Gilman looks to boost learning with resource center

The Gilman School District is working to ensure that all students can get the educational help they need.

At Monday’s school board meeting, board members approved the creation of an academic resource center to be located in the high school and serve students from grades six through 12.

According to district administrator Walter Leipart, the center will be open throughout the school day as well as before and after school and be a place where students can go if they need ongoing educational help or for if they need assistance with a specific project.

“They can go to the resource center and get the support they need,” he said.

The exact location of the center has not been determined, but Leipart said it would be in the high school.

Board members also voted to continue with the middle school language arts program that will be team taught with the English teacher and librarian.

Leipart said the district is also moving forward with hiring a new building principal. The principal will be combined elementary and high school covering grades 4K to 12th. He said the posting was going out for the job on Tuesday with applications due by March 19.

He said while the total number of applicants is down compared to past years, for leadership positions there is still a healthy applicant pool across the state. The district had previously attempted a shared Dean of Students model splitting the duties of the position among existing staff members, and after that experiment board members decided to go back to a full time principal model.

In other action, board members:

  Set the school calendar for the coming year. The school year starts on Friday, September 1 and runs until Friday, May 31. The calendar includes having hunting season off from November 20-24, having the last day before Christmas break on Friday, Dec. 22 and students returning on January 2, and spring break from March 4 to 8. Graduation is scheduled to be on May 24, 2024. The calendar includes 174 total days of instruction.

  Received word on the enrollment count. The second Friday count was down by 11 students in the building. However, Leipart said they have seen a net increase from year to year.

  Received word that the district was achieving benchmark expectations for closing educational gaps.

  Renewed the charter for the eSucceed virtual charter school program and associated agreements with the other member schools.

  Authorized the Engels scholarship to provide $1,000 to every Gilman High School graduate of the class of 2023 that is planning to go on to college.