Enrollment at 140; Perpetua Grant Received for CTE, AG

The Meadows Valley School District Board of Trustees held their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 13. The meeting included swearing in of new Trustee Teresa Roberts and a re-swearing in of Trustee Chris Peterson.

The board reappointed Barbara Dixon as Board Chairman, Jeff Luff as Vice Chairman, and added new Board Clerk Megan Murdock. Longtime Board Clerk and School Business Manager Carol Whitney has now retired. She was in attendance for this meeting and the Board and those attending expressed thanks for Whitney’s many years of service and positive influence. She will be greatly missed at the school.

Board meeting details and authorized signatures for District Funds and Associated Student Body Funds were approved along with designated public places for posting notices.

Superintendent and Principal Dee Fredrickson gave her report beginning with an update that school attendance for Preschool through 12th grade is 140 students. With the current numbers the school gained back a support staff unit.

Fredrickson reported that with the return to school in January the teachers and staff have instituted a zero tolerance policy for disruptive behavior.

Students in grades K through 11 completed MAP testing for math, reading, and language arts last week. Students in grades K-3 are testing monthly with the Idaho Reading Indicator test. This test is now completed using Amira Learning, an AI-powered platform required by the state of Idaho, to assess early literacy.

Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Jared McIlvain updated the board on sports saying middle school basketball is moving forward. The girls team unfortunately does not have enough participation to continue as a full team. The two continuing female players have been approved to play on the boys team which has about 8 players. Regarding wrestling, McIlvain celebrated a division win for Gracie Howard at their last tournament saying this is remarkable for her first year.

McIlvain also said he had just returned from picking up new donated mats which will be a great addition for the team. Regarding donations and fundraising for wrestling he said the team would be holding a raffle and selling tickets at the school’s Celebration of Learning event on January 22. Your Mountaineers will need support in these fundraising efforts.

Fredrickson continued with updates noting the school’s FFA Chapter is preparing for a trip to the Gem State Leadership Conference at the end of January.

She also noted progress on HVAC fixes is moving along well overall. She said the fire system has a new leak which was causing the compressor to run almost non stop. School staff also noticed a roof leak. Custodian Tamara Brusso was able to pinpoint an area where roof coating had separated and was able to put new material on to fix the problem for now. Fredrickson said additional similar spots were noted on the roof that will also need fixing.

Fredrickson reported that on the last day of school before Christmas break, the school received a $20,000 grant from Perpetua for Career Technical Education (CTE) programming. Perpetua Community Relations Manager Belinda Provancher dropped by the school with the check and a giant replica. Ag and CTE teacher Rachael Melad stated her plans for the money are to “utilize it in areas that will develop skills for students looking to go into Environment and Natural Resources or Mechanical type jobs and post secondary education”. She explained the acronym used to “define an agricultural program in CTE is AFNR, Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources”. This terminology will be more common as Meadows Valley, and many other schools in Idaho, work to promote these types of careers and education. Currently the MV program incorporates welding, greenhouse education, and skills based learning as well as ENR (Environmental and Natural Resources).

The school has submitted a press release related to the donation. Fredrickson also celebrated a donation from Frank Cahouet and noted they have contributed about $60,000 to the school in recent years.

Fredrickson concluded her report with an official introduction of new Board Clerk Megan Murdock noting she will be handling some internal accounting systems and onsite needs as the school transitions to their contract with Charter Impact for business management.

The Board held a first reading of new Board Policy #1300 related to reviewing policies. They chose to include reviewing policies periodically rather than once per year, but did not fully approve yet. The policy will be reworded for the next reading and possible approval at a future meeting.

The Board unanimously approved a graduation variance for two students.

Peterson asked about Senior Project Presentations and McIlvain affirmed they will take place this Thursday, January 22 during the school’s Celebration of Learning event. Senior presentations will take place from 5-7:00 p.m. in the science room.

The meeting closed with an executive session that did not end in a vote or public discussion.

The next School Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. in the school library.