Tea Area School Board recognizes Daggett for her service to the board

The Tea Area School Board met July 13 and recognized Kristen Daggett for her 12 years of service to the board.

Superintendent Tonia Warzecka noted that serving on a school board is an act of love and service. She thanked Daggett for her service to the district.

Daggett reflected on her time on the board and thanked the community for helping be the village to help her raise her children. She thinks about how the district has expanded and built new buildings and put on additions, how the pandemic affected everyone in the district and thanked everyone for her time on the board.

Andrea Kuipers was sworn in as the new school board member.

The board elected Jason Bennett as president of the board and Jay Ryan as vice president.

The board approved the following designations: Robert’s Rules of Order as parliamentary guidelines; Reliabank of Tea, SD FIT and US Bank as official depositories of district funds; the board president, vice president and business manager as authorized signatures for the district checking and savings accounts excluding the imprest and trust checking account; and designate the business manager and human resources director as authorized signatures for the imprest and trust account; the superintendent and business manager as authorized signatures for the district; authorize the business manager to invest and borrow money; the business manager as the individual responsible for compliance with SEC policy and procedures, continuing disclosure requirements, and implementation and maintenance of training and records; authorize the business manager to pay the utilities and benefit premiums as needed; the business manager and superintendent as official purchasing agents for the district; Tea Weekly as the official newspaper; Woods, Fuller, Shultz & Smith, P.C. and KSB

School Law as dual legal counsel for the district; authorize the business manager to institute the school lunch program; appoint the curriculum director as federal programs director and Title I, II, III, IV and IX; appoint the superintendent as administrator in charge in emergency situations and to set a chain of command in the superintendent’s absence identified by the organizational chart per building; appoint the superintendent and school resource officer as the truancy officers for the district; approve membership in the Associated School Boards of South Dakota (ASBSD) for the 2026-2027 school year; approve membership in the Large School Organization for the 2026-2027 school year; adopt state rates for mileage and per diem as outlined by state law; approve the business manager bond at $400,000; approve the adoption of the current school policy manual; approve the superintendent as Foster Care Point of Contact; and the borrowing resolution – “Whereas, there is occasionally insufficient money in any school district fund to meet current obligations, and adequate money in another fund to meet those obligations, the business manager shall be authorized to borrow from such fund without interest charged to the borrowing fund and no loan shall exceed two years in length.”

The board approved raising lunch rates by 10 cents and an additional milk increased 10 cents. The district had $40,000 in unpaid lunch accounts that have continued to roll over the last five years. In the district, if a student has a negative balance, they do not restrict them from eating lunch. Some schools have a school lunch funds matching program through an application to help families pay for lunch. The board might revisit the topic of unpaid lunch account balances at a future meeting.

They approved keeping the activity passes and gate admission to remain the same with musical admission at $10 for adults and $6 for students.

Board members receive $60 per meeting and they voted to keep it the same rate for this year.

In order to stay competitive, the board approved increasing substitute pay by $5 per day for daily substitutes and long-term substitutes. The new compensation is $170 for daily and $190 for long-term.

Board members volunteered to serve on the various board committees.

The board approved the conflict disclosure waivers from Warzecka (husband works for Hy-Vee), Jason Bennett (daughter works for TASK), Andrea Kuipers (works for Squealer’s) and Chad Meyer (works for Pride Neon Signs).

Warzecka reviewed the public meetings law document with the board. This is done annually.

The board surplused two 2012 Blue Bird 77-passenger buses. Harlow’s Bus Sales will purchase them for $2,500 each. These buses are being replaced with two new buses.

The board held a budget hearing. Business manager Chris Esping said she has not made any changes since what she presented in May, except that any deficit spending is reflected under Revenue-Surplus Use/Cash Applied. She will present the budget for approval in September.

The board approved resignations for Pam Twedt and Suzanne Pedersen for foodservice at Frontier Elementary.

They approved the new hires of Andrew Jensen for high school business education, FBLA and DECA, Sam Sittig as assistant middle school boys basketball, Courtney Barrack as student support specialist/registrar, Jennifer Eimers  as nurse at Frontier Elementary, Morgan Barnes as nurse at the high school, Brianna Staton for high school library, Lindsey Larson as paraprofessional and Justina Koob as paraprofessional.

The board left their meeting time at 5:30 p.m. with the majority of meetings planned for the second Monday of the month with the exception of May when it will be the third Monday.

They approved the consolidated application that included decreases for the different programs involved in the consolidated application. They also approved the special education comprehensive plan, emergency plan and a 1.4 percent increase to the Head Start lease.

Student fees were set at $5 for headphones for elementary students, $5 for student agendas and $3.50 for recorders.

In her report, Warzecha noted that new curriculum has been arriving to the district. They have launched a new website.