Facility audit helps avert potentially costly repair
At the Rib Lake Board of Education meeting on February 9, the board members received a report from architect David Vanden Avond and Education Market Manager Tricia Muellenbach of Excel Engineering.
Excel Engineering is in the process of doing a complete facilities audit of the Rib Lake School District, so the Board can make plans on what needs to be improved in both the coming years and immediately, as well as what students, teachers, and members of the community view as improvements to the buildings.
The Board is very interested in what the school can do or change to benefit the community as a whole.There was one immediate concern that the Excel Engineering team caught, and was fixed.
“It probably saved us a couple thousand dollars if the pipe had broken,” said District Administrator Travis Grubbs of the issue. “I do not think we would have found it if they had not gone through and done what they had done.”
The issue in question was a pipe that was in the kitchen at the elementary school. There was a pipe hooked to a pressure tank that was unsupported by a broken bracket. The system should be changing soon, due to the new dishwasher the Board approved the purchase of at the last meeting.
In other business:
The Board approved a calendar for the 2023-2024 school year. The primary change from previous years includes a week-long spring break through the second week of March. The calendar had May 24, 2024 as the graduation date, and does not go into June at all.
The Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR) Program is a program from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) that allows schools to get funds to use three different strategies to reduce the achievement gap between students locally and statewide. The three strategies are 1 to 1 tutoring, reduction in class size (18 students or less), and instructional coaches for teachers by a licensed teacher. The Rib Lake District Goals are at 80% of students above the 50th percentile. Elementary Principal Jon Dallman reminded the board that “An ‘average school’ should have 50% of students at the 50th percentile.”
The Rib Lake staff members of the month for the month of February are Jeanine Bartelt and Dawn Nelson. The staff member of the month is voted on monthly by the Rib Lake high school students.
The Rib Lake student of the month is Macie Mudgett. The student of the month gets nominated by teachers who notice students being awesome.
The summer school program will have a lunch program offered this year.
The board discussed looking into adding a second session for summer school swimming.
The ACT testing date for high school juniors is March 7.
The high school and middle school had a reward day at Forest Springs recently - in the future, they will look at doing a full day there to let students truly take advantage of everything they had to offer.
The Board approved the hiring of an additional full time Pre-K hire for next school year. According to a survey sent out by the Rib Lake School District a few weeks ago, 53% of elementary school families would prefer to have a 5 day full-time Pre-K class. Of the families that will have a student in Pre-K next year, 76% of those families would like every day 4K.
The Board approved the purchase of trail surface material for the school forest updates at around $3600 for the surfacing, but with the transportation of the surfacing, it will be over $5000. Board Member Rolie Thums stated about the project, “With these materials, we are doing five stages (of the project), the big expense will come now.” Thums continued to speak on the school forest project about the importance of it,“To me, it is almost one of the prettiest spots in Taylor County.”
The Legacy Garden Committee would like to add a pergola to the legacy garden at Rib Lake Elementary School. The board approved covering the cost difference between what the pergola costs and the total between Legacy Garden Fund and the Kindergarten Pride Pump fund could provide. The new pergola will be built by Rib Lake High School Students.
