Lena School Board Revises Atheltic Code

At their Monday, May 7 meeting, the Lena School Board approved revisions to the school’s student athletic code that now make the code in force 24/7/365.

Athletic Director Jim Torzala led the board through the many changes and revisions of the code. According to Torzala, many of the changes were for the sake of consistency. He highlighted changes made to grievance, transportation, planned athletic absence, and the revised rules on serving a suspension from athletic competition.

A mandatory meeting is being called for Tuesday, May 22 for all parents of athletes to discuss the changes.

Also approved at the board meeting was a mandatory Concussion Management Plan. The district doesn’t have a choice on approving this plan since it comes out of legislation from the state and has been approved by both the WIAA and the state Department of Public Instruction.

The Concussion Plan dictates procedures to follow when an athlete is suspected of having suffered a concussion. Athletic trainers from Bellin Health will test every athlete prior to the beginning of a practice season in order to establish a base-line reading, which could then be used to compare with results should a student athlete suffer a potential concussion any time during the season.

In his explanation of the plan, Torzala said each individual sport will need to have the appropriate paperwork filled out for each athlete, and the appropriate forms and consents will apply even down to the youth sports levels. More information will be supplied in future sports mailings.

Another action item on the agenda approved was the school’s Tech Plan. Administrator David Honish highlighted the plan, which sets goals and skills for each grade level of the district. Much of the newer items in the plan bring technology use in line with the State’s new Common Core educational standards. Honish also noted that a little tweaking has also been done in the areas of future plans, licensing, and the acceptable use policy.

With little discussion, the board approved new contracts for Administration (Honish, Elementary Principal Carla Spice, and Joyce Swedal, who is contracted for about one day a week), for salaried Support Staff (maintenance, head cook, administrative secretary, administrative finance), and for the 10 hourly support staff people. All of the contracts were slightly higher than the present year contract, with most limited to the small Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase.

The May 21 meeting of the board was changed to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30th. It is the practice of the board to have a short meeting prior to the graduation ceremony. In an act of optimistic foreshadowing, the board signed enough diplomas for all of the seniors.

The only other action item was the approval of Patricia Belongia as delegate at the CESA 8 annual convention.

Spice reported on the number of activities taking place in the elementary school. The second annual Elementary School Career Day was a great success, she said and noted the 5th Grade camping trip, the 4th Grade Madison trip, upcoming 4K Play Day, and the many field trips planned before the end of the school year. The final round of academic progress testing will take place in the next week.

She also explained the plan to include next year’s class assignments and next year’s supply lists with the final report card mailing for the school year. She added the first kindergarten Einstein Quilt project makers are graduating this year from high school and she is looking for something neat to do to honor the class.

Honish reported questions have recently arisen on possible district ownership of about a half an acre of land that previously was behind an old school house that at one time existed on CTH A west of town. The parcel was brought up in a letter the district recently received. Work is underway to determine if it is true, what the physical description of the property, and above all, to figure out what to do with it. Some board members then raised the question of whether some of the other old school house lands of yesteryear have been properly indentified, deeded or their ownership transferred.

Honish noted with pride the very good results and the number of Lena students who qualified for the resent State Music Competition. He also reported the new Common Core Standards in Science are ready to be introduced across the state.

Placed on the agenda as a discussion item only was Insurance, namely, health/dental insurance for district employees. Prior to any investigation into the matter, the district’s current provider, WEA, announced there would be a 6% increase in premiums for the coming year, which begins on July 1. As such, the district would have been paying just over $25,000 a year on average per employee.

One of the residual effects of Act 10 in the State of Wisconsin was that WEAIC (Wisconsin Education Association Insurance Corporation) was required to release the health history of each covered school district. A review of the past 10 years showed that for the majority of those years, WEAIC often made a large amount of money compared to the claims of the district’s teachers. The past two years, however, the long term trend was reversed, thus WEAIC was asking for the increase.

In response, as many school districts and government entities are doing, the district has been requesting bids from major health insurance providers for health/dental/optical. Honish noted several companies are interested and have been supplying the district with rate and coverage information.

While the final numbers are not yet in hand, it looks like the district will be able to save substantial dollars by reviewing rates. The overarching concern is still the employees of the district, and that will play a huge role in the final decision, Honish added. He said there will probably be a more flexible deduction schedule, options in drug plans, possible Health Savings accounts, and maybe even options through a Wellness program.

Once the bids are all in hand, the board will schedule a special meeting to review and decide on insurance.

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