BV School Board moving ahead with more projects from phase two of the referendum
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By Renee Bettendorf
BOYCEVILLE — After hearing from Luke Schultz, associate director of facilities management services for CESA 10 the Boyceville school board approved moving forward with several projects as part of phase two of the referendum that voters approved last spring.
Schultz reviewed several upcoming projects with the board including; creating secure entrances at the high school and TCE, updates for two old classrooms, replacement of some doors and windows, lighting updates, replacement of several HVAC pieces and controls and flooring replacement.
After some discussion, the board unanimously approved the projects with Tim Sempf absent. Schultz said CESA will get started with scheduling the projects. He noted that the district has a little over six million budgeted for phase two and right now according to his estimates the upcoming projects will cost a little under five million. He said that it’s good to be a little under budget because change orders can happen.
“We’re in a really good spot for phase two,” said Schultz.
Administrators Reports
DesJarlais presented the TCE Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR) report to the board. TCE has participated in the AGR program, which aims to help schools improve academic outcomes for students in kindergarten through third grade, for nine years.
The AGR program requires a participating school to create performance objectives, including reducing the achievement gap between low−income students in that school and students in the same grade and subject statewide. The program requires school board review about the success in attaining the objectives for the four grade levels and the strategies used at the end of each semester.
“We’ve been going through the process of prioritizing standards in ELA and math and then along with that worked on aligning these AGR goals to our standards,” said DesJarlais.
He pointed out that the goals for the AGR program are for the end of the year and that Kindergarten has gotten off to a great start and other classes are making progress.
Board member Jeremy Mittlestadt asked DesJarlais if changes made to how reading is taught over the past couple of years has made any difference in reading comprehension. DesJarlais said the new way of teaching reading does seem to have improved reading comprehension.
District administrator Nick Kaiser asked about the impact of Act 20, the law that was passed by Wisconisin legislators in 2023 and requires all schools in the state to assess students from 4K to third grade in reading. The act further requires that if students fall below a certain threshold, the school has to make an individual reading plan for the student.
DesJarlais said a lot goes into Act 20 with quite a bit of time devoted to assessments and intervention. The new law just came into effect this school year and has generated a lot of data that will need to be interpreted.
Director of special education Rebecca Hanestad said that first graders are so far in the highest needs based group with Act 20 for TCE and this appears to be true for other districts as well. This may be due to new requirements in oral reading and she suspects this will improve over time.
DesJarlais went on to report that seven students at TCE currently have perfect attendance and the school participated in a 100th day of school celebration. Additionally, the school-wide spelling bee took place on February 7 with fourth grader Emerson Franko winning and third grader Evangaline Laack earning second place.
Middle/high school principal Pat Gretzlock reported that testing season is coming up. The junior class will be taking the ACT on March 11 and the freshman and sophomores will take the pre ACT on March 18. He said that staff has been working with students to best prepare them for the tests by using scores from an October testing session to create individualized test prep plans.
He also reported that the third quarter installment of COMPASS, an intervention program the school started a year and a half ago, has started. So far staff are seeing good results with the volume of failures in the middle school decreasing noticeably when compared to the same time frame of the second quarter.
Board member Amber Carlsrud asked about how COMPASS has been going and what the plan is going forward with it.
Gretzlock said COMPASS does seem to be helping for a couple of reasons. For one, it gives students more time to work on their classes. It also gives students the opportunity to interact with the teachers.
“It’s without question that it is impactful as far as reducing the number of failures,” he said of COMPASS.
Later in the meeting Gretzlock presented the 2025/2026 Academic and Career Planning Guide, formerly known as Course Offerings and Registration Guide. For the 2025/2026 school year new classes will be offered in the ag, art, business, English, science and technology education departments. There are a number of classes offered where students can also earn college credits. The board unanimously approved the guide.
In her report to the board Hanestad said she has been working with staff about best practices for determining alternative grading for kids in special ed and spoke about a number of trainings that staff have attended. She also reported that two more students have been dismissed from special ed and 25 children attended the most recent Little Bulldogs Playgroup.
Kaiser reported that the Coaches vs. Cancer event was a success with about $13,000 in donations raised. He thanked the staff for all their time spent throughout the year with various tests, assessments and preparation and noted that a number of interesting guests have visited the district in the past month including; food truck owners, doctors from Madison and construction management staff from CVTC.
In other business the Boyceville school board:
• Learned from Gretzlock that eight middle schoolers have perfect attendance.
• Heard from Gretzlock that Abigail Scott and Evelyn Harris were the January students of the month for the high school and middle school respectively.
• Learned from Hanestad that the district is collaborating with the Glenwood City school district to hold an event about children and screen usage in April.
• Approved the 2025/2026 school calendar.
• Accepted a $250 donation in memory of Beverly and Audrey Jump to be used to help TCE families in need of clothing or other necessities.
• Accepted a $1,683 teacher mini grant from the Community Foundation of Dunn County for the fourth grade field trip to Madison.
• Accepted a $4,854 grant from the MASA fund to support the education endeavors of the students of the district.
