NEWELL—The Newell School Board held a meeting on Monday evening, January 12 at 6 p.m. After the consent agenda was approved, administrators provided reports. Activities Director Dominic Santiago said that the boys basketball team has been kicked out of the LMC; they were removed from their conference because they are a JV team. He recommended that next year, we need a varsity team so that we can compete in conference tournaments. Santiago also mentioned concerns with scheduling football games for next season due to most other schools not wanting to play 6-man football. He raised the option of reaching out to schools in Nebraska and Wyoming.
Elementary Principal Paul Clark gave information on the Elementary Title Literacy Night on January 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the lunchroom. There will be activities that go along with the book/theme of the night, “Snowman at Night.” Parents will be able to take a school survey and receive a summary of what the title program does for the school and their students. Clark stated that students are showing great growth, which validates the programs that they are using as well as interventions. The spelling bee, which will occur in March, is being set up, and there will be a book fair with parent/teacher conferences on February 12.
High School Principal and Superintendent Pandi Pittman noted that the fourth graders will be taking a national exam on February 5. Pittman is working on scheduling the ACT for the last week of March. CNA data collection for the high school will occur on January 19. The Building Committee will meet at 4 pm. On January 26 with the Budget meeting directly before at 5:30.
Old Business items were discussed, with the second reading of policies concerning multi-occupancy room use, criminal background checks, compulsory attendance ages, and exemptions from school attendance. New Business included the first viewing of the proposed 2026/2027 School Calendar. The start date is one week later than normal, which sparked discussion on whether semester tests should occur before or after winter break.
Concerns were raised about the data on students’ performance at the school, with Todd Youngberg stating that “I’ve equated more than once that as our academics fell, that’s when we started dropping our hours that we educated our children. Now we’ve hit where we’re one of the lower schools in the state and we’re the lower report cards in the state.”
According to Youngberg, in 12 years, “we’ve dropped 102 hours off of our high school contact time, our middle school, we’ve dropped 75, and our elementary, we’ve dropped 32 hours of actual education.” He proposed that the district should try adding more contact time to the curriculum as that’s the “one thing we have not attempted.”
Three students were approved for early graduation next school year. A motion for co-sponsoring transportation costs for summer swim lessons was approved. The board then entered into executive session at 6:58 p.m. and remained in session for two and a half hours, exiting executive session at 9:33 p.m. The meeting was then adjourned at 9:33 p.m.
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