In his superintendent’s report at the Monday meeting of the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Board of Education, Joe Nelson reported that the district is up 29 in their enrollment from last year. He noted that most of those students are from Central America which presents unique challenges, but he added that he is pleased with the way district staff is supporting those students.
Nelson noted that as of Monday afternoon, the absentee rate in the district was at 1.5% in K-8 and 3.5% in the high school. Nelson added that this is not out of the ordinary and that COVID doesn’t seem to be having a big impact on the schools.
The district has started a discussion about adding soccer as a spring sport. Nelson said they would be looking at 2023 for this to begin. He added that they are also looking at the possibility of adding e-sports, something he says students have shown a great deal of interest in.
In a construction update, Nelson explained the baseball/softball complex project is on schedule to be used next season. The middle school gym project is undergoing some preliminary work and won’t really get going until March when the steel arrives. It is planned to be usable by November of next year.
In other board business, the group approved a contract with First On-Site Disaster Response. The company deals with emergency response planning and restoration. There is no cost to retain their services until they are needed to respond to a disaster.
The board discussed the district request for over $460,000 for their supplemental amount for special education, which are funds just for one year based on a formula. Nelson added that between small class sizes and the associates that the district provides to students with special needs and IEPs, it gets to be expensive. The board talked about future strategies to bring this amount down.
Board President Beth Severson gave a brief update on the early learning center. She noted that the Kids Korner board is planning to implement major changes come January 1. She said that there will be a presentation in the near future presenting a business plan and more specifics.
In work agreements, the following were approved: Yanileth Guzman- middle school part-time ESL para, Karen Staples – 7th Grade Girls Basketball, Dillion Anderson and Taylor Lehman – assistant wrestling coaching positions. The board also accepted resignations from Linda Yanez, MS para and Monty Harker as middle school football coach.
