School board approves policy amendments

The Tea Area School Board met Aug. 10 and approved policy amendments.

Superintendent Tonia Warzecha said that with new legislation they needed to update some of their policies. As a result, they approved the new policy for Assignment to Alternative Setting and designated the superintendent to have authority to assign students to alternative settings through SDCL 13-28-19.3.

The board approved amendments to the Tea Area Policy Manual for the following policy areas: Wellness, Executive Sessions, Agenda Preparation & Dissemination, Types of Funds, Freed & Reduced Price Food Services, Facilities Capitalization Program, Basic Instructional Program, Student Self-Administration of Asthma, Anaphylaxis or Diabetes Medication, Authorization Form, Epinephrine Auto-Injectors & Nasal Spray, Diabetes Health Care & Insulin Administration and Reporting Child Abuse.

The board approved the resignations of Taylor Sickler as special education paraprofessional, Kjerstin Hansen for TASK, Mary Copple for transportation, Madison Morris as special education professional and Joanna Cahuec as Frontier Elementary administrative assistant.

They approved the new hires of Morgan Ackerson as Frontier Elementary second grade teacher, Rebecca Hyronimus for assistant one-act play, Jared Pigott for seventh-grade assistant football, Teresa Davies for foodservice at Frontier, Jane Hansen for foodservice at Frontier, Katelyn Spracklin as special education paraprofessional, Kelly Shiell as special education paraprofessional, Melissa Rickett as Frontier administrative assistant, Casie Hunter as high school part-time nurse and Morgan Johnson as middle school counselor.

They approved the adult breakfast rate at $2.55 and $5.35 for lunch.

Warzecha updated the board on the storm recovery efforts on district facilities. She said the water-damaged classrooms at the middle school have undergone professional drying and restoration. She expected the classrooms to be ready for occupancy by the end of day Aug. 12. They are awaiting final scheduling for permanent roof repairs. They do not anticipate the damage to reach the $230,000 deductible on the middle school so they will not file a claim.

At Legacy, the air handler has been returned to the roof. The playground fence will be replaced. The fence at the stadium will be replaced by Aug. 20. 

Temporary repairs have been done to the bus barn south of the high school. They continue to evaluate tree damage.

Warzecha noted that enrollment as of Aug. 9 was 2,597, which is about 61 more students than last year. The official student count will be the number of students enrolled on the last Friday in September. They currently have 22 additional students that have not completed enrollment due to needing some documents to finish their registration.

The Legacy gym renovation is expected to be completed soon.