Friday Board Bulletin 8/26/2022

Posted Date: 08/26/2022

Board Members:

Tuesday marked the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year and it has been an amazing week! It is so great to have students back in our buildings. I have seen many new faces and the enrollment increases are evident when you walk our hallways and peak into classrooms. 

On Monday evening we held another community meeting on the upcoming referendum vote. The meetings have not been all that highly attended, but every opportunity to visit with voters should be seen as a positive, regardless of crowd size. The demographics have slanted heavily to retirees, and while difficult to gauge I have found there questions to be genuine and thoughtful. How this will ultimately land is truly dependent on getting voters to the polls. 

Yesterday we held a River Hills Consortium meeting where a proposal was presented to increase wages of para-professionals in that building from $14.50-$17.00 effective immediately. Included were bonus wages and increases for specific certifications. They are having a very difficult time hiring paras and are 'short' right now. I understand the concern and empathize, but argued an increase of this magnitude can't be matched at the contributing LEAs right now and that I was uncomfortable approving an increase at this school while not doing the same locally--that after we have already made substantial gains coming into this school year. I would have preferred a much more graduated strategy. In the end, I was the lone dissenting vote. Nevertheless, I hope this strategy is successful because we are looking for a student intake probably sometime this fall. 

That is all for now. Have a great weekend!

Dr. Tony Voss, Superintendent