St. Henry board discusses contract

ST. HENRY - School board members accepted more than $60,000 in donations during their regular board meeting Wednesday evening and took no action after an executive session to discuss teacher contract negotiations.

Board members met for roughly 45 minutes in executive session to discuss preparing for, reviewing or conducting collective bargaining strategy. No action was taken after the session, superintendent Julie Garke said.

Negotiating teams for the school board and St. Henry Education Association have met once, Bruns said. The next meeting to conduct negotiations has not been scheduled, she said.

The current three-year contract with teachers began July 1, 2019, and will expire on June 30 according to the contract terms, district treasurer Jennifer Bruns said. Teachers received 2.5% raises each year.

In other business, board members accepted $63,000 in donations from local businesses for a new basketball scoreboard. Garke wasn't sure of the total cost of the scoreboard.

Businesses donating include St. Henry Bank, $25,000; St. Henry Tile and Cooper Farms, $9,000 each; Buschur Refrigeration, St. Henry One Stop and Wabash Communications, $5,000 each; and Romer's Catering, $500 per year for 10 years for a total of $5,000.

Board members thanked the businesses for their donations. Garke said the businesses will be recognized at a board meeting later this summer.

In other business, board members hired Olivia Stahl to fill the recently-created STEM teaching position at the elementary school. She will teach students in grades K-4. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Board members in February heard the district has STEM teachers at the middle school and high school, and Garke had said administrators wanted to expand STEM to the elementary school.

Elementary school principal Adam Puthoff said there's no specific curriculum, but the program will focus on problem-based critical thinking and collaboration while providing more access to technology than students currently have.

"I think it's a modern day special … it's something kids should have access to on a regular basis," Puthoff said. "I'm really, really excited for it."

Board members also,

• approved one-year teaching contracts to Julie Overman and Kelly Poling for the 2022-2023 school year.

• approved two-year teaching contracts to Mara Alexander, Adam Buening, Mike Gast, Mitchell Gehret, Courtney Imwalle, Jen Klenke, Ivy Owusu, Alex Stammen, Justin Wenning and Stacy Wermert.

• approved three-year teaching contracts to Dianna Kunkler and Joan Wedd.

• approved a continuing teaching contract to AJ Kremer.

• approved a three-year administrative contract to high school principal Eric Rosenbeck.

• approved one-year limited teaching contracts to Kenzie Bruggeman and Lauryn Timmerman.

• approved two-year non-teaching contracts to Mary Bruggeman, Sharon Dues and Kim Geier.

• approved a $2,054 donation from the St. Henry Parent Teacher Organization for a laminator.

The next school board meeting is 7 p.m. May 9 in the middle school/high school media center.