Colfax school board conducts January meeting
by Marlys Kruger
On an extremely cold evening, members of the Colfax school board kept warm in the confines of the high school library when they took care of business at the January 18 meeting.
Two members are up for re-election this April, including Joel Hilson who happens to be the board president, along with Todd Kragness. Hilson has decided not to run again while Kragness will be listed second on the official ballot in the spring election with Andrew DeMoe first.
All seven of the current board members along with district administrator Bill Yingst planned on attending the Wisconsin Association of School Boards state convention Jan.19-22. There are 16 resolutions that will be discussed at the convention with topics such as truancy notification policies and Special Education reimbursement which could be of importance to the Colfax district.
The board approved accepting an annual $5000 donation by the Sanger Foundation to be used for students who need assistance and also approved continuing with summer school courses including swimming lessons, music lessons, agricultural programs, summer saunters and classroom instruction courses.
In addition, the board accepted the resignation of assistant baseball coach Garrett Maas who is also the boys varsity basketball coach and middle school football coach. Maas stated coaching three sports has become too time consuming.
A motion for the second reading of the Open Enrollment changes for Pupils With/Without Disabilities was also approved with the board agreeing to adopt the policy used by the Department of Public Instruction. Within this policy, Special Education space availability will be determined utilizing the DPI Options for Determining Caseload in Special Education and Regular Education space availability. Classes will be capped at 30 students for regular education classes and Special Education will use the four page DPI formula to determine class sizes.
Administrators reports
Grades 7-12 principal John Dachel reported the student count was up three students from the September count with 80 seniors, 49 juniors, 63 sophomores, 69 freshmen, 77 eighth graders and 63 seventh graders. Winter Carnival activities will take place Feb. 8-11 and there will be no evening dance this year. With low numbers attending the dance the past few years, crowning of the king and queen will take place at the end of the school day on Feb. 11.
The Heart O’ North Conference wrestling meet will be February 6 at Spooner while the first round of regionals for the girls basketball team is February 23 and March 1 for the boys.
Seven high school students competed in the Science Olympiad meet in River Falls and the Colfax FFA Alumni Toy Show will be February 28 from 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m at the high school.
Driver’s education information is now available in the high school office for any student who will be 14 years and eight months old prior to October 1 and allowed to take the course this summer.
Elementary principal Trevor Hovde updated the board on several reading programs and stated Parent-Teacher conferences will be February 22 and 25 from 4:00-8:00.
There will be no school February 26 as a trade day for the staff. The Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held at the school February 3 at 1:00 p.m.
Special Education Director Polly Rudi reported Colfax will collaborate with the Elk Mound School District to host the Second Annual Resource Fair February 22 from 1:30-6:00 p.m. Students from both districts will be able to talk with transition agencies, colleges and military representatives between 1:30-3:00 p.m. and the fair will be open to the public from 3:00-6:00 p.m..
State mandatory ACT testing for all juniors will be March 1 and 2 and Rudi would like to remind parents to not schedule their child for any appointments or time away from school on these days. The test is free to all juniors. Computerized state assessments will take place for students in grades 3-8 between March 28 and May 20 and the ACT Aspire testing (also computerized) for students in grades 9-10 will take place between April 25 and May 27.