Lead Deadwood School District March Board of Education Meeting

001order call V deah of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation God um looks like we just need to approve the agenda tonight with an addition under new business each approve the swim contract motion to approve the we also have um more under 134a under the contract list we have the Middle School CTE instructor rev be how you say that Mr Veo cor okay 60,000 and and Leah Peterson is the elementary spe special ed instructor 68,000 and then under 135a a thank you from Gwen Hess okay anything else no all right now now I'll make a motion to approve the amended agenda all in favor Mo carries we have any way for authorizations so approve the minutes from the February 11th 2025 meeting they were all sent out

002by Mary earlier if there's any changes if not we need a motion make a motion to approve the minutes from February 11 right all in favor next item is 131 expenditures um again you can either choose to motion to approve all of those items or we can pull them out individually if you need to make a motion to approve expenditures 1 through1 see second one in favor motion carries next item is 132 financial statements same things a through K and or you can pull any items that you have questions on make motion to approve items a through K all in favor of that motion motion carries next item is 133 patreons and other we have here with the audit I just want stop we finished up the audit several weeks ago um they've been working

003on in the office R the aitor general call this morning it's all ready to go as soon as I get my stuff in tonight tomorrow morning as far as the rep letter everything Mar should get a email or something we have to file the report with the feds because of the gr goes to the federal clearing house but where us talk today it should all be ready to go and have her out tomorrow so just had a couple letters you guys should all add in your packet one is on your guys' letter head um it's we call that a representation letter um just get some things in writing that were discussed throughout the course of the audit and it's a standard letter we've been issuing for ever I think um the other letters are is

004our what we call our our management letter and it's what how we communicate our findings whatever findings we had there were no written findings in the audit report they would be in here too but we had no written findings in the audit report or our testing that we did everything financial statements were fairly presented we got a clean opinion didn't have any problems with the grants the yes a grant went to a little smoother there wasn't any construction this year so that helped so and hopefully this is the last year I think she's got about 20,000 bucks left or something to spend we're done did you get 25 was pathetic we're done 25 you had some after the beginning in September something but we probably won't have to test that because it wasn't in yeah

005anyway that stuff's all done we'll be back to testing the tile program I think is what we've been testing in the past special ed and Food Service we've been doing them on a rotating basis something pops up again so anyway um as you look through management letter it's one our our letter had we got like you said there's the three things we look at there are deficiencies in any internal controls any violations of the law and any adjustments that are talked about on top of the second page and you can see the only thing we've got is an immaterial finding and and some law violations that's been on there for a couple of years were some of those old outstanding checks we're supposed to turn them over to the state or the law that says

006you're supposed to do that after they're a year old you guys have been trying to manage your s there's still a few hanging out there I think she's trying to catch some of the old some student checks or something I think that I don't know like I think I talked to this year during the audit and I said just make up a list try and that you've tried to communicate as best you can to try to find these people and you can't write them off get rid of them but keep a list in case something would turn up they' happen to clear the bank or something so you'd know so um other than that I don't really have anything to talk about the report I've got one other thing I was going to mention it's

007not a criticism it's not a finding but something we noticed you know over the years L large you got a handout for everybody this is just the balance sheet and Food Service front and back and you're you look down at the bottom I think she highlighted it the net position amount is highlighted in yellow this is the first year I've been doing the audit for about 20 years and it's always been a positive number last year was that number was 105,000 your cash balance last year was 141,000 that's the first number up on your top this year cash is down to 20 and that net position number is a Nega 99,000 something to be aware of uh like I said it's not a finding or anything um I think she said Margie said that you

008guys have got a couple hundred thousand in the budget to transfer over there from general fund you know and I think there's some other things that have contributed to to it also the way she's Ted your numbers are down Revenue feder reimbursement is down I think I think some of your expenses so there multiple things that caus now you guys get to make the decision how to fix it well and I think you'll see on the um board report the Food Service is like a negative 79,000 it just keeps getting bigger each month but my plan is once we figure out what we're short a whole year is to make that transfer j instead of doing it monthly unless you don't want to see negative on that report I can do it monthly but kind

009of up to you guys how you want to see the financial reported like I said I can do one monthly or just wait till the end of uh the fiscal year and do it at the end of the year the transfer from general fund will transfer cash over from general fund to food service and that would help that negative and the bank the bank account it's all One bank account so the bank account's not overdrawn isn't it cleaner to do it at the end of the year that's how I would prefer to do it is at the end of the year as far as the bank account we got general fund Capital outlay special ed and food service and fund 53 the drivers at all of those are accounts are in the the bank account

010so I mean negative is fine as long as at the end of the when we go to the end where it's at I'm I'm just waiting till the end is this partially do you think because we don't have the co funding morees well with the co funding the um Federal reimbursement rate was a whole lot higher and um now it's not we've got a food service director the last couple years so like I say um expenses are going up food costs are going on and our participation is a little bit low too I would also note that um it's maybe something we're not totally used to in this District historically but um in a broader sense it's it's really not unusual for a school district to backfill their food service from the general fund it's

011it's a fairly common practice and it's very like like we've been fortunate had been fortunate in the past but it's very hard to have a solvent Food Service fund it's just it's something not a lot of schools accomplish so were we still struggling is it you Marie can't remember who it was that said that we were um our numbers were lower or kids participating in the free lunch program free reduc lunch program yes our free and reduce applications are lower so I mean we used to be around 40 50% now we like at 30 you do get a higher reimbursement rate for free and reduce versus the paid and the majority of ours are all paid than than that I don't have anything else you guys know me questions I'll get out of your hair

012so you can continue on but thanks for all the help with Mar you know staff and didn't have to have Bill help me this year with the with the eser money so thank you always apprciate it all right next one is Introduction of teacher the year and year yeah so I guess we'll start Dan I would like you to introduce our district teacher of the year since she teaches in your building of course yeah a in the back R all right District teacher of the year is Stephanie Campbell yes well deserved she does a lot of work for us employee of the year we got Mike loen yeah you good we might stay another year all right we thank you guys for everything that you do I know you've been with our district time appreciate

013it have anything else all right thank you guys very much yeah so we are on to new business contracts resignation with those two the changes that Marie had earlier for the CTE and the the other one special Elementary okay uh I'll just read down through them like it normally do uh certified Subs at 135 a day uh Macy wise Joshua limmer um classified substitute AC wise um resignations and retirements Mike loen you just walked out the door effective June 30th um Mark Jacobs congratulations on your new position and Spearfish it's sorry to see you go uh also and I think you're not sorry to see this one go but uh heed his middle school football coaching position I think you did have some fun with that but lot it's fun it's tough an admin uh

014Mandy Ripa is resigning from the ace room PA professional and that's some good news because you'll see um the new job that she's taking here coming up uh Mike sneesby resigning head high school wrestling uh classified work agreements Manny Ripa Middle School Technology assistant um and then a an amended extra Duty contract uh Brandon web has then essent essentially working as the assistant varsity basketball coach rather than a C team coach so his work agreement is being amended to reflect that a little more pay there uh certified staff couple of elementary teachers Riley andrw at our base pay 51,000 uh Brianna Owen at base pay of 51,000 um and then Trev feedler in the Middle School CTE position that was 60,000 is that correct yep and then uh Leah Peterson uh 68,000 Elementary sped and

015I tell you what that Elementary sped deal um we are like the eny of every school everywhere they're like you hired an elementary sped teacher yes we did good job so that's all of the contractor resignations we need action on that may I make a motion to accept with regret very sad to see some wonderful um people leaving our district and uh I wish them all best second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor cares next item is to approve the agreement that we received earlier today from Zach if you want to review it at all Zach I don't know if anybody had questions or anything but Zach kind of s some pretty good explanation as to why he was asking for it so yeah um just to touch on that'

016be an exclusive deal with Under Armour through game one it last five years so the point of that would be at the end of our uniform rotation for all of our activities have Under Armour uniforms um with that year deal uh like I said it adds consistency and kind of solidifies our identity um at in our athletic programs I sent them our three logos and our color codes through the school to go off of so we won't just have people picking logos like this one to put on their stuff um they uh they've done a really good job so far working with our coaches and myself when I send things that I need I got a quote back already from for some stuff to go into Capital outlet for next year they'll do online stores

017um for any of our Sports um we can also order order just you know like shirts sweatshirts sweatpants whatever through there and then give those to our school store to put logos on so they'll still be able to use our school store our students will still be able to design um things for activities and groups that they've been doing as well um um in our specific agreement they're going to give us 10% back on what we spend at the end of the year they call them Under Armour bucks so um whatever we spend we could use for a student store that everybody gets a discount code to we could buy coaches apparel with that or we could just apply that 10% to the next year's um uniform orders and then I sent an email earlier

018today with those 35% off uh Footwear active wear um there's some buy one get one frees if you're going to do home and away uniforms and you buy a set they'll give you another set for free so a lot of perks would kind of come with this so he's asking for an action item on the apparel agreement um if I don't you guys have any questions specifically for them um they're going to be able to accommodate all of our activities cheer no we wouldn't have to use them for cheers so they could still like uh for anything they don't handle or cover um we could we would use any other distributor and the reason I asked is because I I knew they didn't have uniform so I didn't know if that was something that you

019had to have this super special secret cheer cheer and dance both would be would be different but yeah it's kind of a selected Market there anyway yeah I I think it's a great idea I like the idea of have that uniformity um you know I also like the idea of us being able to get those discounts and I have an Under Armour account myself and let me tell you those Under Armour bucks are great oh and the reason for under aror because I didn't mention this is they have a they have a four-week turnaround so um like one of our looks at Nike uh they told us that if we were ordering football uniforms for next year would had to order those in January to get them in that um but for un Armour it's

020guaranteed four we turn around so my experience here is pretty decent quality as well so I guess if we're looking for a motion i' need a motion to accept that agreement okay okay so we have a motion in a second all in favor okay motion carries then stop that agreement thank you for putting the time and effort into looking for that that's that's good okay next item is to review and approve theou for job Derek I'll let you speak to that a little bit uh um yeah so um I guess I wanted to kind of run the board through just a short history we've had a lot of new board members the last several years and new administrators um I'm wager that probably Marie and Mary are the only people that probably really remember the

021history and probably Bonnie as well um but just to give you guys a little context um so back in 1991 foxer job cor is one of the first job course centers in the nation to Pilot a high school program um prior to that is pretty much GED and job training uh we did that at that time as a Black Hills spest High School under some Second Chance funding under Jango um so we did that from 91 to 2002 where that Pro program ended um so the outcomes for our students academically were significantly better than the with just a GED program um and so I really kind of became a for a lot of job cour centers around the nation at this point most have a high school program of some sort and a lot of

022that started here so in 2002 um with that funding ending we're looking for another partnership to kind of continue with it about the same time um this school district was kind of cutting back on some of the CTE programs at teaching so it looked like a good fit kind of pair up and try to try and get students here access to some of the CTE programs that were there um additionally it was a financial benefit for the district at that time you guys were still in the state funding system and so our enrollment me money to the school district um so it worked out really well um continue that partnership through 2006 which is when um this District exceeded the funding limits for the state budget um you guys moved into your own funding formula

023um at that point um nearly part of ways we had to kind of look for a different way to do that rather than having the tax dollars from the local community going to funding students that were for in large part not from the local community um so through that next year managed to get some legislation passed SB 155 uh that ended up providing us some limited funding uh for students that come to job core that our South Dakota students transferring from South Dakota High School um so we get that money essentially directly to our Attendance Center um it routes through the district um so Margie tracks a lot of that um and then gets funded to us for um teachers primarily a little bit of school supplies and stuff like that so um from 2007

024till now that's pretty much how we've operated and continued that partnership with you guys um the impact has been that uh since well I could only go back to 2008 in campus but since 2008 that's 517 high school graduates um that more than likely would not have had a high school diploma had it not been for that partnership and 433 of those were South Dakota residents so it's been a big benefit to I mean students alone but also just to the community here in South Dakota um so that's kind of what brought us to this point uh we renew this mou every 5 years so coming up in June it's going to be time to renew again um but the department through a program right now where they're setting out new minimum standards for Quality

025job course centers at the high school programs that we participate with um you know different states have different qualifications um some states might need 16 or 17 credits to graduate um some online programs need less than that uh so they want to make sure that we have quality programs in the job course system um we already meet all of those minimum stuff uh 22 credits was the minimum uh it's like four credits any there three credits math really essentially what our state already requires um so we didn't have to really change anything that we're doing but I did have to put those minimum qualifications into the new mou um so in the new that's pretty much spelled out like I said it's not anything different than what was already going on essentially just meeting our

026state standards um continuing the practices that we already have so that's spelled out in the new mou um and there was some a little bit change in some verbiage I think there was some old verbiage in there that kind of said that the district had a responsibility for providing some teaching staff and some applies um to the job Court campus to support the high school program The District does not have an obligation to do that really uh the way it works is that uh we're provided access to the money through n SB 155 uh to fund those things so we changed that verbage a little bit just to say that the district provides access uh to those funds uh to support Staffing and supplies so other than that everything's pretty much kind of the same

027thing we forward you guys have any questions what did you say the number was for soft qu grads uh 433 since 2008 a little over 80% no I think it's an excellent program for us to have um you know even with my own work we started working with you guys directly and uh it's really made a big difference in the kids that I with okay so he is asking for an action on this toie and approve the M with job for I like a motion to review and improve theou for a job for second okay motion and second made all right motion carries thank you thank you um we are on to the electrical bids for the high school okay so we open those today um the low bid on that was $31,500 from WRA

028electric recommend that we would take that bit that's kind of a win we had budgeted 150,000 we've already got you know probably 50,000 40 50,000 in equipment that we've purchased then add this to it and this and then the electrical engineer that we had to have do that I would say we're we're well under 100,000 right now and our insurance company has paid everything good okay well then we just need a motion to approve the low bid to wrap electric for 31,400 make that motion second okay motion second all in favor I motion carries thank you next item is to review the cost estimates and initial designs of the buic schal project we were going to make a decision on this but we decided to hold off and just get some more information today so

029we're not making decision today so one thing I would like to ask the board to do if if we can this is this is kind of huge but like if we can look at our calendars in the next few weeks here and we can do it kind of after we have a little bit of discussion here um but maybe set a special board meeting date so we can not feel rushed but actually kind of talk this through a little bit we'll give a little overview tonight uh to kind of let you guys know what has changed where we're at we can discuss a little bit but like we're not making a decision tonight so I don't think it has to be real long uh Jason is here to explain some of the U did I

030say that right Jason yeah okay he's going to explain what some of the changes were with uh as far as the I think the Great and the slope correct okay so I I don't know how we want to start I guess I'll just maybe Jamie if you want to pull up the latest post estimate that we have and I think we've got Michelle also on the line um we didn't tell her she had to be prepared to speak but we just we did say if the board members have some questions she's available for that so anyway and Bill uh Margie J you can chime in anytime here as I kind of give a quick overview but as we got into some more detailed cost estimating with JLG uh we realized that the project was was

031looking like it was going to be up over that $2 million Mark and we had earlier talked about like a maybe a $ 1.8 million figure and so we talked about some different things try and bring that more in line uh and if we decide to go ahead with the project um you know Bill and I kind of talked about uh having the ability to do uh the remodel work in the library the new library area do that in-house uh as far as you know putting up a couple of walls that's something that's within the scope of our maintenance staff um and then just kind of uh bill would kind of general that stuff as far as putting out uh for a bid for flooring and ceiling tile uh paint painting and we could kind

032of bring that down because there's not a lot of real big construction happening with that space But kind of freshening it up a little bit of walls happening uh so that would be a little bit of cost savings there um and then one of the big things was well a couple of things um just kind of a a more focused realistic picture of what materials are going to cost because when we started talking about this it was all kind of talking about averages you know like um you know like a a project of so many square feet averages about this much uh well then the folks at JG kind of started to look at more current uh material costs Etc and just kind of sharpening the pencil to make sure that's accurate I guess I

033would rather get and and there's no guarantees you know things could come in when we bid it in May things could come in even looking a little better uh could cost us little less uh or it could could still go the other way you don't ever know until you open those bids but I I feel better having a realistic picture of it now rather than you know go through the cost estimating and we're saying hey it's going to cost 1.8 and then we open the bids and they're 2.1 million that's that's a pretty rude surprise and then you're sitting around the spot trying to adjust to that so I'd rather have it a little high now and we have time to talk about it figure out what we might do differently uh or just looking

034at moving forward so anyway a big part of that too was some of the engineering that's being required you know you have a couple Knuckleheads like Bill and I go out there and look at where we want to put that front entrance and we eyeball that and like I it'll work you know it's like kind of the old uh like o Lena joke where oy gets a job in the underwear Factory he's a diesel fitter and he holds up the underwear and says diesel fitter yeah so that's that's kind of like Bill and I doing the engineering look at it yeah and then Jason's going to explain to us a little bit why the diesel fitter approach doesn't quite uh doesn't quite cover it so Jason if you want to get into that a little

035bit sure on some of the slopes and whatnot yeah so there's a PDF attachment uh there's a the two floor plans for the CTE renovation on the interior um that show all the work that you guys have been discussing with JLG um but primarily I wanted to talk about the outside which is the third sheet down um so fmg engineering around Rapid City we're on the JLG design team and we're tasked with doing the civil engineering on the exterior of the building and our primary focus was um adding a drop off lane and having some Ada parking available to what is going to be the new front entrance to the Middle School so um like everything in lead uh we have terrain and Hills to be there um yeah on the interior of the building

036between the current central doors and um the door that we're going to be renovating uh there's steps that go down so there's there's already 3T of elev elevation change within the building between those two doors which obviously the sidewalk follows but then between the street level and those doors there's another 4T of elevation change um if you've ever parked over on that corner of the school uh those parking stalls are fairly Steep and uh with uh Ada we have to provide basically flat accommodations to get people from their parking stalls or the end of the drop off Lane into the front door um which is our main entrance uh we've gone back and forth with uh Eric and Bill on IDE to potentially move things uh utilize the central doors um and really there's there's

037multiple ways to look at this um but they probably all involve similar things they just move to different positions um so what we've tried to do with our layout is optimize it closest to the door that we can the shortest path you have between your part parking spot in the door is probably the best option and that's what we tried to do um it's tough to kind of look at this plan and really understand all that's going on um but at the new door location there's basically an elevated um platform that you would have to come down off of to uh say cross the street um so there's two or three stairs that you would have to come down to reach that level and then you would be navigating that kind of steep spot where

038the cars are currently parking to the right hand side of that replaced the two Ada parking stalls and uh if you want to think about it we basically can't touch the street and we can't lower the door so we're hinging that Hillside up to be flat and then navigating to the door um so there's kind of a real steep space between the street and that 88 parking stall but then from then on it's got to be flat with uh a couple of ramps with handrails to get to that front door um there is the drop off Lane is essentially the same length as it was in the conceptual designs um there is a power pole um existing at one point we thought maybe we could incorporate that into an island um but that shortens up

039our drop off Lane considerably and moves the uh accessible spot where you were to drop somebody off further away from our front door so we are actually driving between a new sidewalk and that pole we're putting up some ballards to um mitigate any um impacts to that pole from vehicles but it's it's very visible um I don't see it's already there if you were to try to park today there's a pole to navigate around so it's not going to be a change in conditioning from what people are really used to um but the you know in the estimate originally for this project the exterior improvements were maybe 45 or $50,000 just based on that square foot approach of we're going to have to do this many square feet of sidewalk um and it was a

040a pretty minimal cost that it was thrown at that at that square footage with some of the stairs and they're not really we call them maining walls but they're they're 18 in High um but you can't have an 18inch drop off without a handrail so it does incorporate some of those features by the time you add up all this geometry in the curbs and the stairs the elevation changes and the ramps and the handrails we're conservatively estimating um like $190,000 instead of $45,000 um there's features that can be massaged to um work better look better but the features are really kind of still going to be there in that form or another and generally cost about that much now we've conservatively estimated that so that we would hope that it would not ever be higher

041than that value we're hoping that it would be less but like Eric said we want to come up with what's probabilistic um and be prepared for that now rather than later um some of the challenges we had to deal with um there's obviously the the power poles um there was one concept where the turn lane or the drop off Lane would continue all the way along in front of the school and exit onto Arlington Street but there's existing fire hydrant this in power pole there that we can't really move to make that happen and we do not want to go to the expense of relocating the fire hydrant or the water Associated Water M so that's another grade impact that we're trying not to change right there in fact um I still need to meet

042with uh the Water System to make sure that they're okay but we have to remove 18 inches to two feet of cover over the top of their water M typically those have to be buried 6 ft deep so they don't freeze so we'll have to add some insulation board there we reduce that cover so that they can still feel comfortable that their their water me won't be impacted but adding some insulation is a lot cheaper than digging up and relocating the water main in the fire hydrant that would be significant additional cost so we're we're doing everything we can um from our lens looking at the world uh to mitigate the cost impacts but it is the exterior was more expensive than originally anticipated and I I do appreciate the work that that Jason has

043done here maybe it didn't seem like that at first because when when he first presented this I'm like oh come on like we but I do I do appreciate it because hearing him talk about it it's it's going to be right so like like we're going to have not have issues with people with limited Mobility uh it's it's going to be done right so I appreciate that another thing to note is you know there's a chance to that um our construction contingency when you look at the what we have budgeted May cover a good portion of some of these added costs however like we're not we're not just banking on that we're not just kind of slushing it together and saying well hey if we just kind of tell the board this is going to

044come out of the contingency then four to 6 months from now there's a chance you might be calling me a liar uh we're just trying to get everything out there as best we can to know where we're at so like I said there's a chance when it's all said and done if we don't run into a lot of things that are going to dip into that contingency it's going to might look a little better but I just don't want to count on that at this stage in the process because that contingency is there for a reason comments or questions that you guys have you guys seen any major changes with material costers L actually we're seeing more competition um from local contractors um where we used to see kind of one or two bids now

045we're getting back to the three four five bids so we're hoping that competition is coming back um material costs you know not a lot of materials on this project are in acted by tariffs but I haven't seen any impacts of that yet but our our materials have been steady in the last year they were really not steady before that anybody else have any questions concerns kind of first overall thought before you need to delve into it a little are you comfortable with that cost difference um one thing I was going to ask that's not related to any of this is if anybody has been tracking like Senate Bill 216 and some of those property tax bills that were passed that affect what school and I don't know if there's a way that we can if

046the association of school boards was tracking some of that because I know like signate Bill 216 passed yesterday and that had some caps on I don't understand it all the way but I would like to know if any of that is going to affect what we can ask in capital outl um I think we should really look into that and there's been a lot I mean there was a lot of property tax bills I don't even a l of I don't think in the past let me do some checking but I don't think 216 is g to impact this but let me before you take that to the bank let me in as far as capital outway though it wouldn't because our Capital outweigh is funded on our students and then they have a number

047that the legislators it usually increases CPI or 3% whatever I think so it's oh was that in there as well I think they they limited what the cap is to like 2% I'm not exactly sure but they right they're limiting Ro yeah but wouldn't that also if if our CPI and growth is what we can ask for would that limited if they're limiting what our what the grow is pro probably not because our like we'd be up against the P student cap so like our enrollment numbers would impact us before before the growth factor on the levy if that kind of makes sense um i' maybe I don't think you need to answer it today but that'd be a good question before we have our meeting maybe kind of take another look at some of

048those ones that pass that would come into effect and just see if it's going to affect us this project no I think it's kind of that's kind of what you're asking right just to to kind of double check and look at some of those yeah I would say so just initially that was the first thing that I kind of was thinking of and then also if we could have a meeting with city the city to look at the fire hydrant in the water lines and things like that because if the design needs to change based on what the city's feedback is that's going to impact the cost also and then um maybe that would give us enough time to have a better estimate on the storman sewer cost that's scor sewer we're not 100% sure

049on yet though okay um we're waiting for some testing to be done on that yet there is a slight possibility that it might be where supposed to be but they're pretty much thinking it's not but so then that in theory could be another added cost it could be yeah um do you have an idea when you think you might have that information do not know I have called the guy that does the testing on that and he has not gotten back to me so would it be prudent right now to uh look at our calendars uh to talk about that special meeting Amber I think you had some some hard limitations on when you'd be available right how soon like possibly next week the Forum is Tu day the school board forum and the mayor

050forum is March 18th well and I think I put in there I think what you had sent earlier said you could do like a morning meeting Yeah March 17th I can do 5:30 March 18th I can do 7:30 a.m. or really need to we could push it to four o'clock but I'd rather not do it that night you should have is on the 17 correct yeah um I don't know are you looking for approval of all of this by next week I don't know unless some of this stuff is hammered out if I'll be able to okay make a good decision so which stuff are you wanting hammer out like um probably a meeting with the city to make sure the city's on board with the design and um and that and maybe the testing

051from the storm if that could be a additional cost and the legislation um yeah what do you guys think like you're going to be out of town like that last week of March is that right I leave the 19th and then get back till the 21st okay so like so like the 27th this was also related to the negotiation question is what I sent March 27th I'd be available anytime the 28th War only 31st not available should but I still don't I think ultimately what she what I hear is none of us are probably going to be real comfortable without having that what cost us for the sewer water question bill when when do you think we can get that back from I I haven't heard back from him yet I'll press on and begin

052tomorrow morning yeah so maybe we just want to push it back to the regular April meeting but um I I don't know how much discussion we'll need uh if we have the information you need I don't think doing that testing is going to take all that long it's just getting them up here to do it you guys want to just do that do you want to address again April 8th to the last week of March was another week at that point that's not kind of matter then that would give us the time to get the answers that you guys need or the information we need um okay and with the city question I guess I would be comfortable with just having Bill if you want to meet with them and go over water and fire

053sure with them I don't think we need to have a board meeting to have that I think just as long as it's checked in I a hold Jason Andy and talk with them so yeah yeah I think that the chief's been running after school traffic numbers too to kind of look at how traffic flow would be impacted and stuff so I think those three okay would be good for that is there a reason we're not looking at the week the 24th I mean if we're kind of still sitting here going do we don't we I mean if we want to push it to the April 18 meeting fine but we're looking at that we do the 17th but Bill do you think we could get uh meet with who we need to meet with next

054week oh probably I could meet with probably those some of them guys this week even if we wanted to meet the first week in April if we just have a special meeting where we just talk about all of this and not doing in a board meeting I don't know what your guys' schedule looks like for that we you said the 31st which all good for you looking at March right yeah or like April 1st or somewhere in there 31st I cannot do first if it's in the morning I can do the second I could do anytime the third is out what's Wednesday the 2 look like my schedule's pretty open I like the idea of discussing it outside of a coin going be a lot of discussion just do a just do a special meeting

055yeah then we can just focus on that what's that at 5:30 if that if that's what you guys want to do that works Wednesday night there's anybody [Music] church just had a bunch of stuff when I clicked on the second my husband's calendar popped into mine so never mind not me I have a nine and 11 not so you want to go a little earlier would that be easier then that way you can still hit church if you want to you could go like it right after work 430 4:30 for you that day you think you can make that work or no let's do 4:30 that way people can still get to church if they want to by six or whatever Mary would you do a invite please yeah so 4:30 on April 2nd a

056special meeting try to get answers on the SB 216 or any other maybe things that might have some reference um bill will talk to the city else was there is that it St GRE get the testing done for okay and Bill I'll prepare a drawing for you um that shows the location of the water M the existing grade on top of the water main and the proposed grade just could focused elevations because there's not really a profile of that water Ms because we exactly how deep it is but sure on the fire hydrant it says it's 6 foot six Berry so it's pretty normal okay it's not shallow and it's not deep so I was going to say is there any chance it's deeper and you wouldn't need the installation if if the city had

057a good record drawings of the installation but I think it was in the early 90s um so the best guess we have is putting the valve box and seeing how deep the valve is and I'm hydrant there's stamp that say that 6 fo6 deep so it's a good indication sure okay that's all good thank you guys what's that you want to maybe come to the city meeting would that be helpful yeah I'll say something good okay that works thank you guys I think that's good discussion just so we know where we're going with it okay next item thank you Michelle I don't you need to stick around Jason you don't want to you can really hang out if you want um so we have our appointments to the de okay so it's March 17th and

058then lead it's 2m on the same day March 17th it's 12:30 in Deadwood 2 o' in L and 12:30 in Deadwood than I don't want to said March 17 March 17 I can do Deadwood you really want me to but if somebody wants just because you guys haven't had an opportunity to go sit it's do the equalization stuff it's very exciting I'll do I'll do Deadwood okay 12:30 last year we had one thing five minutes hopefully it's that way again this year I don't know I don't know they raised lead taxes Le different that's I know they ra my taxes like 17% soers will do lead and Robin will do dead and you don't get anything beforehand so just put it on your calendar and show up at the city hall at 12:30 do we

059need two of each or just one of each one one okay I'll be there one and two c and it will still be mayor Ruth so he is very precise right at okay um we are looking at the contact uh before that Mr Jacobs is gonna introduce oh yeah student representative yeah so we are fortunate enough to be joined by our newest student representative to the board okay Miss rayy Williams was a senior this year um we had quite a few people that um students that ended up being interested from both a Junior and senior class um and it was it was hard to to select but some of what really is going to tell you about why she wanted this position she kind of stood out from the rest of the candidates so um

060she's got just a few things she's going to go with you tonight tell you a little bit about herself why she wanted to do this job um and then we got some plans on the works for next month that she's going to ask some conversations with the elementary and the Middle School um their student council and and get some updates from there but she's got some updates from our high school U from the student side and yeah so Ry welcome we're glad to have you hi uh I'm really happy to be here I'm super interested in government and so it's really nice to be able to kind of I guess experience that on a local level um but I guess for what's going on and stuff uh so we had a couple activ activities start

061this month um track baseball and then the spring play uh I don't think we've done that before to my knowledge so that's really cool to see um and then this month uh ma Campbell placed first in the 100 yard breast stroke at State swimming um and then Eddie Atkins placed seventh in State wrestling uh and then um month in February uh choir and band always go to rap and do a contest but unfortunately due to the cold weather that got cancelled um but we are doing makeups for that uh so the bands was today and then the choirs is towards the end of the month and then um proms coming up next month and uh I was talking to the prom committee and it sounds like it's fully funded and they have all their decorations

062for that figured out so that's really nice uh and then Mr Jacobs asked me to share um a little bit about uh paging um so for the last two years uh I've been a page at the legislature uh my first year I served in the house and then this year in the Senate um it's really fun to be there and I was there for two weeks uh I basically just sit in on committees and the session and just help with whatever needs done um but you really good to see how they interact with each other um they're really civil which is surprising you don't always see that in the news uh but they're always very very very civil with each other um especially in like contentious debates where you think that they get a little

063nasty they they always try to keep that decorum up um but then you I also got to see a lot of controversial bills passed um off the top of my head there was s SP51 and that affected schools pretty heavily so I got to see that pass in the Senate uh while I was there um and then uh of course the imminent domain one in the house I got to see that so uh it's it was really cool to be there and meet other students who are also interested in government and um just yeah awesome welcome to doing this we appreciate it I think it's a neat change that we've never had before and I appreciate everybody that's worked on it to get it going I know it was not an easy thing to do

064so cool to have you here I like that thanks really y thank you all right so now we're to yep um there's no material changes to the swim contract from what current Arrangement is one change we had last year was that the school and and Dan and I need to probably sit down and figure out just what that's going to look like but the school needs to provide Supervision in the locker rooms we hadn't which absolutely is our responsibility um it's just logistically we don't have an extra employee sitting around with nothing to do so it kind of takes all day for 6 weeks um so it's a little bit of scramble to get that lined up um looking at probably having a cost increase next year I think this year they went with the

065same cost as uh prior times and and these are some things like I don't necessarily think about uh you know the swimming agreement has been in place for years and years uh but next year we're going to be looking at probably a cost increase and where some of that cost comes from is that the that the rec center has to hire lifeguards uh to be there and to do those swim lessons well while our kids are there during that time those they don't have other people they're not serving anybody else so like that those lifeguards time during that period is just for us so it probably makes sense that that they take a big boss on there so uh that's something that we're going to kind of prepare for and budget for next year um

066and we're going to meet with uh some people from the city Jeremy and whoever else they're going to have there Along with Dan and will Maly who will be our elementary PE teacher next year we're gonna actually have a sit down meeting which will be the first time since I've been around that we've done that we'll do that here in I think it's in May early May yeah May 12th I think and has things out for next year so we don't have any surprises but anyway we just need to approve that contract uh get that in place you have any further questions go ahead and fire them away and this is the contract for the stuff starting this year yes it's the contract for like what's happening in two weeks yeah the um amount is

0671,500 yeah okay as long as I remember yeah and this isn't new they did talk I do remember was talking about a little bit about it last year of like heyy we might have to start working at increases I think the only thing Dr chrisan and I had talked about is we'd like to see this contract maybe like we we'll probably see it again fairly soon or next school year and get it done earlier than waiting till like two weeks before so we'll probably see it again you know when we start looking at contracts for another school year okay we just need a motion approve the contract to go into it for this year approve this contract second okay all in favor motion carries to sign something yeah um the next item is administrator reports

068Dr peon we will start with you just real quick here and I guess with our high school principal full position uh we've been getting a nice number of applications we're up to 11 applications so far that we've received uh the job is open till the 19th uh interview is happening on the 25th and so the interview team will consist of uh two board members uh two High School staff members as well as our high school secretary uh I'll be on there and two parent Representatives so kind of a large group eight people in the room um and there are so many other representative groups that we could have in there too but it just um it gets a little intimidating when you get 8 10 12 people around the table in an interview so um

069some things we've kind of talked about and and Mark and I have talked a little about uh where we're at with things in the high school and where we think need things need to go and we're kind of on the same page with that um you know we've been fortunate to have somebody that is really a strong relationship guy and we don't really want to lose that I think that's important to everybody um and then also we've we've done some things or Mark's done some things the last few years to kind of move us forward uh with the instructional piece and so we want somebody that's a strong instructional leader uh that balance of course everybody wants the complete package you want somebody that's good at everything but those I think are are two of

070the the kind of top priorities going forward and would would you agree and feel free to disagree but no I think you hit the nail on the head I think that we've done a lot of work um in the last four or five years with getting a solid foundation set um to propel us forward in the future um and our next step is exactly it's more of the instructional leadership piece it's getting um you went through our cogni review last year um and I would urge you to continue to look at that I mean they they put a model out there for continuous Improvement in structural organization and we we just got a heck of a document back that that gives us a map to start to continue to push towards some of those goals

071um continue to make our school better um and then like our positions that open positions that we've got out there as you know um just class siiz numbers by policy are pushing up to where a couple of those will pop back up to three sections where they Dro down two and it's kind of unfortunate because it'd be nice if it was like we're getting 10 more kids in fourth grade you know it doesn't really happen that way we get like one or two over the line and so uh it's always so the approach we're taking uh Dan has hired um one elementary teacher to replace Tom pson who's coming over uh to the middle school and then knowing that we'll probably need two uh due to class size um we're hiring one at this time

072then when we get past that kindergarten screening time you know we want to try and hire early but since the numbers are so close to the line we'd like to have a better picture of where we're at in a few weeks uh so there there could be likely another Elementary opening that he'll be filling at that time and then I don't want to steal anybody's Thunder if other principles are going to talk about who they're hiring but uh I guess I'll just keep it brief we're making good progress um you know I've talked to a lot of people in other schools and I guess I want to commend the board and some of you haven't been here for the process you're kind of new to it but we very deliberately have put some pressure on

073our base salary as well as some strong raises to bring our our average salaries up our our median salary um and I think that is starting to pay dividends because we're not flooded with applications but in talking to other schools even some larger schools we're really doing pretty well so that's that's where some of those decisions that maybe seem a little painful on the budget uh those things pay dividends down the road because you're able to get quality application uh quality applicants so I guess I want to commend the board for that we're having the foresight uh to put our salaries in a competitive place so um that's all I have for tonight okay we will go to Mr van bber please yes all right uh so I always like to start with current enrollment

074we're at 245 uh right now which is good we're haven't lost a bunch of kids and um but uh I'll talk just a minute about the the kindergarten um enrollments and and registration process and screening but uh the interview hiring update for the elementary I feel like the Huskers in the 90s like we were putting together a championship caliber team we're going to make a run right okay okay maybe the Patriots in the early 2000s okay the Chiefs lately like come on we we got this thing rocking we we uh uh we are very fortunate to get get a few uh uh outstanding uh offers made and and hires approved tonight with Riley Andress and Brian Owen and Leah Peterson and will Maly coming down I mean I'm excited so uh that's looking really good

075family night just happened uh there may or may not be a video of me out on the internet and a cat in the hat costume in the middle of the street just saying uh we had about 300 people uh for this last one I think was down just a little but it was literacy night so it's not as fun as like math and stem and science no offense sorry um we had spaghetti dinner uh which is really nice this time um Liz fi put that on so appreciate her help there um hi popcorn cotton candy we had Bingo for books uh Joe donated some books from the library I purchased some additional books and KS got bingos and one free book so that was kind of cool various literacy activities and then um Stephanie and

076Company helped to put together some literacy bags for every single Elementary student with some activities and uh other things in there so that's was kind of nice the kids that didn't attend um I we estimated maybe just under 100 we only had 86 bags picked up but there are a number of kids that didn't go get their bags it was in a different location this time but literacy bags um let's see what else guiding Coalition committee has started um that's something that I uh has I've had on the radar for uh a while just wanted to kind of see how the year would go so we have a leadership committee now um their main role is to gather and distribute information to staff to provide input um make Reflections on things like family night um

077and then be that uh increased communication piece as well for things that are going on uh let's see math curriculum update uh we've kind of pivoted a little we were looking at two uh curriculums we've kind of now uh up aligner CS with a middle school going with just one for the time being uh with social studies coming in next year and everything we thought maybe it would be a little easier just to focus our attention on one so math and U uh is where we're going to be piloting next year uh um fullon so they provide some excellent training for our staff uh prior to the year starting and throughout the year so kindergarten registration and screening as I mentioned earlier uh it's trending toward more incoming kindergarteners than we're originally on the radar

078uh we are uh plus five in that category right now as far as number of kids we expected to be registered at this point versus the ones that are coming in so uh PE program uh just finished up skiing uh this week they're doing snowshoeing although it's more like mud shoeing uh so I had the third graders came back today and may have been a few tears and some kids fell but overall I think they had a pretty good experience uh and then we have upcoming swimming unit uh as we had mentioned earlier so that's uh that's coming up very soon so other upcoming events I would uh strongly urge you to come be a part of it Sarah please if you have any interest in any of these things um it's just great to

079get some recognition for our staff and our kids uh we have a lady Joyce Jefferson on Friday who's coming to uh do a Sarah Campbell presentation uh for fourth and fifth grade which is going to be kind of like a preview for famous faces for our fifth graders uh she she does the first person account um of this Sarah Campbell who's uh one of the first non-native women in the Black Hills uh in the area so she is uh she's an African-American lady and she's she's famous for like her versions of this the history stories of of the area so pretty cool uh one of the things that was also on my radar this year is going to happen next week uh quarterly Awards assemblies uh this may sound a little cheesy but you know

080we're down in the elementary so we get to do that uh we have the Golden Nugget award every classroom's going to be uh nominating a student for gold nugget which is outstanding academic achievement uh then we have the pickaxe and shovel award uh which is our uh most improved or biggest effort uh student for each classroom and then we have the Magnificent minor uh which would be our uh kids of character Citizenship Award um so each classroom will nominate those in addition to that we will have PE uh PE award music stem art um and a library certificate as well uh for students who have shown outstanding um effort in those areas and then I want to incorporate the attendance policy uh awards that we've been doing for the quarterly so I'll get you those

081numbers as soon as I can so you can get them to me um so yeah that's that's pretty exciting Stu we're going to start that kids will get their award they'll get to go to a prize table um I was able to to solicit some donations from various businesses with like you know Taco John and things where kids get like a free taco or whatever if they choose that from the price table so um let's see April 8th we have career day uh for our kids so kind of a separate like k235 program K2 is going to have stations within their classrooms about some career possibilities um 3 through five will be more of a career fair Style with different booths kids will take a survey and then they'll attend uh booths that are related

082to their results of their survey uh so that's Amanda bender and her interim uh intern uh Paxton they're putting that all together for the kids so you should see a thrill share coming out tomorrow um asking parents of the district if they have any interest in in presenting at that for the career day uh pastries with your people it's coming up April 10th uh we've been talking with PTO about that that's uh s we're going to back it up a little to 7:15 CU I guess it's been a little congested and chaotic in the past um we're going to try to open up a out the door down the block like we're going to try to have a couple different um lines going and stuff already pre prepared ready to roll possibly been looking at

083going up into the auditorium as well depending um if that space is needed um couple more uh bringing back history committee update um all of our historical pictures are up with the placards around the building which is really cool to see um our time capsule uh thank you from bill for getting that arranged for us has now been put in a in a case and mounted originally we were going to mount it in our um lunchroom but Bill uh had an idea to put it more Central as you WR first walk in the building so if you ever go in there look up it's right there uh working on a placard and maybe a little title for that uh as well hopefully by the end of the year um Gwen has applied for a couple

084different grants we're looking to raise some money between now and the end of the year to bring in display cases trophy cases things like that um she's applied for I believe it's upwards of $6,000 worth of Grants from a couple different places we're going to have a fundraiser concert dinner and silent auction uh nah McIntyre's uh she performed at the opera house a couple of months ago she's a world renowned pianist uh with ties to the area she's uh volunteering her time to put on a concert with in conjunction with a couple of songs from the jazz band from the high school uh to do a concert we'll have a dinner and a silent auction as well that's on May 9th at 5:30 uh I believe I think it's 5:30 uh but it's definitely May

0859th State Testing of course that's right around the corner we've kind we' solidified our dates um it's kind of wonky with Easter being in the middle of it but April 15th through the 17th and then 23rd through the 25th uh and then end of the year music concert another big thing coming up May 1st kind of the same style we did in the winter it'll be at the um High School auditorium uh with the K2 and then the intermission with student council helping uh to do a fundraiser and then um the 35 at the end and then like Dr Pearson said the excitement of possibly getting uh you know some more three sections of different grade levels for next year we'll see how the numbers pan out but I'm pretty excited for that it's going

086to cause a little bit of movement in the building but um well have to all just kind of pitch in right all right so all right so I think um if I missed something it was not intentional I promise um there's a lot like this is exciting every day in the elementary do everything we were on track for a pretty quick meeting all right all right Mr beagle your turn so so a couple things here uh one of the thing one of the projects that uh kind of came up uh lately uh Oliver rener parent um of one of some of our students in in the district and one of our students that uh tragically passed away a few years ago um came up with an idea wanting to have a little bit uh better

087um uh visuals for um Middle School achievement uh whether that being Sports academics those kind of things so um and we get a lot more traffic kind of around gym to for those kind of things so we've dedicated a spot out the uh in the hallway outside gym two that we're going to use to to create this um kind of it's not a just a shrine for his son but it's a shrine for or not a shrine it's just a a spot where we can make sure that uh middle school kids are recognized for the great things that they do so Bill uh really been helpful in in getting that rolling and I appreciate bill with all the stuff that he does so that's going to get rolling pretty soon and we should have those

088things um um started before the end of the school year definitely um and if you know where the uh Hall of Fame uh you where the Hall of Fame plaques look it's going to some of that's going to look really similar to that so we have kind of a a streamline look um for those kind of those Awards um so anyway that really looking forward to that um Brandon uh web our school resource officer has been communicating with I know he talked to Dr peon talked to me uh talked to the seventh grade um uh staff who he does DARE with and that curriculum is is kind of past it's due with how it affects uh and how it relates to middle school students um so he's really excited um about looking at developing some

089better options for U more meaningful conversations with seventh grade students about more relevant topics um that we have we're going to continue dare in the elementary I believe still believe that's more appropriate for that grade level but um we're going to so he's going to do some work and and look at some stuff that we we can do um that meets the needs of our our middle schools currently in 2025 so uh that'll be coming um down the pipe a little bit um uh just this past Friday we had our student council really proud of our student council and our and our uh Stu our staff uh supervisors they um you know the the students came up with this idea of having a scavenger hunt um and they created a scavenger hunt for each grade

090and we did this on Friday um on our early out a couple couple of the last periods total to be about an hour but kids were busy they had a lot of fun um it was a really good thing for all kids to be involved in so our student council is doing a nice job of trying to get all kids involved in stuff um again uh um parent teacher conferences are coming up uh Dan talked about that a little bit we're scheduled um uh with all that um one thing that uh our school counselor is doing is going to have uh topof the hour topics and this will be um for all parents that come in that and we know that parents aren't going to be there for the full five hours or whatever we

091got but on the top of each hour there's going to be uh little sessions that she's organized um the first one at 2m is going to be causes and consequences of sleep deprivation I think parents will be really um intrigued with that uh the second will will be why does my middle school schooler stink um uh the next one will be sugar intake good or bad um uh officer web is going to do one on personal safety and then there's going to be one on social media dangers uh that everybody should know about parents should know about so um she's really done a nice job with uh kind of getting that going and hopefully can bring uh parents um more parents in and and and have them uh get some knowledge about some things um

092again we've talked about this all night um the the Staffing uh issues and some of the highlights that we've had and and we really got some winds um going on and I man I couldn't be happier um these unicorns that are out there that we've finally found and it's really exciting I me this this Tre feedler guy I mean he's a he's going to be good I mean I'm really excited about him um and then Leah Peterson um again there's a story behind Leah Peterson um Dr Pearson was at State wrestling and uh uh another superintendent from bonome um they have known each other for a while and they got to talking anyway somehow these things come to fruition and uh got to talking with her and was able to get her hired and she's

093really U experienced G and she's going to be really good uh and really excited about Mr Paulson from the elementary come up um he's brings a lot of energy and and that's a good thing so it really is um and lastly um on the sped side of stuff uh Dr Pearson has uh U certified our our child count for the year and we are at uh I think I talked to you back in December about this or maybe it was in November that uh uh we are up to 120 uh students receiving special education services in the school district uh just give a little history uh last year on December 1st 2023 we're at 117 and 2022 uh we are at 106 so again that number is not uh getting smaller uh it's a u

094it's a need um so we just continue to identify the kids that need help and and we help them so uh any questions for me not at all thank you for all the top of the hour was that going to be something that sent home the parent before teacher conference it'll be sent out yeah before y okay Mr Jacobs all right well since reallyy did such a good job I think that that covers my portion time no a few other things um so tomorrow we are doing pre-registration for next year's um classes so we're our timeline's just slightly under a month and a half ahead of where we've been doing that in the past so hopefully we can get a some better working numbers and a closer master master schedule built before the end of

095the year obviously there's going to be some changes depending on Staffing and and students passing their courses and and things like that but um we should have a a lot better idea when we send our teachers off at the end of May um what they're going to need to be prepared for uh so we'll do that we sent out some information to parents last week um then we can start to work with our middle school and get some of those schedules put in place really excited they found a CT teacher because that was kind of a chank in our our chain there so uh Smart Balance testing um we just kind of finalized that today um if you remember a couple years ago we started splitting that up a little bit instead of just knocking

096it out in like a day or two um so we split up the English testing into two separate sessions same with math and science is just one it's a lot shorter test so it'll be April 3rd April 9th and April 16th um that gives us some more wiggle room um before it gets to the end of the window in case we have to get kids caught up um because if you're aware we do get graded on our percentages um of students that successfully completed that uh last week we also um completed with our CT team um our uh CT application which is all of our courses that would be fully CT proof for next year uh always seems early to me um because you never know how things are going to shake out there the

097of the spring but we got that accomplished and that's in um and now we're starting to put together our Perkins application which is for um our larger equipment purchases last year we were able to get a new freezer and and refrigerator for the new fax room um this year our number one ask is going to be for the commercial stove that we were able to get put in last year we're also asking that they uh they pay for the hood to put in as well um it's not going to be cheap um but it's been a really good program um and hopefully it continues to to pay dividends and improving the industry standard that we're trying to put forth in our programs um we have um a guy u Lisa Stag's brother-in-law actually who is

098here this week doing some cool things in our in our shop class um it's combined both our welding department and you know our Woods um he is elect electrician by trade so he's brought in a lot of materials um all on his own dime um they're building walls working on electrical boxes a lot of practical application um so it's a whole week worth of stuff that they're getting some hands-on experience which should be really neat we're hoping to continue that Partnership if we can get it worked out next year where he comes out in the fall and in the Springs to catch as many kids as possible um Ry mentioned prom coming up um we're excited to have prom back for the first time and I don't know how long um here at the school

099with grand March um still trying to work out something Logistics of the transition but it's coming together pretty pretty smooth um excited about having having all of our kids here not as much Transportation running around um that evening um scholarship stuff's coming in um our students have been working hard these last few weeks getting all their scholarship packets filled out and turned in they'll be do at the end this week our English Department has graciously volunteered to stay after school and help students with some of their essays trying to improve the uh the level of professionalism that they're they're applying for those and um there's a lot of different committees that read those and we want to make sure that we put our our students put their best foot forward um spring play coming back

100we're excited about that we're going to do student performance for the student body on Tuesday April 8th um and then we're waiting for confirmation dates are really really hard this time of year um and we don't like to do things on Wednesdays but uh reached out to the ministerial services to to ask what their opinion is if we held out on Wednesday night um due to some conflicts on student schedules and our and our actors um so they have a meeting this week we'll know um whether that's going to take place or not if not we'll adjust and we'll figure it out um government day will be coming up next week this is an awesome tradition I think that um I don't know how long it's been around but um it seems to be a

101great day every year sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get the kids signed up for it and then we always have awesome things to say when they get back so uh we had a sign up today we got everybody placed um that'll be all day on Monday um so so you'll see some of them running around Deadwood and um you know the the fire hall and American Legion puts on a good lunch um for all the kids and 're so excited about that opportunity uh we also have uh couple other real neat things going on um the last few years we've had the biomedical science class we weren't able to offer this year um and that led to some partnership with USD medical students that would come out every year and do some work with

102our kids they are still going to return in a slightly capacity um but we're excited about um having them join us and get to answer some questions for that our kids might have that are interested in that field uh as awesome as the hiring update sounded from the other guys um the uh High School principal has had a few sleepless nights um but the good thing is we'll start with positive here um Mr maldi is heading down to the elementary um back where his root started for this district and we're super happy for him um but that leaves a hole here at the high school so I've been working with Zach um we have a lot of applicants for PE which is wonderful um an array from veteran applications to First Years and everything in

103between so uh we've been fine tooth and combing those um we have our first batch of of interviews scheduled for Thursday um and um while we are also looking for a head football coach I want to make sure that I put this statement out there a few years ago when we were hiring um a head football coach we I had a I had a parent come up to me and I won't use their name but they're pretty strong representative of our community and everybody's talking about the football hire and he made a comment to me why what about the science because our science scores aren't that great and I've kept that in the back of my head this whole time as we go through this because we want to find the best quality candidate teacher

104we can have and and coach and um keeping that in mind as we go through this process is really important for us uh English and science are a little bit tougher um right now I know last year I haven't got any current numbers from Black Hill State but last year they had six science secondary graduates that were going into education uh so the field is it's small um and Dr Pearson referenced something earlier which I thought was good um talking with some other school districts we are keeping on Pace with our apps um whether that be big schools like in R City and Douglas um we're serving some of the smaller schools so uh we still got still got lots of time um got some different options but we're going to continue to try to

105fill uh the best position that we can and best employee that we can hire for those um oh last uh this was kind of fun I don't know what you guys heard what you didn't hear but we had a training exercise um last week with um the our SRO and uh Deadwood Police Department uh we had a um under cover officer that was led in a side door which is generally been a thorn in our side when it comes to Logistics of this building and all the exterior exits um and we wanted to see how long it was going to take somebody to identify that there was somebody in our building that they didn't recognized that wasn't necessarily friendly and wasn't head so they walked around the building dressed him up a little bit Shady

106he had some different things he had to do um three minutes and we had a student that um realized that that guy probably wasn't um didn't need to be there and when he said hello to him he didn't respond and heway right to his teacher and and we had a phone call to the office which was great um they continued continue the exercise um we had two other staff members uh members one at five minutes and one at about eight minutes that that had called down and and recognized and then our fearless counselor actually went down and grabbed him and marched him to the office so we're going to talk about that person and how we are going to handle that in the future but um I was super happy with our staff because you

107know the day gets busy and especially during classroom time and they're in their room they're teaching they're doing their thing kids are where they're supposed to be they're not looking through the door to see what's going on so uh I was super pleased with with the results of that and then we had a staff meeting we talked about it and um just something to be aware of something to keep our toes on and I think this was a little more practical instead of just yelling at them all the time to keep those outside doors not propped open this is why um so yeah that's it for the high school okay thank you 8 yeah um we just kind of getting our Winter Sports Seasons wrapped up here basketball uh finished last week with the boys

108the girls week before that and then wrestling um the winter sports season was pretty good for us it felt like there's a lot of improvement kind of across the board There Our Girls broke a 48 game losing streak during the basketball season they had three total wins for the year you know which like if you go back you could add about five years up to get three wins there so um feels like Chad's got those girls going in the right direction um the boy season if you paid attention to that um you know they had seven wins pretty close to going 500 there um probably six or seven opportunities is within 10 points you know besides that and four or five of those are within three points so um you know had a chance in

109almost every game uh I kind of put a graphic out about this but Bo wickerman scored his thousandth point this year uh I think he finished with 1,026 total I mean he actually scored it prior to the kuster game we just had to do some digging kind of right before that to find scores in five games that were missing from our huddle record so we had to call some school districts and have them go back and look at their stat books and uh Dan told Bo he was at 900 99 points so he had to score one to get it down in Custer but they were able to kind of celebrate that he got to keep the game ball um Landon and I went down to watch that so it was pretty cool to see

110after that um my wrestling team sent five kids to state three boys two girls um they also had two girls that were alternates so they were the you know the state's choice of leftover wrestlers who didn't make it at their weight class to represent in case someone got um sick or injured prior to the tournament um and I think in the in the entire tournament so A's B's and girls there were four alternates that they use so there is always kind of a chance for that um Eddie Atkins was our lone Placer in seventh place but the four other wrestlers that made it to state made the blood round which means they were one match away from placon so kind of right there in the mix um only graduating one wrestler from both the boys

111and girls team so it feels like again that's going in the right direction I know now the task at hand is going to be finding someone to take over for Mike um I know he did a really good job with that program uh it hasn't moving in the right direction track has started now um they have some pretty good numbers looks like somewhere between uh 40 and 45 boys and girls are out for high school track the pole volters have been going since February over in the multi-purpose room and uh coach Mal has been pretty excited about all the outdoor practices as they've been able to have this year so far um so the tracks staying staying pretty clear for them uh with that the end of the winter SE Sports season we've had quite

112a few kids in the waight room here my mornings are filling up and then after school I have uh kids from sixth grade all the way you know through High School in there um so that looks pretty promising moving into kind of the summer stuff we'll be doing so Thursday morning I have a meeting with all the head coaches to set up our summer schedule parents should get that um I would say either at the end of this month or the beginning of next month once some of the camps and things like that get solidified so you'll have a plan for the summer um uh one of the things that we're working on right now is putting together a weight room fundraiser uh try and get some new equipment uh I think it was two

113board meetings ago we got rid of some of the older stuff and we want to phase in some new things here um I last summer kind of of the way we started off we had anywhere from 25 to 30 kids in those groups um and there's just really not enough uh equipment that we have right now uh so being able to to get that going for the summer um May 20th is going to be our all sports banquet this year so we did not have a fall Sports banquet a winter and a spring instead we're going to do one at the end of the year um to kind of recognize everyone uh that participated this year um each individual activity was to kind of have their own banquet with their own group of people um

114and and be a little more celebrated with the people that followed closely to that there is a proposal through the Black Hills conference right now that I will learn more about tomorrow um but this would kind of affect basketball and volleyball moving forward where um some of the dou a schools or I should say just the ablea schools are getting kind of pressured into the east side of the state would like to see all doublea schools play a at least 16 game schedule consisting you know of only doublea games 19 was the number that was put out this year and uh the state turned that down but it sounds like 16 something they're going to go for in the future and kind of The Proposal here was put together by Spearfish actually uh split in

115into two divisions um so one with the big schools would have sturis Spearfish Douglas and then St Thomas mo and Rapid City Christian and then kind of a smaller school conference would have us kuster belfo Hot Springs Hill City and Red Cloud um some ways that could affect us moving forward so for boys girls basketball and volleyball we would not have to play um the teams in that bigger School Division uh there's we would have the option to schedule games with they could choose not to schedule with us we could choose not to schedule with them we would have to play all of the small schools in our division that we would be in if this went through um we aren't going to vote on it tomorrow I believe we're going to go into more

116detail and then the superintendant are going to talk about it I want to say on the 20th right is what it sounds like so for us some things that we're looking at there um potentially getting uh five more competitive games for our kids um you know out of that group of teams that would be in the bigger School Division Douglas is really the only school that we you know have been close with in different activities but potential to schedule some more competitive games that would include you know kind of a higher travel budget for us though because we'd have to go a little ways to see some of those schools like um you know this year we got Dupri on the schedule for a few things uh bison's been on our schedule we're looking at

117getting some games with Edgemont next year that might be I think volleyball right now it's looking like we will play them um but basketball we're going to do some JV games with them and kind of see where this Falls um for next year and then kind of like Mark touched on there we were able to actually move our um hiring committee or interview committee from the head football coaching position over into the PE position because I three of the four applicants that uh were interviewing on Thursday are head football and PE so um and then moving forward we're going to be trying to fill that staff around whoever takes the position or you know whoever we find to fill that and then I'm looking for head wrestling coaches that'll open up here probably five days

118for tomorrow but thank you for the update can I just give an election update sure okay so um lead Area Chamber Commerce is going to have a forum for the mayor the city of lead mayor candidates and the Schoolboard candidates it's going to be Tuesday March 18th at the auditorium um beginning at from 6:00 to 6:45 they're going to do the mayor race or the mayor forum and then uh from 7 to 7:45 is the Schoolboard candidates uh for the mayor candidates it's Dustin hpel and Eddie for school board it's the two incumbents Amber and Robin and Tim Matson two vacancies and uh three candidates and you vote for two okay thank you thank you um we have a thank you for buest I got added and then we are to public forum I don't

119think we have anybody fill out a forum tonight for public forum Gooding no we don't have anything there um executive session for contract negotiation would be next we don't need thank you favor