Tea Area School board elects officers

The Tea Area School District met July 15 and elected officers. Jason Bennett was elected president and Jay Ryan was elected vice president.

Chad Meyer was sworn in for another term on the board.

Superintendent Tonia Warzecha presented the conflict disclosures of Jason Bennett and Kristen Daggett who have family members working in the district and Chad Meyer who works for Neon Signs. The board approved the disclosures.

Warzecha reviewed open meeting laws with the board. She noted anytime a quorum is present they need to post an agenda. 

The board surplussed a plasma table that is not working and a 2012 bus.

They approved the roof bids for the Legacy Elementary and the DEC for just over $229,000. They also approved the bid for a bus loop at Frontier Elementary for $125,000.

Business manager Chris Esping presented the budget hearing, noting that the budget has not changed much since her presentation in May. She will present the final budget in September when it will be adopted. By then, she will have all of the insurance information needed to complete the budget. They are budgeting conservatively for 2,562 students.

Operations manager Wayne Larsen updated the board on the high school addition project. The seats have been assembled in the PAC. The stage flooring got laid down this week. The transition areas between the old part and new part are going on now. The north end mechanical system is working but one chiller is waiting for a part. Street lights are going in. Painting crews are working all over. Larsen is planning for occupancy by Aug. 1 for everywhere but the PAC which he is hoping for occupancy by Aug. 11.

Larsen also said they received two new propane buses the day of the meeting. Concrete work at Venture and Frontier will be completed this week. Fencing at Legacy and Frontier has been completed.

They held the second readings for Policy KJ - Community Use of School Facilities and Policy AE Wellness Policy. 

Both were approved.

The board did their annual approval of designations for various items like official newspaper, truancy officer and purchasing agents, among others.

They approved the school meal rates after reviewing area school lunch rates. The last time they increased lunch rates was 2019-2020. The new prices will be a 50-cent increase to breakfast, a 15-cent increase to middle school and younger lunch, a 20-cent increase to high school lunch and an extra lunch entree increasing by 25 cents. Extra milk price would be the same. Esping noted that the cost of food has increased so the meal price needs to go up some, but noted that the district is on the low end of prices compared to schools in the area.

The board approved the admission rates for activities which were not increased. Senior citizens and veterans can get into events at no cost.

They set the board salary at $60 per meeting. 

They set substitute pay at $165 per day for all substitutes and $185 per day in a long-term assignment. This allows us to recruit substitutes, Warzecha said. It also provides consistency in case they need to shift substitutes around the district if needed. She said they are getting closer to what Sioux Falls pays for substitutes but are still about $20 behind where they are.

Board members were appointed to various committees.

They set the board meetings to be the second Monday of the month with the exception of September and May moving to the third Monday for those months.

The board approved the consolidated application without Title II funds. They also approved the special education comprehensive plan that is required annually to make sure everything is in compliance with state and federal law. They approved the emergency plan for the district.

They approved the annual renewal for the head start lease with the University of South Dakota at the same rate of $9,010.

The board approved student fees at $5 per student for students junior kindergarten through fifth grade to buy headphones that include a microphone. The headphones help with NWEA testing. The fee helps reduce the total cost of the headphones to the district.

There was a tie for the SDHSAA East River at-large representative so the board recommended voting for Ryan Rollinger in the runoff election.

The board held their first readings for Policy GCDB - Criminal Background Checks, Policy GCDBC - Criminal Background Checks, Volunteers and Employees of Contractors, Policy BBB - School Board Elections, Policy IGBA - Special Education and Related Services, Policy JEA - Compulsory Attendance Ages and Policy JECE - Student Withdrawal from School. They had discussion on the background check policies.