Gilman board gearing up for start of school year

With the first day of school quickly approaching, the Gilman School District is getting prepared for students to be back in the building. What the district is doing to prepare, was a main topic at the school board meeting on Monday, August 21.

During the administrator report, district administrator Walter Leipart, said the district has been busy conducting interviews for positions that have not yet been filled. Liepart said, “It is helpful having another administrator in those interviews,” when discussing interviews and having new 4k-12th grade Principal Jerry Smith as part of the interview process.

During the administrators report, Leipart mentioned that the district will be holding a special education meeting on August 23, to set up their plans for the school year. Also, while discussing the special education department, Leipart told the board that the entire special education department went to CESA 10 in Chippewa Falls recently, to be trained on the software that the district uses for IEP’s (Individual Education Plans).

Teacher inservice will be August 28, 29 and 30, with an open house scheduled on Aug. 30 from 4-7 p.m.

Another topic of discussion during Leipart’s report was a discussion over volunteer hours for Gilman high school students and whether it should be mandatory or not. Leipart said that he, “doesn’t want to have a mandatory number of hours of volunteering for students.” Instead he wants, “to create a culture of volunteerism.” He wants to build culture within the students and school. Board member Jessica Wisocky asked Leipart, “How will you send that message?” Leipart responded, “ It will be part of our welcome back message to the students.”

Principal’s Report

Principal Jerry Smith, gave a report to the board as part of the meeting. He said there is, “80 percent registration as of today,” when discussing how many students are registered for the new school year. He is hoping by the end of the week that number will be closer to 90 percent.

Smith told the board that he would be bringing an agenda for approval from the board in the near future. He would like to see Agriculture classes count as science credit for students. He said that some students struggle in Science courses, but excel in Agriculture classes. Smith believes there are a lot of similarities between Agriculture courses and Science courses. He is excited to share more with the board when he brings the agenda in front of the board.

Smith would also like to bring a fun culture to the school, not only for students but also for staff. His plan is to create a committee that would be called the “Pirates Activity Comittee.” This committee would consist of four to six staff members and they would meet once a week.

In concluding his report, Smith mentioned that he, “is working extremely well with Dr. Leipart,” when discussing the two of them working together. He continued, “trust has been the biggest part.”

Resignations and New Hires

As part of the board meeting, the board accepted the resignations of the following: Tyler Pockat as Middle School Basketball Coach (he is now the varsity boy’s basketball coach), Dana Bradley as special education paraprofessional and Jeanie Drier as special education paraprofessional and junior high track coach.

The board approved the hire of Cory Halida as the JV boy’s basketball coach.

The board also approved the hiring of Amy Kroeplin, Jamie Lumley and Rebecca Rudnick as full time paraprofessionals.

Stephanie Goebel’s position as a part time paraprofessional was approved by the board as well.

Jonelle Trunkel, whose role was in house substitute teacher, was transferred to academic coach to fill the vacancy in the resource room. Leipart said that, “by doing this we will return to having substitute teachers being filled on an as needed basis.”

During this portion of the board meeting, Leipart also reiterated that the school is still looking for the following positions: assistant cook, substitutes for paraprofessionals, cooks, custodians and teachers, assistant baseball coach, JV Girls Basketball Coach, Middle School boy’s basketball coach and community education coordinator.

LP Bids

The Gilman school district will see some financial relief when heating the school this year compared to the 2022-23 school year. The School District asked for LP bids recently. The bid was for 60,000 gallons of LP. The district received three bids from River Country Co-op, Medford Co-op and Insight FS. River Country’s bid was $1.0827/gallon. Medford Co-op’s bid was $1.159/gallon. While Insight FS’s bid was $1.14/gallon. The board decided to purchase the LP from River Country Coop, who came in with the lowest bid. The board did approve the purchase of 60,000 gallons of LP from River Country

The Medford Class of 1955 met on Aug. 17 at Highview Inn for their annual reunion. More than twenty classmates and spouses arrived for this event. Those in attendance included: Wayne Zastrow, Carol (Wild) Pearson, Peggy (Paulson) Kyes, Paul Bach, Gweneth (Hoffmann) Lavin, Sam Way, Rita (Schupp) Way, Don Hoffman, Connie Schuepp, Jim Hessing, Mike Nolan, Dave Tice, Jeanette (Cypher) Adams, Lois (Berry) Neibacher, Jim Themar, Grace (Valenta) Grebe, Agnes Graff.Brian Wilson/The Star News