Cadott School Board; Bid work given go-ahead for remodeling projects

By Julia Wolf

Facility improvements are moving forward, after Cadott School Board members gave permission to get official bids for the projects, during a Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 25. The proposed updates include changes to the high school gym and remodeling the commons area bathrooms.

Ryan Beachem, director of buildings and grounds, said at previous meetings, that he would not be able to gets bids for the projects until an engineer draws up plans.

“Ryan had just done some ballpark estimates,” said Jenny Starck, superintendent.

She said Beachem estimates the commons bathroom will be around $150,000-$180,000, while the gym updates are estimated to come to around $500,000, which includes some of the HVAC system costs. Starck says they received a quote for an architect, with an estimated cost for the services about $20,000.

Beachem says he does have actual numbers for the gym bleachers and floors. Starck said the part up for action, was the ability to get more actual bids.

Mark Schley, board member, asked if the issue of remodeling would be taken to the public for feedback.

“That’s a lot of money,” said Schley.

Ced Boettcher, board member, said his thought process is the funds to do the projects are already in Fund 46, which is designated for capital improvements.

“This is what that money is for,” said Boettcher.

Schley says he would totally agree if the project costs were lower. He said he would rather bring the topic to the community, than have community members question why it wasn’t brought to the public later on.

“I know you’re not going to make everybody happy,” said Schley.

Al Sonnentag, board member, said they discussed at a previous meeting, that they are considering giving permission to Beachem to get bids, in order to prevent the project from getting pushed back another summer. Schley says he doesn’t want to slow the project down and doesn’t think the community will be against the updates, but said he would rather over-communicate, than under-communiticate.

Board member Donna Albarado, says she would like it if Beachem could get an engineer and bids, so people can see what the proposed remodels look like.

Starck said they could hold a special information session, to allow time to answer questions and hear comments from the public.

“I did include information on the athletic building, just because we have talked about that before,” said Starck.

She said the building would be a bigger project, so they will probably want to take that to strategic planning. Rod Tegels, board president, said discussion of how to replenish Fund 46 should also be brought up for discussion, during the planning sessions.

Members voted to give permission to move forward with planning and bid work for the remodeling projects.

The board also heard an update on student success goal monitoring, as related to the annual scorecard goals. Starck says additional progress monitoring will take place, especially for students who are behind, because of either missing work or struggling with the content.

Starck says plans to send a demonstration to parents on how to check Skyward has hit a snag, as the district needs special permission from the DPI to make a dummy account to use in the demonstration video.

“We’re in the process of getting that,” said Starck, adding that it will take a bit more time than originally planned to get the video to parents.

Starck also says junior and senior high school principal Caleb Hundt updated his spreadsheet, to make it easier for staff to report how they reached out to parents of students with lower grades and if they got a response from the family. She says the administrative group also reviews the commu- nication patterns every two weeks, as well as which students have been on the list for multiple weeks, so additional actions can be taken to help them.

Board members also took a closer look at the grade trends among special education students.

Tegels says he has heard from some parents and staff members that IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) are not always followed by teachers. Starck said parents who have concerns about their child’s learning are welcome to talk to the principals or the director of special education. Starck says there is also a due process claim parents can file, if they have concerns about how the IEP is being followed.

Sonnentag asked if additional staff would help.

“I would say that would be a way to look at this,” said Starck.

Starck said she could also take a closer look at the data completion on the IEP goals, to see if they are missing some of those.

The board also had the chance to give some input on the 2021-22 school calendar draft options. After Starck makes a few calendar options, she says she typically sends them for parent and staff feedback, which often leads to close results.

Starck says she has gotten some feedback already on making the spring break earlier, before spring sports begin. Board members also questioned whether they should consider an option without a spring break, and Starck says some longer weekends, instead of a spring break, could be considered.

“I will say that something that consistently has been the feedback, is people want to be done by Memorial Day, so we try to work to make that happen,” said Starck.

Boettcher also asked if they could eliminate snow days with online learning, but Starck says broadband access is not accessible enough yet. She says all the options right now, have three built-in snow days.