Loyal School Board Discusses Employment Matters and More

Tuesday, August 29th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

The Loyal School Board discussed employment matters at their meeting last week.

The Board accepted the resignations of Dawn Kuchta, ES Special Ed. Teacher and Sarah Bratcher, Special Ed. Paraprofessional. The Board approved the hiring of:

• Autumn Ninke - Kindergarten Teacher,
• Natalie Ruttger – 1 st Grade Teacher,
• Jenae Weyer - Social Worker – part time intern,
• Amy Humke - Instructional Coach/District Assessment Coord -transfer of position,
• Annalyse Stratton - Cross Categorical Teacher – transfer of position,
• Polly Lindner – 4YK Teacher – transfer of position,
• Josue Arias – EL paraprofessional,
• Megan Haselow – 4YK teacher assistant,
• And Erin Wilke – Special Ed. Paraprofessional.

The Board also approved the administration contracts and the full-time contracted staff contracts. The Board also approved the updated Employee Handbooks for both the contracted staff and support staff.

The Board also heard an update on the summer maintenance projects. The band room, room 13, and room 99 are all completed and moved back in. 4YK are all moved in and are just waiting for the dividers, which are supposed to be in on Monday. All the rooms look very good.

For air handlers, the high school gym will be installed this Friday. The rest of the air handlers are all in and all have been programmed for the start on Monday. For boilers, there will be a rep there on Wednesday to talk to all of them about what is going on with the boilers.

The Antenna tower on the roof of the 1938 section has been removed. For the freezer, heat tape on the drain line, new heat gaskets on door, corrected refrigerant on compressor, and cleaned the coil. For the baseball and football field, landscaping and laying of sod. Should be ready for September 8th home game and the rest of the football season for varsity, JV, middle school, and youth.

For the concession stand, pouring the concrete slab in the near future. The cost of the baseball field, football field, and new concession stand is $93,575. The board discussed athletic cooperatives from the minutes of the Joint Collaboration meeting. No co-op approvals at this time.

The plan is for the Athletic Directors from both districts to begin developing a plan that will be brought to the Joint Board in September, and then that committee will take it to both full boards later that month.

There was a discussion on transportation for collaboration and co-ops and that the districts provide transportation. A transportation waiver has been sent to our attorney to make sure that it covers both districts. It was discussed and the board is waiting until the attorney gets it back to them and then will look at it next month in order to take action on it.

The 2022-23 audit was completed last month and the final account entries have been finalized for the year. They were able to transfer $400,000 into Fund 46 (Building Projects Fund). On the 2023-24 Budget, the Administrator is working on the Revenue Limit worksheet on finding where they are for this school year.

The district did get the estimated equalized property evaluation to give them a start on figuring the taxation/mill rate.  They will have a better idea of where they are financially when they have seen what the 3rd Friday of September pupil membership count is.

Policy KMD - Relations with Churches.  The second reading of Policy KMD- Relations with Churches was approved. The board approved the rest of the cross-country coaches and spring head coaches:

• Assistant Cross Country – Dan Pieper,
• MS Cross Country – Nick Konopa,
• Track and Field Head Coach – Jim Genteman,
• Baseball Head Coach – Randy Montalvo,
• And Softball Head Coach – Greg Brock.

The Board approved two out of state field trips: Loyal FFA is going to the National FFA Convention on October 31st to November 3rd. They will be traveling with Greenwood and Stanley-Boyd. Spanish Club is going to the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN on September 30th.

Also discussed and approved was the hiring of a part-time Athletic Trainer. Crystal Frese was approved for one day a week for two hours to check in on any injured athletes. She will be here on Tuesdays from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

If there is a need this may grow to two days. The cost is $90 per day. Greenwood and Neillsville have the same contract deal with her, just at different times. The new amounts for the extra- curricular pay have been updated and approved with FBLA moving on the pay scale from an E to a D.

Lastly, the board approved the Agreement of Use of Space by Clark County Community Services for school based mental health for our 4K -12 students. At the second public comments there were questions on the PTO revisions to the Employee Handbook.

The Board also heard the Administrators’ Reports. 4k-12 Principal Doug Dieckman reported, in the past 30 days, that:

• As of August 12th, they have filled all of their vacancies;
• New staff orientation;
• HRS kick off;
• Staff meetings;
• Prep for the first week of school;
• Finalize duty schedules and other modifications;
• And all fall sports seasons have started.

In the next 30 days:

• Set up of all our web-based service;
• Set assessment/screening windows;
• Delineation of duties for all web based/online programs and services;
• Finalize all HS student schedule changes;
• Student PBIS kick off;
• Staff PBIS planning meeting;
• Classroom visits;
• Begin their LEG after school program.

For challenges, they continue to work through roles and responsibilities for all systems and procedures.

District Administrator Chris Lindner:

• Wanted to give a big thank you to Brad and his staff, Mike, Kayla, Heidi, Terri, Logan, and Christine for all their hard work this summer of getting the building ready for school this fall;
• They had a great first day with new staff and he is excited to have them with the District;
• They traveled to Greenwood on the first day of full staff and worked with Mike Evans from HRS and this was a great kickoff for teachers and classroom paras;
• He would also like to thank Mr. Dieckman and Mr. Bell on their hard work with getting all positions filled with top quality people. Very excited to see them blend in with current staff;
• Thank you to all staff for all your hard work on getting our school year off to a great start.

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