December 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Discussion:  A candidate running for our district legislature made comment to introduce himself.

Discussion:  Discussed the greenhouse plan for the spring. Classroom grants are available again. Met with Nurse Tracy and Laurel Kreifels to discuss Cougar Convenience Corner needs. FBLA chapter is helping with a food drive to help address that need. Currently considering a grant to restock the cougar convenience corner. 

Discussion:  Rob Geise-Jr./Sr. High Principal
Discussed how truancy issues are a national problem, and how our good standing policy is helping us tackle that problem, in addition to other student incentives. Welcome to DeAnne Peterson to the front office. Annual Career Fair will be February 25. The end of semester one is only 7 days away, staff/students are working hard to finish strong. Our Softskills representative will come to an upcoming meeting to talk about where things are going with this program. Important December dates discussed. 

Eric Dennis- Elementary Principal
Benchmark testing underway, focusing on school improvement goal. K-3 music concert was a success. Teacher evaluations are underway. DARE Graduation was December 3rd, huge thank you to Deputy Tuttle for doing such a great job educating our students. The elementary musical cast of 101 Dalmations will be performing in March. Instructional rounds will occur early second semester before testing. Attended ESU3's Community of Practice, focusing on the role of principals in continuous school improvement. The early education center employees will be attending a training December 29th over Early Learning Guidelines. 

Molly Stieren- Assistant Jr./Sr. High Principal/Athletic Director.
Provided update on the Cougar Classic, wanted to commend our tech department as everything ran smoothly with the online platform. Thank you to all of our volunteers who helped make the day run smoothly. Winter sports season has started. Looking forward to the 7-12 music concert on December 18th. NSAA Moratorium will be 12/24-12/28. We will be hosting Spotlight on Girls Wrestling Tournament on December 30th. 

Nick Krause- Director of Student Services
 Attended a HAL/Rule 3 workshop at ESU3 and felt it was a good opportunity to learn more about HAL. Focused monitoring corrections are being made. Observations of special education staff have begun and should wrap up by the end of January. Submitted ESSA Title Grant Reimbursement, IDEA Grant Reimbursement, and SPED Proportionate Share worksheet.



 

Discussion:  Mike Apple- Superintendent
The 2024-2025 Audit and AFR have been submitted, the auditors will come in January to discuss. Construction continues with a focus on closing areas, so work can progress on the inside during cold months. The fire hydrant at the elementary has been replaced. The elementary also has 3 non-working HVAC units that will be scheduled to be replaced. The lawn mower is also going to need to be replaced soon as well. Allicap representative is coming to visit about safety and will tour for safety checks and generate a report. Playground equipment will be delivered in the next few weeks.

Discussion:  Construction time restraints have prompted the need for the High School building to be vacant 3/11 and 3/12. These days were scheduled as early outs. Alternatative options for make up days were discussed, and the plan is to see what happens with snow days.

Discussion:  Accountability for a Quality Education System, Today and Tomorrow presentation. Data shown is from Spring 2025. Shared classifications, data, areas of growth, and next steps. State testing scores are the base, then you can move up or down depending on other factors. Other factors could be the school's chronic absenteeism rate, graduation rate, demographic population. We are showing growth. At the high school level, data is pulled from the ACT. Data reviews are happening to compare ACT standards to our curriculum.