School board met Oct. 16

The Tea Area School Board met Oct. 16.

Superintendent Jennifer Lowery recognized that the school board won a bronze award for their active engagement from the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.

Business manager Chris Esping gave a report on the levy trend. The board’s goals has been to keep the levy below $4. Right now they are almost back to $2.65. As they continue planning for growth, they expect a new elementary will be needed by fall 2027. They will likely start talking about a bond issue later in 2024.

The high school lead custodian currently supervises more staff than other buildings. It is also the largest building and will likely add three more staff to accommodate for the expansion. The board approved the pay range of $26 to $28.50 based on experience.

Operations manager Wayne Larsen said most of the underground items on the expansion are completed. The concrete is following along the dirt work to get their work done. They are struggling to get concrete at times. Utility lines have been moved except for some electrical. Steel should be delivered by the first week of November. All the precast walls should be up by then. They are trying to get the precast walls put in by December rather than January since the footings will be ready.

All five of the elementary playgrounds have been updated.

Larsen noted he has only been able to get interest out of the contractor from last year for snow removal.

Larsen also reported on the district’s vehicle inventory. They currently have eight diesel buses, 10 propane buses, 16 vehicles and seven custodial vehicles. He expects delivery by the end of November for the two activity buses they ordered 18 months ago.

The board approved the resignation of Melissa Kaukovic for custodial.

Lowery reported they have 10 students who will graduate at semester time.

She also reported on the number of public exemption numbers. They had 53 students that had sent in their notice of exemption last year that did not send in a new notification.

According to the official count number from the last Friday in September, the district has 2,431 students.

TASK enrollment is capped with more than 500 students. There is a waiting list of 150 because they are at the limit for the number of staff they have