Welcome to our Board Meeting Bulletin series, where we highlight key takeaways from each board meeting to keep our community informed and engaged with the latest developments in our school district.

2025-26 Bond Fund Budget Amendment: Following a public hearing, the board approved an amendment to the 2025-26 Bond Fund budget, increasing it from $18.5 million to $20.9 million. Assistant Superintendent Brett Richards explained that this fund covers principal and interest payments on district bonds, and the original budget had not accounted for a large payment that came due in June. The amendment does not involve any additional property taxes, and the extra room simply reflects money the district already needed to spend.

Clerical Negotiated Agreement Approved: The board approved a new two-year agreement with the district's clerical staff, represented by Local 226, covering 2026-27 and 2027-28. The agreement reflects a 3.5 percent total compensation package increase for the coming year, along with updates to bereavement leave and other contract details.

Paraprofessional Negotiated Agreement Approved: The board also approved a two-year agreement with the district's paraprofessional staff, also represented by Local 226, for 2026-27 and 2027-28. Like the clerical agreement, it includes a 3.5 percent total compensation package increase for the first year. 

Policy 6000 Series Updates: The board approved several updates to its instructional policies. These include removing the district's Driver's Education policy since that program is now offered through ESU 3, cleaning up language in the extracurricular activities policy, adding new legally required language to the school libraries policy regarding parent notification for book checkouts, and renaming the policy on controversial issues to better reflect its scope in addressing curriculum reconsideration requests.

Enrollment and Staffing Update: As the district prepares to welcome students back this week, Dr. Rikli shared that projected enrollment is up by roughly 145 students compared to last year, with notable growth at both the elementary and high school levels. He also reported that the district is fully staffed heading into the school year, including in special education, which has historically been a challenging area to fill.

These are just a few of the topics discussed during our recent board meeting. For full access to agendas and minutes, please visit our website. Broadcast recordings of the meetings are also available on our YouTube channel.