Maintenance and OST staff hired for the upcoming summer were approved during the regular meeting of the Milbank School District Board of Education Monday,... Summer Staff Approved By Milbank Board Of Education

MilbankHighSchoolMaintenance and OST staff hired for the upcoming summer were approved during the regular meeting of the Milbank School District Board of Education Monday, April 11. OST program employees will be: Cori Redmond, Lexy Pillatzki, Ashley McCulloch, Lorrie Hardy, Karen Vaudrey, Jayne Paysen, Abby Wollschlager, JP Lindquist, Kaylee Pinkert, Tatiana Stemsrud, Alec Bien, and Taylar Bock. Jacob Ebsen was hired as a substitute. “All staff for the summer OST program are returning employees with the exception of Alec Bien,” said Superintendent Tim Graf. Mary Kinder is the director of OST.

Hired as summer maintenance staff, on the recommendations of Mr. Jerry Kathman, were Julie Dwyer, Becky Johannsen, and Ethan Bohn. “With a lot less maintenance than in past years, the number of staff needed has been reduced,” noted Graf.

Superintendent Graf reviewed the status of the general fund with the board members. “We continue to spend at a slightly higher rate, as a percentage of the budget, compared to last year. We have spent 64.48% of the budget up to this point as compared to 63.65% a year ago.” Little change occurred in the past few months, but Graf noted the gap is closing and the district is on target for spending 98% of its budget.

A preliminary look at the district’s five-year capital outlay plan was presented and briefly discussed. “I feel we are in good shape as a district overall,” said Graf. Fixed costs to the district for 2016-2017 total $962,014 and total expenses are projected to be $1,655,514. The expected revenue is $1,675,000, which includes a $100,000 contingency fund.

The final nine sections of the major roofing replacement project on the high school/middle school building will be completed with a budget of $120,000. “This will take care of the entire building from the armory all the way down through the middle school and high school. It is a little more than initially budgeted for 2016-2017, but this will get it completely finished,” said Graf.

Other big items for the next school year include replacing the kitchen stove at Koch School and installing fire-proof cabinets, as recommended to the district during its fire inspections. The floor tiling project will be completed throughout all the high school rooms at a cost of $25,000. The tiles are already purchased, so this cost is labor to complete the project. The district will also look into repairing the water tower parking lot on the west side of the school. Approximately $25,000 has been allocated for that project.

The LED lighting project is currently open for bids. The board will open all bids received by Friday, April 15, at 3 p.m. “We expect several bids again this round,” stated Graf. “We made revisions to the specs and have definitely learned a lot through this process.”

The board also approved to let bids for the roofing replacement project. Sealed bids must be submitted to the district’s business office by Wednesday, May 4, at 2 p.m. Each bid must be in an envelope plainly marked “Roof Replacement Bid.” The Board of Education will consider all bids at its regular meeting in May.

Reports were given by Tim Lease, Koch Elementary Principal; Dan Snaza, MHS Principal; Keri Schliesman, Koch School Special Education Director; and Kris Evje, Middle School Principal and Special Education Services Director.

The next regular meeting of the Milbank School District Board of Education is set for Monday, May 9, at 7 p.m. in the central office board room.

Staff Writer

No comments so far.

Be first to leave comment below.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *