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Kragness elected president of Colfax school board

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  Incumbent school board member and former vice president Todd Kragness has been elected as president of the Colfax Board of Education.

Colfax school board members held their organizational meeting April 25 prior to the regular monthly meeting.

Kragness was nominated as the only candidate for president and was approved with a unanimous ballot.

Former Colfax school board president Joel Hilson, who had served on the Board of Education for 15 years, decided not to run for re-election this spring.

Kragness said he was willing to take on the position of school board president because he wanted “to provide leadership and guidance to the board and the school district.”

Finances will continue to be the biggest challenge facing the Colfax school district, he said.

“Colfax, like most public schools in Wisconsin, is facing budget challenges that the leadership will need to continue to deal with for the foreseeable future,” Kragness said.

During his time as president of the Board of Education, Kragness says he plans “to provide leadership to keep our school district moving forward.”

He also plans “to maintain and update our current facilities; to provide a top quality curriculum for our current and future generations of students; and to market our school district to attract families to Colfax and have their children attend our school.”

New school board member Andrew De Moe was on the ballot in the April election along with Kragness for two positions on the school board, and Christie Hill, school board clerk, administered the oath of office to both of them during the organizational meeting.

Kragness was first elected to the school board in April of 2010. He served as vice president of the Board of Education for two years.

Kragness is a lifelong resident of the Colfax school district and graduated from Colfax High School in 1988.

His wife, Cassie, also is a 1988 graduate of Colfax High School.

Their two children, Brianne and Ben, are Colfax graduates as well, as are Kragness’s parents, Dave and Linda.

The Kragnesses live on a third-generation family homestead.

“I have always supported our school and its students and would like to maintain the Colfax tradition of pride in our schools,” Kragness said.

Vice president 

Ken Neuburg was elected as vice president of the Board of Education.

Neuburg, along with board members Kyle Knutson and Ken Bjork, were nominated for the position. Bjork withdrew his nomination.

Neuburg was elected with four votes, while Knutson received three votes.

Clerk

Christie Hill was re-elected to the position of school board clerk as the single nominee and was approved with a unanimous ballot.

Treasurer

Knutson was elected to the position of treasurer of the school board.

Nominees for treasurer were Knutson and Jodi Kiekhafer.

Knutson received four votes, and Kiekhafer received three votes.

Other business

In other business at the reorganizational meeting, the Colfax Board of Education:

• Re-approved the Colfax Messenger as the school district’s official newspaper.

• Re-approved the regular monthly meeting date of the third Monday of each month.

• Re-approved Wipfli LLP as the school district’s auditor.

• Re-approved the law firm of Weld, Riley as the school district’s legal counsel.

• Reappointed Hill as the delegate for the Cooperative Educational Service Agency No. 11.

• Reappointed Neuburg as the Colfax representative for the Wisconsin Association of School Board (WASB).