Rib Lake board looks to smooth start of school year

SHAWNA KONIECZNY

REPORTER

At Thursday’s meeting, the Rib Lake School Board met back in their old meeting room for the first time for the final board meeting before the start of the school year.

With the new school year just weeks away, the board went over a number of topics and were given a variety of updates related to school starting. During citizen’s input, Kerra Abeln, returned to the board meeting to ask the board once again to keep things as normal as possible for the school year. District Administrator Rick Cardey reassured that unless something changes in a board meeting, they still plan to open school as normal as originally planned.

Cardey was also excited to announce to the board that they are now fully-staff. Nine new staff were hired. The board approved the hires of Noah Behling for middle school social studies, Heather Weik for varsity volleyball, Shianne Reidt for special education aide, Megan Jonasen as an interventionist, Kyley Williams for high school social studies, Cindy Jensen and Kira English for middle school volleyball, Josh Lee for technical education, and Maris Pernsteiner as the new nurse.

The board also approved the resignations of interventionist Cassie Rudolph, special education aide Nicole Vacluven, social studies teacher Clarissa Kragenbrink, and middle school volleyball coach Becky Hebda.

Upcoming in the district, there are a number of events that started this week. The Culture of Championship meeting was on Monday. Tuesday was the data retreat which is where staff will discuss goals within the schools after having Rib Lake’s data presented to them. “It’s a very productive day,” said high school and middle school principal Kirsten Budimlija.

New teacher orientation was taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. “What’s important is we get them off to a good start. That involves mentoring, that involves here’s how the Rib Lake way works and I think the other part of that is making sure there are systems of support for the teachers in their first year here,” said Cardey.

On Wednesday, August 25, all staff will be in the schools for in service which will be followed by a work day for the teachers. “I think it’s something that says school’s just around the corner,” said Cardey.

Last week, Budimlija, who is also the curriculum coordinator had met with all the curriculum departments. “So K-12 staff has been meeting by department and we have been looking at standards. All of the standards have been updated recently so we’re taking some time to dig into them,” said Budimlija.

Rib Lake’s middle and high school open house will take place on Thursday, Aug. 26, from 4 - 6 p.m. Fall sports have also gotten underway.

Cardey emphasized that this has been a very busy summer for the district, but he explained that everything is going as planned and that they are on the right track to start a great school year.

Cardey and Jon Dallmann, elementary school principal and special education director, explained some of the updates to handicap accessibility changes made within the schools.

Music and choir teacher Connie Leonhard asked the board for the approval of an upcoming choice trip for the high school choir. The trip would happen June 13-17 and the students would take coach buses to Nashville, Tenn. The trip would cost between $875 and $905 with about 30-34 participants. Leonhard explained that they would need 20 or more students interested to make the trip reasonable.

The board supported the idea of the trip as Nashville is known for being a music capital in the United States. Board number Rollie Thums noted that if they can find ways to let their students explore places outside of Taylor County and the state, they should let them because it’d be a great opportunity.

Some of the events scheduled on the itinerary include a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the opportunity to go to a recording studio and record a song that students can have as an MP3. Due to COVID since spreading across the nation, Leonhard said that the trip would have travel insurance through Progressive Travel of Spencer.

The board asked about fundraising opportunities for the students and Leonhard explained the four ideas they had. These included a pledge-based car wash, Freaky Family Fun Night, selling fruit, and hosting a Winter Ball. The trip would be offered through summer school and students will be able to get some credit with it. The board approved the trip.

Also during the meeting, Cardey gave the board the preliminary audit and fund balance report. He said that the only discussion he had with the auditors was about how to set up Fund 73 correctly. “Other than that, we finished the year with a surplus of $33,400 so that’ll go into the fund balance if it becomes the final audit number,” said Cardey. With Fund 73, Cardey said that he was able to put $100,000 into the fund for future budgets for the board to withdraw on if need be.

The budget update included a 7% increase to their equalized aid and Cardey explained that they’ll have the same spending limit, or revenue cap, as last year despite any increases in expenditures. Cardey said that he is expecting the district to get $60,000-$80,000 of COVID- 19 relief money.

The board also approved a number of policy and handbook changes under their second reading. This included updating new procedures for handling concussions in student athletic activities, the 2021-2022 Student Handbook changes proposed at the last meeting, and an updated Community Fund 80 which didn’t have many changes.

When talking about facilities, Cardey mentioned that it may be time for the district to finally replace the middle school gym floor. “The fact is, I think I do it out of two budgets and if we can’t do it out of one of the two years, you’d have Fund 46 to fall back on. But if we’re going to did it, I should bring it in September, give you some options and I should book it for next summer,” said Cardey.

The district is also making changes to the elementary school parking lot to make it easier for buses and for parents who come to drop their kids off and pick them up. Cardey said that repainting the parking lot will be about a $2,000 project.

The district is also looking to continue their endeavors with technological advances within the schools. “So one of the things we’ve done in my time here, is we’ve really upgraded our technology. We’ve been fortunate enough to get rid of a lot of the hand-me-down NTC things we’ve had. We’ve been able to get a rotation of Chromebooks for students so that every four years, there’s new ones in the hands of students,” said Cardey.

Cardey said that they’ve written a $50,000 grant to hopefully give them more funding to continue to improve their one-to-one technology with students, including purchasing hotspots for students to take home.

The school is working with WANRack to help replace some network fiber that would increase the internet speed at the school. The board approved the bid with WANRack for $103 a month for ten years with the hopes that they’d be able to install the new fiber in October or November.

In other business, the board approved their current bills which amounted to $126,450.51. They also approved the addition of an assistant softball coach and the renewal of the school resource officer program. A transfer of $16,700 from Fund 10 to Fund 46 for capital improvement was also approved.