Loyal School Board approves assistant principal, new staff positions
As is typical for schools during the summer months, the Loyal School Board approved a number of staffing changes at its last meeting in an effort to make sure all positions are filled in time for the fastapproaching new school year.
The board hired Jeff Bell as the 4K-12 assistant principal at the June 28 meeting. Most recently, Bell worked as a high school physical education teacher at the Marshfield School District.
“Jeff Bell from Marshfield has experience from elementary all the way up through high school working with kids,” said Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner.
The hiring of Bell is part of a slight restructuring of the school’s administrative staff. After Elementary Principal Nancy Popp announced her departure to work at the Granton Area School District, the school decided to move to a principal/ assistant principal model instead of dividing the principal duties by the upper and lower grades. Middle/High School Principal Doug Dieckman will transition to 4K-12 principal.
Also, the board hired Seth Schilling for the middle school social studies teacher position recently vacated by Cindy Campbell.
“We interviewed five and [they were] all very good candidates, and Schilling was the committee’s recommendation,” said Lindner.
Schilling is from Edgar and a new graduate from UW-Oshkosh.
The board also 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 coordinator.
Due to the resignation of Clark from the Title I position, the district has an opening for a Title I interventionist which it has not yet received any applications for. As an alternative, if the school district is unable to fill the position, the administrative team would like to hire a Title I paraprofessional to work with the two existing Title I teachers to help fill the vacancy. This position would mostly be for middle school math. The board approved the creation of this position, if needed.
Also, due to the increasing number of Spanish-speaking students entering the school district, the administrative team wished to create an English learner (EL) paraprofessional position to help with translation and teaching students English. The administration was unsure at this time if it would be a full- or part-time position; it will depend on needs. The board approved the creation of this position.
The board also gave its approval for a social worker position. There is federal funding available to schools to use for a social worker internship. This position will assist the guidance counselor and serve as a liaison between families and county/state services.
Summer maintenance projects Lindner gave an update on the progress of the summer maintenance projects.
“We are waiting for four of the air handlers to be shipped, scheduled for June, but they are now saying August. Three
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rooms are completely installed and four rooms are currently being worked on,” Lindner wrote in an emailed summary of the meeting.
All of the new univents have been installed. They need to be sealed and blocked.
The 4K room will move to the former elementary library this summer, but the school district will wait till next summer to remodel the rooms.
The band room will get 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.
Room 99 will be getting new flooring, LED lighting, and ceiling.
The high school/middle school staff room got new ceiling tile and LED lighting. There is air conditioning in both staff rooms.
Froeba Construction will level the area by the bleachers at the baseball field.
Room 13 will be remodeled and the moisture problem (venting hood) will be addressed.
The school district has heard concerns about the greens on the golf course. The district met with Reinders and a maintenance plan to fix the greens has been adapted.
The water line by the circle drive which goes to West Side Park that was snagged during the baseball field work has been replaced. The water line on the golf course was leaking and has been repaired as well.
All of the middle and high school rooms were expected to be cleaned by this week. The custodians will now turn their attention to deep-cleaning the elementary rooms.
“Addressing the drain pipe and asphalt [in the elementary parking lot] will be a very high priority for next summer,” Lindner wrote.
Other business The board approved the purchase of new Vulcan combination oven for the food service department. The quote from Streich Company for the Vulcan ABC7G-Nat model was $25,013.73. The food service director would also like to have a reverse osmosis system, which will cost an extra $2,713.59. There is enough money in the food service fund to cover the cost of the new equipment. There was also discussion about the dishwasher system needing to be replaced. The school district plans to apply for a state grant to help cover the cost for that.
The board decided not to charge any consumable product fees for the 2023-24 school year and to waive all athletic fees.The decision regarding admission to games was tabled until the board had a chance to find out what the Greenwood School District will charge, as the schools share several cooperative teams. The consensus was the schools should be charging (or not charging) the same amount. The driver’s education/behind-the-wheel fee will remain at $300.
The board received the required annual seclusion and restraint report, which showed the school had one case of seclusion/restraint in the 2022-23 school year.
Lindner reviewed the Achievement Gap Reduction report for the 2022-23 school year, which shows how many students in grades K-3 met end-of-the-year reading and math goals. The complete report can be found by visiting loyal.k12.wi.us, selecting “Board of Education” and “BoardDocs,” and navigating to the June 28 board meeting agenda.
The school board approved its WIAA membership contract for 2023-24, as well as a 3-percent salary increase for the administration.
An update was given on the 2022-23 school budget. The school financial audit is scheduled for July 17-19.
“We are working on finalizing our end-of-year expenses and anticipate that there will be a surplus of funds left which will be put into our Fund 46 (Long Term Capital Improvement Trust Fund) account,” wrote Lindner.
The board approved the school district’s operational plan for COVID. A copy of the plan is attached to the agenda for the meeting on the school district’s BoardDocs site and will be posted on the district website.
Another item up for discussion was employee handbook revisions. Work is being done on the employee handbook. The current handbook has different sections for teachers and support staff. The school district plans to separate the material so there is 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. I 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,” wrote Lindner.
The board approved a one-act play co-op between Greenwood and Loyal. Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green and 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,” Lindner noted.
There will be a student/parent meeting on July 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Greenwood cafetorium for students who are interested in participating in one-act play.
The Board approved the first reading of the following policies: Policy DFE – Gate Receipts and Admissions, Policy EEA – Student Transportation Services, Policy IKFB – Graduation Exercises, Policy IKD – Honor Rolls, 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 (new policy) and Policy GCLB-R/IDGJA-R – State Tournament Attendance Rules.
After some discussion, it was decided the board would have the policy committee review Policy KMD – Relations with Churches. This was after Angie Kollmansberger spoke in opposition to the policy during the public comment period. Kollmansberger is one of the girls basketball coaches, a health/physical education teacher and Title IX coordinator for the district. The policy does not allow any sports practices or open gyms on Sundays and states, “Only the District Administrator may make exceptions to this after consulting with local clergy.”
Kollmansberger said although she has coached for 22 years, she was not made aware of this policy. She said the Sunday night open gyms she has hosted are not mandatory, but allow athletes a time to get extra repetitions in if they desire, and are a chance to spend time with their sports family.
Copies of each of the policies can be found attached to the meeting agenda on the Loyal School District website under BoardDocs.
Popp was not at the meeting and did not submit a report. Dieckman’s highlights of the past 30 days included the following: wrapped up another great school year; the elementary school master schedule was finalized; have been calling candidates for 7-12 grade special education and middle school interventionist positions; have been conducting 4K interviews and awaiting final confirmation on 4K programming; the art candidate was on site June 30 for a tour and meeting; student, teacher and parent handbooks were proofed for 2023-24 school year; the athletic code was updated for 2023-24 school year; have scheduled a meeting with Greenwood; and worked on updating some policy language related to academics.
Goals for the next 30 days are to fill all vacant positions, have employee and support staff handbooks finalized, and to finalize the duty schedules for the elementary school and middle/high school.
Dieckman also wished the Future Business Leaders of America and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America entrants best of luck in their upcoming national contests.
Lindner notified the board that the Ford 801 Powermaster tractor had been sold. He also said the school district was continuing to work with Greenwood and Neillsville in an effort to get an athletic trainer, after Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS) decided to discontinue its free athletic trainer services. MCHS offered a few paid options, the cheapest of which would be $26,000 per year and cover about 13 hours a week (one third of full time).
Lindner said the schools had discussed one alternative that would cost about $20,000 a year, but were still looking at options.
“We are really trying to find something, because that is a lot of added pressure for coaches,” said Lindner.
He also alluded to possibly offering a training to the coaches at the end of July on taping injuries and addressing head/neck injuries, and things of that nature.
Finally, the board scheduled upcoming meetings. The policy committee meeting will take place July 19 at 9 a.m. The next monthly school board meeting will be July 24, with closed session at 6 p.m. and open session at 7 p.m. Wisconsin Association of School Boards training for the Greenwood and Loyal school boards will take place July 25.
Editor Valorie Brecht contributed to this report.
