Cadott School Board; Preparations in full force for school year

Cadott Elementary School principal Brad Rogers (left) gave the Cadott School Board an update, during their meeting Aug. 14, on what he and his team worked on over the summer, and what the next steps are. One such task, is updating the master schedule, to make sure intervention times don’t overlap. Photo by Julia Wolf

By Julia Wolf

The Cadott School Board heard an update on what was done over the summer, and what work needs to be done before the start of the school year, during a regular meeting Aug. 14.

In the business portion of the meeting, the school board approved the CESA 10 Project Development Contract and Referendum Planning Agreement, as talked about during the July Committee of the Whole meeting.

“This is all the planning to get a new referendum in play,” said board president Cory LaNou.

If a new referendum goes forward, it would supersede the referendum passed in April. The purpose of the new referendum, would be to give district voters and the district a clearer picture of what updates they will get for their money.

“If the referendum passes, then we are obligated to use CESA for the project management,” said LaNou.

District administrator Josh Spaeth says they are obligated to go with CESA, whether they go with a new referendum, or continue with the currently passed one, as part of that management agreement.

Board members also passed a facilities upgrades agreement with Wendel, who will do the architectural side of things for the referendum planning.

“That would be getting us our 3-D drawings,” said Spaeth, which he says will help voters get a strong idea of what they are voting on.

A donation for concrete around the baseball dugouts, by T& J Concrete, was also gratefully accepted by the board. The concrete pad will allow for additional seating with lawn chairs.

“We do own that portion of ground, so there should be no problems there,” said Spaeth, who checked into the property lines, after July’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

Spaeth says the work will likely take place in August or early September.

As part of the consent agenda, the employee handbook, elementary school handbook, and junior and senior high school handbook, were also approved.

Nathan Steinmetz, junior and senior high principal, reported that efforts to make sure the handbooks align with each other, are continuing. That work will continue over the course of the year.

He also says the school is preparing for the upcoming orientations, ahead of the start of the school year, as part of the high school principal report.

Steinmetz also says he worked with CVTC on the transcripted and AP courses the district offers. Board member Andrea Wahl asked what the plan is for transcripted credits, for the business classes. Steinmetz says the teacher is working on getting a business endorsement on her license and getting accredited by the college, which will allow the courses to be transcripted again.

“That’s not just a quick turnover,” said Steinmetz.

He says the hope is that they will have the transcripted credits for those courses again next year.

Elementary principal Brad Rogers reported they adapted their master schedule, to allow for additional intervention time.

“We knew that some students were being pulled from intervention, for other interventions, and that’s just a self-inflicted problem that we had to correct,” said Rogers. “So, we had that corrected to make sure there was no overlapping time.”

Rogers says that schedule was shared with the staff, so they can start building their classroom schedules.

The board also approved the hire of Tracy Beachem, custodian; Dave Olinger, custodian; Maija Hunt, elementary counselor; Lexie Rothbauer, head varsity softball coach; Greg Sonnentag, assistant wrestling coach; Zack Sirny, assistant wrestling coach; Shirley Froelich, long-term substitute special education; Jake Anderson, junior high boys basketball coach; and Evie Doncavage, second- grade teacher.

The resignation of Jon Erickson, assistant wrestling coach; Dani Winchell, paraprofessional; Chris Telisak, junior high boys basketball coach; Lane Kempf, junior high language arts; teacher Claire Koxlien, high school English teacher; and Josh Tumm, second-grade teacher, were also approved.

For years, I had hoped to become a member of this outstanding district, so the idea of that coming to reality was exciting, wrote Tumm, in his resignation letter. Unfortunately, and with great sadness, I am in a place where I need to resign from my current position that has not yet begun. This is for personal and family reasons.

I have loved my time teaching and working over the past six years, in all the capacities I was committed to and involved in within the district, wrote Koxlien.

I am thankful to have served in this role for the past 11 years, and appreciate the relationships built during this time, wrote Erickson. As I step aside from this position, I look forward to continuing to support Cadott wrestling in other roles, and as a youth and volunteer coach.

I am thankful for my almost 10 years, here at Cadott, wrote Winchell. One day, I hope to be back, but for now, I will be focusing on finishing my teaching degree and my family.

I loved the opportunity of it last season, and am very interested in doing it in the future, wrote Telisak. However, it is my last season to coach my son, and I do not want to miss out on any opportunities with him.

I have accepted a position closer to where I reside and that offers more flexibility, wrote Kempf. I have appreciated my time and the opportunities that the Cadott Community School District has provided me over these last five years.

The school board also voted to allow Spaeth to hire staff for open positions, at his discretion.

“Just to get the school year started,” said Spaeth.

That item comes to the board for action on a yearly basis.

Board members also approved an additional district office staff position, to help spread out the workload of current employees.