GC School District ranks high on Accountability Report Card

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City Board of Education heard some great news about their school district at Monday night’s meeting as they were informed that according to the Accountability Report Cards, GCHS ranks 64th out of 423 schools in the entire state.

This coincides with the fact that the Elementary and Middle School have improved since the latest testing and they are now ranked at the level of “Exceeding Expectations” according to the DPI standards.

The school district also currently ranks in the top five in their CESA district out of roughly 34 other schools.

President Charles Rasmussen applauded the administration and staff members for their hard work and dedication as this is something to be “very proud of.”

More positive news was shared in the Superintendent’s report as the proposed Pupil Count update was discussed. The school district looks to have increased its student count to 722 students this year.

One downfall to this is that the school is no longer eligible for the declining student enrollment, but this proposed pupil count does currently lower the initial tax levy from $2,114,613 to $2,075,829. This in turn would lower the mill rate from $9.79 to $9.61.

According to Tim Emholtz, the school district still doesn’t know what the equalized value is yet and the revenue worksheet will change as well, which could in turn change the state aid and all of that plays a factor in the final numbers.

Fencing Fix

The big discussion topic of the night revolved around fencing and the removal/replacement of the current fence around the track as well as the adding of a different fence around the baseball field.

As of right now, the fence around the track/football field is a six foot tall fence and the Board has decided, due to obstruction of view, that this fence will be lowered to a four foot tall fence in areas where vision is not clear.

The current fence and gates around the track is then to be salvaged and used around the baseball field since that can have a taller fence anyway.

The Board also agreed on the idea of using any extra fence and/or purchase more in order to completely enclose the playground. As of now there is a gap by the Pre-K/Kindergarten end of the building and down towards the south loop road.

A motion was put out by John Logghe and seconded by Lori Klinger to approve the Century Fence proposal Items 1 and 2A with the necessary lineal footage being removed and fencing being installed, using any remaining fencing for the discus area, and granting authority to the administration to negotiate and contract for extending the fencing around the elementary playground to completely enclose it. This motion was carried unanimously by the Board.

According to the Century Fence bid, Item 1 stated that a six foot high chain link fence at the sideline and outfield of the existing baseball field would be put in place by using the six foot fence fabric from the track. This includes a 12×6 foot and a 4×6 foot high double swing gates to be salvaged from the track as well as all three foot tall terminal posts.

The bid for this is $8,753 or the option to furnish material only has a bid of $4,247.

Item 2A simply states that it is the four foot option, which has a bid of $8,320 or for material only, the bid would be $4,447.

Board Approvals

In other business, the Board approved miscellaneous items on the consent agenda including an anonymous donation of $1,000 for the commemorative brick pavers for the service men and women. Two separate and anonymous donations of $500 were approved, which will go towards the volunteer recognition/appreciation project.

A donation from the Knights of Columbus for $916 to go towards special education was approved.

Lastly, a one-time $250 Mark Douglas Nelson Scholarship was approved by the Board.

In terms of non-monetary items, the Board approved the Spanish class trip to Costa Rica with the tentative date of March 17-24, 2014.

The Board then approved the 8th grade class trip to Milwaukee and Madison on the dates of April 15-16, 2014.

The Board approved the change to the mileage reimbursement rate in all staff handbooks with an increase from .30 cents to .45 cents.

The Board approved a change to the student handbook in the code of conduct portion as now it will be replaced with PBIS REACH.

The Board then approved the replacement bids for the flooring in rooms 403 and 404 as were presented but not to exceed what was presented.

Community Comments

During the community comments, the Board also heard from community member Ben DeGross as he spoke on behalf of the Rustic Lore committee in charge of the float that the royalty uses.

DeGross asked that the Board discuss the possibility of allowing classes like shop and art to work on the float as a part of their curriculum.

The float is typically tended to by other community members, but DeGross stated that a times 50 volunteers will show up to work on the float and then the next day one person shows.

With that being said, the consistency of having students work on it daily/weekly would not only aid their education, but ensure the float would get finished by parade season next May.