DARLINGTON – With a larger class moving into the high school, the Darlington Community School District’s Board of Education is in a good place when adding extra classes to fit all their student’s needs.

The board approved at their regular board meeting on July 1 the overload pay for teachers in the high school who will teach Social Studies and Spanish.

Principal Aaron Lancaster stated that the high school has two very large classes coming in and to help keep the numbers for Social Studies classes lower than 30 students in each class, they would need to have one extra section of either Global Studies or US History.

Lancaster also added that Spanish III and Spanish IV (AP Spanish) are looking to be in the double digits. The Spanish instructor will be getting their Advanced Placement certification this summer so that Spanish IV will then be called AP Spanish.

Lancaster said that they taught both Spanish III and IV together last year and tried to prepare students in Spanish IV for the AP test but added it didn’t quite work. The instructor wanted to do the same thing this year but in talking with students, the instructor decided to get the correct certification for AP.

There will be three classes taught for Spanish I, two classes for Spanish II, one class for Spanish III and one class for AP Spanish.

RJ Brunkow asked if there will be more staff increases in the future.

Lancaster felt as much because there will be two smaller classes graduating in the next few years and two larger classes coming into the high school. Lancaster believes the high school could reach an enrollment size of 280 in the next couple of years. Last year the enrollment was 207 in the high school.

Brunkow made the motion to approve the overload pay with Joe Riechers seconding. The motion passed.

Other Business

The Board of Education for the Darlington Community School District also:

-accepted a donation from the class of 1952 for $25 in memory of Don Martens.

-discussed the presentation of the handbooks. There was some discussion pertaining to a discussion had in the fall about all coaches, those who work at the school and those volunteer coaches, all have a school email. There was no action.

-found out that the district will be hosting the Regional Track and Field meet during the 2020 season.

-approved Kalee Crist as a teacher for a summer school remedial class for English Language Learners that will be four days a week for three weeks in July at the Johnson Public Library.