Durand School Board meets at Dolan Campus

By Chris Johnson

Reporter

DURAND – The Durand School Board chose a change of venue for its Monday night regular meeting.

Generally held in the primary campus, the June 29 visit between Trustees and School Superintendent Kurt Alberstett was held at the Dolan Education Center.

Board members elected to facilitate proceedings elsewhere, as summer work continues at the District Campus.

Dolan Education Center Principal Mark Parent reported that the extended school year has been running smoothly and he had found time to accomplish other goals.

“We are continuing to develop a new crisis plan that will implement the ALICE training that I attended. Mr. Voigt and I are continuing to look towards next year with scheduling.”

Junior High and High School Principal Michael Leskowich reported to the Board that he and his staff also continue working on improving and strengthening safety and security at the school campus.

“I have been participating in the ALICE training discussions and completed all budget requests for the current fiscal year.”

Athletic and Transportation Director Pete Robertson gave a recap to Trustees on the status of the 2015 spring sports teams.

“We held the High School Softball and Bass Fishing Awards Assembly and completed numerous orders for the 2015-2016 school year for the Athletic and Transportation Departments; including the purchase of new sporting equipment.”

Robertson said he oversaw the addition of new footballs, volleyballs, basketballs and other athletic equipment. He also had to add additional documents for sports operations.

“I also purchased three bus inspection sheets, volleyball practice nets and scorebooks for all programs and medical supplies.”

The new buses were scheduled for arrival last Monday, June 29.

The Durand School Board was informed that the education transmission systems, the new technological upgrades were installed, according to Technology Director Angie Winchel.

“We were to purchase two new Chromebook Labs for piloting and we continued to update our website and Facebook pages. During the summer we have a tentative list of projects we would like to finish including rolling over student software to 2015-2016, complete the State reporting as well as configure the Chromebook Labs and Science laptops.”

Winchel reported that new software is to be installed with the expectations to schedule clean up and testing also being made.

Improvement to the landscape and physical structure of the education campuses has been continuing and plans have been made for even more work.

Many of the projects, scheduled for the season will be indoors, including the stripping and waxing of all the Elementary School Floors as well as the other school floors.

Workers have been coordinating with contractors regarding the installation of new Elementary School Doors.

It was further reported that all lockers will have to be cleaned and the locker combos at the Junior High and High School campuses would have to be adjusted and documented.

Blacktop cracks are to be sealed and work is expected to be done in the ladies shower room with the replacement of toilet stall doors.

The Durand School Board exited regular session and approved the hiring of Eddie Johnston as the Eighth Grade Boys’ Basketball Coach during Executive Session.

Further appointments included issuing a salary of just over $32,000 for Molly Kinney for the position of Elementary Teacher and Emily Laube was hired as Eighth Grade Volleyball Coach.

Barry Robins was hired as Boys’ Assistant Coach and Jeff Smith will be paid just under $3,000 for his role as high School Head Softball Coach.