Board Members:

We come to the end of a very busy week! An event every night this week has kind of worn me out a bit, so I'm looking forward to the weekend! 

In my view, the most important task of the week has to be settling the contract with the teachers. It took quite a bit longer than was necessary, all because the slow roll out of the state legislature. Luckily we were able to get together on Wednesday afternoon and quickly get salaries determined. I appreciate the work of Mrs. Seekins and her team to help in this process. We settled on Wednesday, they ratified on Thursday, and I am in the process of verifying contracts today. Following board action at our meeting next week, those contracts will be issued that evening. 

Additionally, we have all of our primary positions filled at this time, thanks to the work of Mrs. Betts, Mr. Dieken and their team(s) of teachers involved in the hiring process. Right now our only outstanding vacancy is for a part time ELL position that I hope to share with the AEA. We'll leave the posting up until we are certain it'll be filled. Now the wait will begin to get all of our contracts returned and those positions locked in. 

The work in the legislature has slowed down quite a bit, with most of their work focused on the budget bills. There are a few outstanding education related bills that may move, but those bills do not appear to me that they will impact our district. We'll need to remain on guard for the remainder of the session because sometimes weird things get attached to a different bill as an amendment. The end of the session is scheduled for April 16 (Tuesday), and it doesn't appear they adjourn that day. We're hearing a couple more weeks before the end of the session, then we'll be able to get a better handle on everything that was passed and signed by the governor. 

That's it for now! Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday. Remember: we'll have a meal and a performance by some of our vocal music students. This meeting will be held in the high school commons and will begin promptly at 5:00. There is quite a bit on the agenda, and it is currently available in the Google Drive and will be in dropbox within the hour.

Enjoy the weather, it is going to be fantastic this weekend!

Dr. Tony Voss
Superintendent