Lamar RE-2 School Board meeting September 9, 2024

All Board members were present for the regular meeting of September 9.  The three new student Board members were present for their first meeting.  They are:  Maverick Medina (Junior), Giada Nieschburg (Junior), and Armaan Gill (Senior).  They introduced themselves and in turn, the adult board members introduced themselves as well, telling the students how long they’d been on the board and what their professional careers were, and all expressed thanks to the students for their interest in serving on the board in this capacity.   Superintendent Dr. Chad Krug also welcomed the students and shared with them some general information about what the school board is, how it works and what roles the members play.  He showed a copy of the “New School Board Member Handbook” and focused on several key paragraphs so that they could get a grasp of what goes on in meetings.

Dr. Krug then gave an update on the stadium project.  He said that this is a “big week”, as Lamar will be hosting its first game in the new stadium on Friday, September 13.  The project is near completion, with only the locker rooms remaining unfinished.  He spoke about the state-of-the-art Daktronics scoreboard and all that it is capable of doing.  It uses the same interface as scoreboards for the Denver Broncos and Nuggets.  He said it will involve a learning curve to understand all the features but that he was excited for operators to begin training on it.   Board President Lanie Meyers-Mireles asked Krug if the school board members could have a walkthrough of the project soon.  The track is scheduled to be painted this Wednesday.

Kenny Davis, Principal of Washington Elementary, gave the board an update of what is going on at the school.  He was particularly excited about and thankful for the new arts program. Present at the meeting was the art teacher, Ms. Chavez, and 4 of her students who showed the board samples of  their artwork and spoke a bit about what they’ve been learning.  They are learning about the color wheel, primary and secondary colors and have been working in different mediums.  Davis thanked the board for approving the program, saying how its addition also enables the master schedule to be more balanced, as it allows teachers to have more lesson planning time as well as the ability to have team meetings during the school day.  Students now are able to have 4 special rotations, meeting every other day for 60 minutes each.  He also feels that the art program has helped with student motivation and attendance.  Enrollment at Washington is down a bit this year, by 35-40 students.  He explained that last year’s second grade class was very large and moved on to Parkview, which increased its enrollment in turn.  There are currently 220 students enrolled at Washington.  He reported that the poverty level has increased to nearly 90% at the school and mentioned that programs such as the upcoming Share the Spirit event will benefit 30 children who will receive brand new shoes and stressed the need for programs such as this for these students.

Mat Biszak, Principal at Parkview Elementary, also addressed the board.  He thanked the board for the updated cellphone and dress code policies, saying that so far there has been one issue regarding a cell phone and two dress code issues.  In both cases, the parents were upset with their student, rather than at the school or school board. He said having a clear-cut policy that everyone has been informed about contributed to this.  Enrollment at Parkview is up 22 students, mostly third graders who moved from Washington.  There are currently 254 students at Parkview.  Math and science teachers at the school are working together to help students grasp harder concepts as they overlap between the subjects.  He also mentioned the good job the music program is doing, and that they are adding new instruments.  A nice change this year, per Biszak, is that breakfast at the school now starts at 7:30 a.m., before the bell, so that students and teachers can have more time before the school day starts to settle in and have more interaction.  He mentioned that the school’s spring fundraiser was a huge success, and allowed the purchase of a large number of school supplies.

The board approved 2 staff resignations, one retirement, one transfer and 6 new hires.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 14 at 5:30 p.m..

By Barbara Crimond