December 10, 2024 School Board Meeting - Supt. Summary
Greetings Cougar Families and Columbus Community,
I hope this finds you all well. In an effort to improve communication and transparency of the operations of the Columbus School District, I will be sending a school board meeting summary after the regular meeting. Please know that this is only a summary and not official minutes. If you are ever interested in viewing previous agendas and meeting minutes, you can find all of that on the school website https://www.columbuscougars.com
Please contact me with questions, comments, or concerns.
Sincerely,
Casey Klasna - Superintendent
The regular school board meeting was held on Tuesday, December 10th at 7pm. The following is a summary of the school board meeting.
House Electric presented a gym lighting project for the HS gym. It was proposed to replace all the lights in the gym with high efficiency LED lights that would save around $300/month in lighting costs. This was only information.
The weight room policy 4330 was approved by the board. There are some edits that the board made, which those edits will be made and will be added to the school district policy manual.
The board formed a committee to develop criteria and a process in naming parts of the school. The naming of the gymnasium was tabled.
Trixie Lynn Anderson and Jalen Hodges were approved to be added to the sub list.
Matt Greishop and Katherine Browning were approved as assistant track coaches.
The board approved a Columbus Cougars Clay Target League for students 6-12. Dustin Douglas (parent) presented to the board the details of the entire program.
A new elementary boiler was approved by the board. STAR will install as soon as possible. Will use elementary bond proceeds to pay the $46,900.
The new flooring in the elementary cafeteria was tabled for the time being. Additional bids will be pursued and brought to the school board.
The excavation project at the 30 acres was tabled. With the wide range of bids, it was decided to potentially survey the property to get detailed plans so the project was more clear to the bidders.
The board approved donating $250 to the Senior Graduation Bash.
School board policy review with MTSBA was determined and will be held at 5pm on January 14th before the regular school board meeting.
Supt. Klasna gave a general fund budget overview to the school board and it was explained that to get at the maximum budget, the board would need to approve running a levy. Between the two districts, we are approximately $400,000 under the max budget. Getting closer to the max or being at the max would allow more money into the school and in turn could be used for additional staffing, curriculum, and much more.
The comprehensive needs assessment survey (school climate) was explained by Supt. Klasna. With the new accreditation laws, districts are required to conduct the surveys. Surveys were sent to the staff as well as to the families. A student survey will be sent in the next few weeks.
Next board meeting is Tuesday, January 14th at 7pm.
