Loyal School Board Approves Employment Items, New Policies, and More
Monday, January 29th, 2024 -- 12:00 PM
The Loyal School Board held their monthly meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting started off with public comments regarding the athletic co-op with Greenwood, consolidated mill rates, and Board Policy. The first item of new business was the approval of the hiring of Lindsey Mueller to be the new MS/HS secretary starting full time in the 2024-25 school year. Lindsey will start on a part time basis this spring to do training with the current MS/HS secretary.
The board approved the first readings of policy IIBH – Virtual Educational/Online Learning, Policy KLB-R Procedures For the Objection To Instructional/Media Materials, and Policy BDDH-E – Loyal Board of Education Meeting Public Comment Sign-In Sheet. Superintendent Chris Lindner went through each of these policies and updated the board on the changes.
The next order of business, the board approved, for the 2024-25 school year, the number of regular education spaces by grade, which the district has no limits for next year. Also, the Board approved the number of open enrollment special education spaces, by program or service, in the district using criteria specified in policy PI 36.04.
Slots based on a caseload formula and student factors based on level of service (Minimal, Moderate and Comprehensive). For non-resident students wishing to enroll in the Loyal School District, services are limited to the existing special education programs.
The Loyal School District may also use the following additional criteria when making a determination of whether or not there is additional space available, based upon the special education needs identified or related services required in a non-resident student’s IEP including:
- Class size limits or pupil:teacher ratios;
- Staffing capacity limit, including:
- The amount of services pupils may need (minutes/hours, days per week),
- Class/group size based on the intensity of pupil needs (1:1, small group, crisis intervention),
- The type of staff to address various disability-related needs (special education teacher, pupil services staff, related services, paraprofessional, etc);
- Projected pupil enrollment and changes to services in pupil’s IEPs;
- Other considerations concerning availability of space in special education or related services.
The School District of Loyal recently received two donations. One from an anonymous source of $500 for student or staff needs and $7,763 from the FFA Alumni for the purchase of a new greenhouse heater. The board approved the acceptance of these donations.
The Loyal School Board has two people running for both open seats in the Spring Election. For the Area North of Highway 98, the two candidates are Kirk Haslow and Jared Loos. For the City of Loyal, the two candidates are: Curtiss Lindner and Matthew Kubista.
For the Clark County Truancy Representative, the Board President appointed Mr. Lindner as the Clark County Truancy Representative for the County Truancy Committee. The board approved the hiring of Remin Geiger for the Temporary Part-Time Special Education Paraprofessional position. The board approved the hiring of Bethany Beisner for the Full-Time Special Education Paraprofessional position.
Mr. Lindner reviewed the changes to the Extra-Curricular Salary Matrix. He recommended adding:
- CTE Coordinator (D) for $1,624;
- Academic Career Planning (E) $1,191;
- Social Media (E) $1,191;
- And Guiding Coalition (G) $650 each for 8 committee members.
Mr. Lindner updated where both districts are on the Community Survey. At the last Joint Meeting with Greenwood, it was decided that a one question survey would be mailed to all households in the district to gauge interest in school consolidation.
Rather than a mass mailing, they will be mailing the survey information out in the next District Newsletter, which goes to all of the households in the district. Loyal’s next newsletter is in the beginning of February, and Greenwood will do theirs the following week. The Board President then opened the floor to anyone who wished to speak. Topics that were spoken of included the consolidation survey and athletic co-ops.
The Board heard the Administrator’s Report. Principal Doug Dieckman reported that, in the past 30 days:
- All conference band/choir event was on Jan. 20;
- Registration for Grades 8-11 has begun for the 2024-25 school year;
- Spanish club hosting a pajama palooza on Jan. 6;
- ACT boot camp for Juniors was on Jan. 9 in Greenwood, our juniors did an excellent job;
- Grades 3-5 had an amazing day at Bruce Mound, Jan. 11;
- Mid-year screening for ELA and Math is in progress and will be completed by Feb. 2 (ES and MS);
- Set summer school dates for June 10-28 (4 days/week, no Fridays);
- MSHS PT conferences on Thursday, Jan. 25, 3:30-7:00 pm;
- No school on Friday, Jan. 26;
- Implemented Tier 2 PBIS system to include training on a check in/check out system;
- The Guiding Coalition team continues to work through artifact collection for our lagging indicators-work day on Jan. 19 very productive.
He then reported that, in the next 30 days:
- Work with Mrs. Scherer on course requests and preliminary schedule development;
- Meet with Greenwood, course registrations, scheduling assistance;
- Bruce Mound trip for MS and HS PE classes;
- Student council activity day set for Feb. 21;
- Band and Choir field trip to UW-EC on Feb. 19;
- Spanish Club Paint and Pour on Feb. 3, 4:30-8:30 pm;
- FBLA Regional Leadership Conference in Athens, Feb. 3;
- Feb. 7 is the 100th day of school;
- FCCLA Regionals on Feb. 21;
- Mike Evans, HRS trainer, will be on site Feb. 7 to meet with our GC team and spend some time looking over our work and our artifacts for our lagging indicators;
- Monthly Staff Recognition: ES Staff Member of the Month - Lisa Mahoney;
- MSHS Staff Member of the Month - Kayla Bathke.
Superintendent Christ Lindner updated the Board on:
- Building and maintenance issues, they are still having issues with both boilers, they are both up and running right now, one needs a new actuator switch, almost finished repairing the steam traps, Complete Control will be here on Friday to do repairs, the boilers will be down that day;
- They are getting most of the bugs worked out with the Univents;
- The new air handler in the elementary gym needs to be adjusted;
- Attended the WASB state convention in Milwaukee last week with Tom Odeen, it was a very good conference;
- Congratulations the 2023 varsity volleyball team on being named all-academic, every single girl on the roster received this award, he also congratulated Lisa and Kalya for their recognition and all their hard work.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.