS; Finalize schedule for staff inservice days; Assign mentors and plan for new staff training; Meet with all new staff; Meet with pupil services team on Aug. 9; Review student schedules and services; Plan meeting calendar; Finalize schedule for students first few days; Finalize PLC meeting schedule; Develop essential standards binders for select staff; Work with Jeff on PBiS kick off plans; Develop a plan for informal and deliberate classroom observations; Meet with Greenwood on any shared student/staff courses; Welcome back information out to staff; Shared course/teacher information out to both Loyal and Greenwood staff and parents; educator effectiveness initial training and set up; and Infinite campus training on family notification tools. Challenges include making sure all roles and responsibilities are covered for a smooth beginning of the school year. In Superintendent Chris Lindner’s report to the Board, he Introduced Jeff Bell, their new assistant principal to the Board and to the people in attendance. Jeff Bell took the opportunity to speak to the Board about his background and his goals for the upcoming year. Brad Graffunder/DASHIR employee will be their new custodial/maintenance supervisor. He is from the Abbotsford area and comes to them with a wide knowledge of school maintenance. When the teachers are back, they will be forming a committee to research reading curriculums. They will have a recommendation for the 2024-25 school year. 24 staff members from Loyal and Greenwood traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for HRS training from Solution Tree / Marzano Resources.  Felt the training went very well and he is very excited for their speaker on August 15th for the collaboration in-service. Finally, during the public comments portion of the meeting, residents spoke on High Reliability Schools, how curriculum was selected in the past, the possible changes to teacher PTO, communication, and a printout from Mary Denk was shared with the Board.

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