The School Board of Fennimore Community Schools held their annual organizational meeting, as well as regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 20.

The meeting was also the last board meeting before the end of the 2025-26 school year.

During the organizational portion of the meeting, the board held elections for board positions and designations.

Re-elected by the board to their current positions were Peter James as president, Peter Heberlein, vice-president, Margaret Sprague, clerk, and Sheila Ruchti, treasurer.

Other appointments included Sprague as Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) public correspondent, James as the WIAA board representative, and Adam Jackson as CESA 3 representative.

The building and grounds committee will continue to consist of Heberlein, Jackson, Herman Maier, and James. The board policy committee returns James, Sprague, Bridget Spraggon, and Matt Rutkowski.

Heather Horsfall, Jackson, Ruchti, and Sprague all return to the employee relations committee.

During the board’s regular monthly meeting portion, district network manager Nathan Myhre presented options for the district to replace their current phone system. The current system, installed in 2015, no longer supports security updates according to Myhre, thus the need for a replacement.

After presenting three options to the board, he recommended the board approve switching to IZT Cloud. Myhre stated that the IZT works very well with other school districts, including Potosi, and is cloud based rather than on-site. Myhre stated that the system would last at least 10 years, and give the district, the “best bang for their buck.”

The board also accepted a bid by TR Landscaping for school courtyard to include general clean up and drainage improvements.

Also accepted by the board was the retirement of elementary school custodian Laura Schlaugat, effective Aug. 31. The board later accepted the hiring of Brian Stepanek to fill Schlaugat’s position.

The board also accepted the resignation of Lisa Evans as a co-drama director, a position she was sharing with business education teacher Samantha Goss. With her resignation, Goss will now be a full co-drama director along with current co-drama director Tonia Schildgen.

Additional hiring accepted by the board include:

• Fennimore High School Athletic Director Jim Prochaska as middle school girls basketball coach;
• Amy Boebel as lead to elementary school food service staff;
• Brynn Albaugh, currently a student teacher at Iowa-Grant, as a third grade teacher.

Fennimore Middle/High School Principal Boone Tollefson also recognized the numerous achievements including medal winners and state and nationals competitors this past school year for the band, chorus, and other school co-curriculars, Speech/Drama, which include Future Business Leaders of America, and FFA.

Fennimore Elementary School Principal Hillary Day stated that during spring AGR (Achievement Gap Reduction) testing results were “constant across the board, which is an accomplishment as the benchmark used goes up each year.”

AGR testing is a standardized assessment used in this program to measure student progress and track whether schools are closing the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers.

Lastly, the board tabled purchasing a new skid steer as bids were not yet all received.

The next meeting of the School Board of the Fennimore Community School District is scheduled for Wednesday, June 24, at 6 p.m., in the cafeteria of Fennimore Elementary School.