The Dell Rapids School Board will meet in regular session on Monday, June 9th, at 7:00 p.m. at the HS/MS DDN Room. Some of the items on the agenda include the consent agenda, consideration of budget requests, approve extension of bus routes, discuss and approve Haven recommendations, and other committee reports. The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
Special DRHS School Board Meeting: 5/16/14
The Dell Rapids School Board will hold a special meeting on Friday, May 16th, at 7:00 a.m. in the MS/HS DDN room. Items on the agenda are consideration of surplus building offer, consider of surplus donation, and approval of personnel report.
The official agenda can be found by clicking here.
Dell Rapids School Board Meeting: 5/12/14
The Dell Rapids School Board will meeting in regular session on Monday, May 12th, at 7:00 p.m. in the MS/HS DDN room. Some of the items on the agenda include the consent agenda, discussion concerning the Lunch Time Solutions contract, discussion and voting on SDHSAA ballot, preliminary budget and 5-year Capital Outlay Plan approval, other committee reports. The school board will then enter into an executive session.
The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
Dell Rapids School Board Meeting: 4/28/14
The Dell Rapids School Board will meet in regular session on Monday, April 28th, at 7:00 p.m. in the MS/HS DDN Room. Some of the items on the agenda include consideration on insurance renewals, approval of Lunch Time Solution contract, administrative reports, and other committee reports. The school board will then enter into an executive session.
The school board meeting will be webcast on Big Sioux Meeting until they enter into executive session.
The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
Dell Rapids School Board Meeting: 4/14/14
The Dell Rapids School Board will meet in regular session on Monday, April 14th, at 7:00 p.m. in the MS/HS DDN room. Some of the items on the agenda include the consent agenda, consideration of the 2013-2014 (current year) calendar, consideration of health insurance renewal, booster club donation request, and other committee reports. The school board will then adjourn into executive session. The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
Big Sioux Media will webcast the regular meeting starting at 7:00 p.m., and the webcast will end when the school board moves into executive session.
School Board Votes to Start School End of August
The Dell Rapids School Board voted to move the start date for the 2014-2015 school year, but the start date will still come before Labor Day. During a special school board meeting held on Monday, March 17th, the Dell Rapids School Board heard concerns from the public and after almost an hour of discussion, the board voted to move the start date of school to the fourth week of August.
The original proposed start of school was August 19th. The board was also considering a start date of September 2nd, which is the day after Labor Day before ultimately deciding to start school on August 27th.
A survey taken by parents, staff and students was taken between February 27th and March 9th. During a regularly scheduled school board meeting held on March 10th, the results of the survey were presented to the school board. The results of that survey along with proposed school calendars were presented to the Dell Rapids Superintendent’s cabinet on Thursday, March 13th. Tom Wolff, representing the Superintendent’s cabinet, recommended to the school board during the special meeting to adopt the fourth week of August start date.
“When we were done discussing, what we came up with, is a recommendation from our board, was the fourth week draft. We felt that was a compromise. Many of the high school staff still feel that even that fourth week in August is not necessarily the best choice because of some academic repercussions,” said Wolff.
Wolff also said, “We did feel that the fourth week draft was a compromise that we could live with.”
Denae Klinkenborg, a parent in attendance at the meeting, asked,”How do we weight the needs of the high school kids versus the needs of others in the district versus the needs of the parents versus the needs of the teachers? There’s definitely an advantage in one way of doing things so the high school kids have an advantage, but then does that disadvantage everybody else?”
School Board President Tom Morris said, “I guess as a compromise, and maybe a happy medium, I think the fourth week draft was well thought out and reviewed by the staff and including, like I said earlier, endorsed by the Superintendent’s cabinet as a working possibility. Unfortunately it doesn’t give us as much time early with those high school students, and doesn’t necessarily gives us the late start that parents overwhelmingly support. It’s a nice compromise in the middle.”
Morris made the motion to approve the fourth week draft proposal. School board member Steve Stofferahn seconded the motion. The motion passed with a 4-1 vote, with school board member Matthew Weiland voting against.
The proposed school calendar for the start date in the fourth week of August can be found by clicking here.
The entire discussion can be seen in the archived video of the meeting by clicking here.
New Band Uniforms for Dell Rapids
The Dell Rapids School Board made the decision to purchase new uniforms for the Dell Rapids High School marching band at its regular meeting held on Monday, March 10th. Band Director Brian Smith requested the purchase of new band uniforms in November. The request was to purchase 80 uniforms for a total cost of just under $25,000, and the estimated time of order fulfillment is between 120 and 150 days. Edie Hinricher, Music Booster President, was on hand during the school board meeting and said that the Music Boosters would donate $5,000 towards the purchase of the new uniforms.
During the discussion, school board members Steve Stofferahn and Matt Weiland asked if the decision to purchase the new band uniforms should wait another month since the financial budget for FY2015 is still in the early stages of finalization. But Tom Morris, school board President, said, “I just think because of the time constraint, I would hate to wait another month, knowing that we need these uniforms, and then not have them available for next year.”
Morris then made the motion to approve the request of the purchase of new band uniforms for FY2015, with a $5,000 donation toward the purchase to come from the Music Boosters. The motion was seconded by Stofferahn. The motion passed with all member voting yes.
The full discussion can be seen on the archived video. The band uniform discussion starts at the 15:26 mark and ends at the 31:50 mark of the video “DRHS School Board 3-10-14” on the webcasts page.
Dell Rapids School Board Considering Start Date Change
During the regular school board meeting held on Monday, March 10th, Superintendent Summer Schultz presented the board with results of a parent, staff, and student survey on school start date. The survey was made available between February 27th and March 9th. 315 responses were received from survey takers logged in as Dell Rapids Public and 65 logged in as Dell Rapids St Mary. About 80% of total survey takers were parents.
The results of the survey that Schultz handed out showed parents were in favor of a later start date, and the high school students showed a preference for the first semester to end before Christmas break. However, ending the first semester before Christmas break would not be possible with the first day of school starting later in the fall. The entire discussion about the school calendar can be seen on the archived video located on the Webcasts page. The discussion starts at the 31:50 mark and ends at the 1:04:39 mark on the video titled DRHS School Board 3-10-14.
The survey results were were also presented to the Superintendent’s cabinet. Schultz has put together three draft versions of the FY2015 school calendar that will be considered by the school board during a special meeting that will be held on Monday, March 17th, at 7:00 p.m. in the HS/MS DDN Room. The three versions of the proposed calendar can be viewed by clicking the links.
Dell Rapids School Board: 3/10/14
The Dell Rapids School Board will meet in regular session on Monday, March 10th, at 7:00 p.m. in the HS/MS DDN Room. Some of the items on the agenda include approval of financial reports, consideration of purchasing band uniforms, school calendar discussion, and designation to list surplus building. The full agenda can be found by clicking here.
The meeting will be webcast on Big Sioux Media, and an archive of the meeting will also be available.
School Board Declares Old Elementary Building as Surplus
During their regular meeting held on Monday, February 24th, the Dell Rapids School Board declared the old elementary building as surplus. During the discussion, school board member Matthew Weiland said, “I think personally, one thing nice about declaring it surplus is just the fact that it gets the word out that we’re actually looking to surplus it. And then if we have anybody in the community that has really strong feelings one way or the other, we’re going to hear from them.”
After the discussion Weiland made the motion to declare the old elementary school as surplus, authorize continued use of the building for Haven, gym use, the MACH lease, and the City Library lease, and proceed with the appraisal of the building. School board member Steve Stofferahn seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
The next step for the school board is to now get the building appraised. Once they have the appraised value, they can determine how the building may be sold. The most common way for this type of situation is a sealed-bid process.
The minutes for this agenda topic can be found by clicking here.