WESTPHALIA — During last Wednesday’s meeting, the Fatima school board voted to add Monday, March 17, 2025, to next year’s school calendar.

This comes after Senate Bill 727 was signed by the governor. The bill offers additional funding, beginning in the 2025-26 school year, to schools with 179 school days or more. The district’s previously approved 2024-25 calendar was 178 days.

Superintendent Chuck Woody has said several times that the district can’t leave money on the table. Since Woody was told by the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that the additional funding for 2025-26 would be based on the school’s 2024-25 calendar, the board voted to add one additional day to next year’s calendar.

March 17 was selected in response to a poll sent out to teachers and staff, with four options for when to add the additional day — 56% voted to add March 17.

The board also voted to give the current bus company a 6% raise this year and a 4% raise next year, in lieu of the three-year contract originally requested by the bus company.

“Guys, I can’t sit here as the Chief Financial Officer for this district and in good conscience think that we can promise them three years out,” said Woody. “And that’s nothing against Joe or anyone. I think the world of those guys.”

“I kind of feel like it would be a slap in the face if we gave our teachers a raise, then turned around and told the bus man we don’t have the money,” said board member Joyce Weber.

“With the buses he runs, you can’t drive one year at a time,” said board member Wayne Baumhoer. “There’s no way.”

Although the increase was approved, board members also discussed doing some bus route research and ride-alongs, to do their due diligence.

The board very grudgingly voted to approve the cost of $13,220 for the new Ag doors for the high school addition. That was down from the original price of nearly $20,000, due to several months of negotiation between Woody and the contractor.

“I’ll make a motion to accept the stupid bid,” said board member Jeffrey Winkelman, who had earlier expressed frustration because he felt the cost was still unnecessarily high, but agreed that the doors were necessary for safety reasons.

Woody pointed out that the high school addition was approximately $16,000 below budget due to several previous changes, so the project remains under budget.

Woody does expect some additional expense because several of the concrete piers had to extend much deeper than anticipated, however he does not think that will cost more than the $100,000 contingency built in to the contract. He also expects a credit because the project did not require as much rock chipping as anticipated.

The following hires were approved: Patricia Boeckman for full time sub, Cooper Kleffner as an assistant basketball coach, and both Cody Strope and Skyla Schroeder as assistant wrestling coaches.

Resignations were accepted from Jordan Schaffer (SPED teacher, 15 years), Ethan Williams (PE and health teacher, 7 years, and JV and junior high basketball coach, 12 years), Amy Kemna (fifth-grade teacher, 11 years), and Dustin Cox (SPED aide, 2 years).

There was one retirement, Janice Huhn, a special education aide for 26 years.

The board voted to continue Career Ladder for next year.

Summer School bus routes, bus contracts, and teacher hires were approved. There will be five bus routes, which will run only on paved roads.

Bids for copy paper and high school propane were awarded to the lowest bidders. The low bidder for propane was Ferrellgas, at $1.06 per gallon. The other bidders were Lock’s Mill at $1.09 per gallon and MFA at $1.19 per gallon.

Copy paper was awarded to Contract Paper Group, who provided a bid of $34.67 per case, with an alternate of $32.67 per case for Natural Choice. The alternate was accepted. The other bidders were Office Essentials at $40 per case and Schriefers at $39.74 per case.

The surplus bids were opened. The highest bid for the MIG welder was $2,100, and there was a second bid of $2,000. The Traverse received one bid of $1,351.

The board voted to continue paying for the first year of retired staff membership for those who request it.

The stage curtains can not be cleaned due to age and deterioration, so Woody will be soliciting bids to replace those.

The high school elected not to do freshman orientation, as only 13 students expressed interest. Summer school will be for credit recovery and A+ only. The high school had 460 students prior to graduation, and has 356 students until the incoming freshman arrive. Their attendance rate was 95.41%.

The school received positive feedback on the 4 p.m. graduation time, although several people suggested they move it to 5 p.m. to allow more time for families to get there from earlier graduations the same day. The board will consider that for next year, but does intend to stay in that general timeframe.

Elementary attendance was 96.18% for their 247 students. The elementary school has 251 students signed up for summer school, which is, impressively, higher than their enrollment for the normal school year.

Special Education has 106 IEPs and 35 504s, with six IEPs pending and one re-eval. Staff is urging families to re-validate their Medicaid status if necessary.

Woody spoke again of his concerns regarding Senate Bill 727 and how that will affect the district’s funding, especially three years out, and especially if personal property taxes are lowered.

“If that goes in, and there’s another cut of money,” Woody said, “as a board, we’re gonna sit here in three or four years, (and) you know what we’re gonna have to do? Go to everybody and say ‘Hey, we gave you all these tax cuts through everything, but we’re gonna raise your taxes to get revenue back.’ And we’re all gonna look like devils. Guys, that’s my fear. Am I wrong? I hope and pray to God I am. But, guys, I’m worried.”