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School Board votes to increase wages for substitutes
Riverdale School District
Riverdale School District

MUSCODA - At the Riverdale Board Meeting on Monday, Jan. 10, Jennifer Tarrell gave a report on Riverdale’s Special Education program. Tarrell reviewed all of the great activities that the staff have been working on including Mrs. Butteris elementary students work on life skill sets of budgeting, teamwork, and servant leadership. Mrs. Kuester and Mrs. Kinney students made cards for the residents at the nursing home.

Mrs. Clark led her County Community on Transition (CCOT) team through their first virtual business day. Ninety students from 15 different schools participated in virtual interviews with 25 businesses spanning across southern Wisconsin.

Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Goplin students work together on their annual cookie sale which directly supports our students’ school business expenses (Brewing Individually and Delicious Delights) as well as buying t-shirts for Champion games. This activity allows the students to practice time management, measurement, working as a team, and problem solving.

Also on December 15, Jessi Kinney and Mrs. Stanek co-taught English class completed their career interviews. Mrs. Clark students prepared the drinks and food provided to the community members who participated in the event.

District Administrator Jon Schmidt stated that the District received a $1,000 donation from the Driftless Area Land Conservancy. The donation will go towards curriculum programming at the Mueller School Farm.

Schmidt also reported on professional development that the administrative staff has planned for April 6. Yaribel Rodriquez, AWSA Director of Urban Development, will present a half a day workshop on “Closing Gaps for all Students,” focusing on self awareness, staff awareness and response and fostering and maintaining a safe environment for all students.

On action items the Riverdale Board of Education (BOE) voted to close open enrollment for all programs and services in the special education program. The board did guarantee open enrollment for siblings of students currently attending the Riverdale School District, as it has been in the past. There were no space limitations set for any regular education grades or programs.

• The board also approved the recommendation from the Curriculum meeting which were: adding General Music to Elementary, adding Strength and Conditioning and removing PE 12 (Wellness), adding Written Communication to the English department, replacing Applied Mathematics with College Mathematics, offer current AP Statistics as a Dual-Credit opportunity, and replace Pre-Calculus and Math 4 with Math Modeling.

• The board also voted to cap the number of college credits that the district pays for at 18 credits, that are not taught by a Riverdale instructor.

• The board approved the administrative contracts of Shari Hougan and Jennifer Tarrell for the next two years.

• The board approved the second reading of the Volume 30 Number Two policy and revisions.

• The board approved the summer school dates of June 13 - June 30, 2022 for Session One, credit recovering and July 18 - August 4, 2022 for session two, school enrichment.

• The board approved the resignation of Gail Kennedy, Aide, effective January 3 and Rebekah Gehrke, Director of Curriculum and Technology, effective January 26.

• The board approved raising the substitute teacher pay from $130 per day to $140 per day.

• The board approved using the new quarantine and isolation guidelines that reduces the number of days from 10 to five days and using a test to play/stay for unvaccinated close contacts who wish not to quarantine.

• The board voted to extend the mask mandate until the next board meeting. Masks will be required at school during the school day. Masks will be optional during after school events. At that time we will reevaluate our school and community data to determine how we will proceed. Our expectation is that the recent variant will spike quickly and numbers will decrease by that time.