Superintendent Heidi Lensing reported that the board toured the high school to see all the changes and improvements to the building, including flooring, ceilings, doors, locker replacements, and a new high school elevator. The district worked with Veregy to manage significant infrastructure improvements, enhance energy efficiency and safety in the aging buildings, and focus on HVAC, lighting, and safety upgrades.
The community is invited to a renovation walk-through tour on Thursday, March 12th from 5-6:30 p.m. at the high school to see the “amazing updates” following a summer of work by Veregy at a cost of over $10 million.
Lensing thanked Facilities Manager Kevin Everly for diligently keeping a list of tasks and documenting all the work. A few items remain on the summer punch list, such as replacing the flooring in the flex room due to a steam leak and fixing the pawprint on the floor.
Regarding the concessions building, she received information from the architect but no dollar amount for estimated renovations. She also obtained a schematic for installing doors on the outside of the school building for public restroom access. Veregy is also looking at price points for the renovation, and more updates will be provided.
Action Items
The board approved the following action items:
Changing mid-year graduation requirements to 24 ½ credits (instead of 25); setting the last day of senior attendance to Wednesday, May 13th; creating the 6th grade volleyball program; approving the Athletic Parent Information Guide as presented; reaffirming the district’s continued work with Gorenz and Associates Ltd. as the audit firm; and approving the seniority list for tenured teachers and non-certified staff.
The board postponed a vote on the Superintendent’s contract. For personnel, they approved hiring Kelly Devert as a high school math teacher and Zane Romero as the JV baseball coach. They accepted the resignation of an elementary teacher and a 6-12 Campus night custodian and approved the termination of a 2-hour cook.
The consent agenda was approved as presented withJanuary meeting minutes, February bills and payroll in the amount of $830,789.95, treasurer’s report, activity accounts reports, and the co-op musical activity account.
Reports and Correspondence
Lensing provided a brief rundown and highlights of a recent director’s meeting with Valorie Armstrong of food service, Dawn Fisk of transportation, and Kevin Everly of facilities.
The state’s annual food service review is set for March 11-12, with Tampico Elementary chosen as the site this year. There was also a recent Whiteside County Health Department inspection with no findings to report.
Fisk reported issues with some of the stop-arm cameras, so they called the manufacturer, where they asked about placement and agreed to come out and conduct an inspection. The district needs new minivans due to high mileage. The transportation fund always gets waylaid, resulting in reduced funds for purchases.
In facilities, legwork for spring sports is underway. Everly has reduced the district’s work order list from 120 to 47 and has begun the summer project work list, identifying how many people they’ll need. They’re still working to electronically document the asbestos removal program, noting that some documentation was not “up to snuff” after work over the summer. “Asbestos can’t magically disappear from a building—it must be documented all the way through,” said Lensing.
Lensing reported that she’ll be meeting with the Ed Foundation to discuss developing a “grow your own teacher” type of scholarship. They have some ideas to “recruit, retain, and bring back graduates to us,” with Lensing saying she’s thankful for their support in this exciting prospect.
The Board of Control met and recommended the creation of the 6th grade volleyball program and code of conduct guidebook. They also discussed continuation of facilities, work and practice areas, since they agreed not to maintain permanent hosting sites. “We’re working through the pieces,” she said.
Informational Items
Things are “still in process” for the Prophetstown Park District land swap discussion, with no information yet from the surveyor.
Mr. Grant Domenz, social studies teacher, was in attendance to discuss their PLC (professional learning community) and how they’re working to align learning standards for grades 6-12. He reviewed a series of documents and how they’re “vertically aligned standards for multiple areas in social studies,” by covering inquiry, geography, history, reading comprehension, etc.
He discussed how they measure standards and provide high impact strategies. “Time is not our friend, so we’re doing the business way of best practices,” he said, with an emphasis on basic information kids need to know and retain. The PLC has been working together to determine what scaffolds are in place to push or pull up, extending lessons, and providing them with tools for critical thinking. The document is updated monthly and quarterly, and the teachers meet every two weeks.
Board President Chad Abell asked about using textbooks and Domenz said those have “gone to the backburner” and are not the focus of instruction, as opposed to primary and secondary sources.
Lensing added that the days of rote memorization such as learning dates, names, etc. is “in the past,” and today’s standards include inquiry-based learning, cause and effect, researching topics, more student focus, getting away from rote memorization, and applying new skills in a “transfer of knowledge skills.”
Domenz next discussed the rubric to measure progress as consistently as possible, saying there’s lots of crossover between classes and in the content areas for scoring criteria. In summary, it’s all standards-based instruction to ensure they’re covering all the curriculum mandated by the state and getting all the students on the same page.
Principal Janet Barnhart said every year they’re building on the year before, and she commended the PLCs for their “incredible amount of work,” while adding that the teachers are more focused on their topics.
The board next had a lengthy discussion on Chromebook use at the 6-12 Campus after the trial to limit the 1-to1 devices to the school instead of bringing them home. Lensing said there’s still some concern being expressed, and school officials learned from the “pitfalls and bumps in the road” that they could’ve communicated better. “The goal is to have kids be successful,” she said about the changes.
A few teachers were at the meeting and provided feedback on assignments, challenges, impacts on quality, communication improvement, and continuing to learn computer literacy. They all agreed that student work has since improved, and that their artwork is even much better. The general agreement is that limiting device use has been an improvement. They’re still teaching technology skills and evaluations are ongoing, but for the most part the teachers have noticed a difference in the students, for the better.
It’s also eased technology issues, such as constant computer repairs and charging the devices, which is “the bane of their existence.” Logistically, there’s not enough ports to charge 20 devices at a time, and there was always the stress of having students turn on the devices and hope they start.
Lensing said they want to be more transparent, and the decision to make the change happened after staff members were surveyed and discussed the changes. “We missed the layer of making sure it was overly communicated to the community; now we’re trying to rectify that and let them know there’s a reason for doing this,” she concluded.
Lensing next discussed the possibility of renaming the gym/court in honor of a coach after receiving emails with the request. She’s not sure about the process and just wanted to bring it to the board’s attention. Board member Whitney Mitchell-DeWitte said they’d be walking a fine line in recognizing one coach since there are “other amazing coaches,” and Abell said he supports having honorary nights, but he’d rather do a survey and ask constituents before renaming it after someone.
Next, Lensing reported that the committee met for the 2026-2027 school calendar, which is mostly a clone from this year, other than changes to Christmas and Easter break. She needs to check with Erie to make sure they’re aligned for early out days, and parent/teacher conferences are still the same. They may have to adjust the January return date by a day or add a day to the end of the year if the legislature votes on a no attendance day for the General Election in November. “We’re trying to break even on semester I and II days,” Lensing noted, adding that most of the work is done other than teacher feedback.
Also on the agenda was an annual review of fees for next year, with Lensing stating that fees for the 6-12 Campus are a lot more than the elementary schools, which are $55. “This is just to get it in front of you for more discussions,” she said, adding that the school district is a non-profit and they don’t want to increase the financial burden for parents.
The final item to discuss was the paid lunch cost, with Lensing continuing to work with Food Service Director Armstrong to determine the rates. Lensing explained that the USDA sets a target rate for free and reduced lunches and they need to raise the price each year to keep their rates under target and to keep the lunch program balanced.
“We don’t have to raise it, but the district will have to use non-federal funds to pay the difference,” she concluded. She asked Armstrong for “A and B type recommendations” for the long term, since the rates will keep going up such as having the district automatically increase the rate by ten cents every year in perpetuity. They’ll have more information next month once the food service comes in and tracks the paid vs. free lunch.
Public Forum/PLTTA Report
District Librarian Dr. Laura Crisp provided the monthly PLTTA report, saying many amazing things are happening across the district led by the members of the PLTTA.
PES:
- Ms. Kubatzke’s and Miss Cayson’s Kindergarten class participated in a Valentine exchange with other schools across the country. They made a Valentine, wrote a letter, and sent it to 23 other schools. They loved finding the schools on the map and learning about what they do during the day. One school looks out its window and sees the Statue of Liberty!
- One teacher specifically mentioned how proud they were of their PES teacher peers for all the amazing artwork in the hallways, always ensuring colorful hallways!
- PES’s 2nd grade teachers will take the students on a field trip to the bank to wrap up their unit on money. They are thankful for the relationship between the school and FNB.
TES:
- The 3rd grade led their classes on a walking tour to the Tampico Historical Society Museum and the Ronald Reagan Birthplace. They toured both museums and received a bag of goodies, including an activity book about Ronald Reagan and some Jelly Bellies.
- Last week, the 3rd grade teachers led their classes on a visit to the Peoples National Bank. Mrs. Jessie Lindskog gave the students a tour. She showed them the ATM machine, coin counter, drive-thru, and the vault. Teachers had just finished an economics unit, so it was a great culmination of everything the students were learning.
6-12 Campus:
- The Art Club is hosting a Trivia Night at Prophet Hills Country Club on Saturday, March 14th. Doors open at 4 p.m., trivia runs from 4:30-8 p.m. The Art Club would love for the Board to get a few tables together to help support them. If you’d like to participate, email Dawn Huffstutler. The cost for tables of 8 is $80.
- In the 6th grade ELA, Ms. Egan led her students in working on an informative essay about a National Park that they chose to learn more about. The students have been excitedly sharing information among themselves as they learn about their park. It’s been great to see them so engaged in learning about something new.
- Mr. Domenz’s 6th grade students recently finished the Great Wall of China argumentative essay using primary and secondary sources to decide whether the benefits outweighed the cost. He has students work on an inquiry-based learning activity using clues to determine information about ancient civilizations.
- Mrs. Higgins took Isaac Sterling to the regional Spelling Bee where he made the top 8. She also encouraged students Alex Ottens and Layne Davis to attend and support Isaac in the bee. She also specifically wanted to thank the Ed Foundation for providing funds for the Spelling Bee.
- Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Peterson led the Scholastic Bowl team in hosting the Masonic Sectional on Feb. 21 with 9 schools competing. The varsity team missed moving on to the top 4 by a loss of 10 points (one question). Many PLTTA members helped make that meet possible, including Laura Crisp, Dana Murphy, Mike Morley, Sam Perschnick, and Paige Mewrither.
- A huge shout out to our amazing Athletic Director Damian DeMay for everything he does as both a teacher and AD to facilitate learning and student excellence in athletics.
- Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Peterson led a great varsity Scholastic Bowl team that ended the season in 2nd place for the conference, with Alex Ottens making second team all conference and all sectional honorable mention. Kayler Pritchard made 1st team all conference and made the all sectional team. The JV had a great season as well and Mrs. Peterson did a great job in her first year as a Scholastic Bowl coach.
“There are so many wonderful things going on across PLT, led by the tireless hard work of the PLTTA members,” Dr. Crisp concluded.
The next regular meeting of the PLT #3 Board of Education will be on Wednesday, March 25th at 7 p.m. at Tampico Elementary School.
