The West Prairie District 103 Board of Education met in regular session Sept. 9 at the South Elementary to tour the facilities and to set parameters for disposition of the Sciota property.
Because of the lack of a quorum at the prescribed meeting time, board members present toured the South Elementary under the guidance of Principal Caitlyn Watson.
When other board members arrived, the meeting began with public comment. Cassandra DeJaynes had concerns about items in the recently approved junior-senior high school handbook. She spoke to issues related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by both students and teachers and how discrepancies can be addressed. Superintendent Curt Rheingans informed DeJaynes that he will investigate and call her in response the next day.
Rheingans then reported on plans to create an evaluation cycle for curricula. He wants to review recent changes in math and reading curricula as well as future assessments of other academic areas. He also presented a facilities 'wish list' that had been informally collected from faculty and staff. He would like to narrow the items to a dozen or so, then solicit input from faculty/ staff and the community to act upon the most pressing needs.
Two discussion/action items were addressed. The more important was setting dates for seeking sealed bids on the Sciota campus property. In a previous action, the Board received no bids when the property was offered with a $100,000 minimum bid. This time the plan is to request bids with no minimum requirement. Details will be published for three consecutive weeks with a deadline for submission on Monday, Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. A special board meeting will be held Oct. 8 to accept the top three bids. A final meeting will be held Oct. 9 inviting the bidders to meet with the board and negotiate a sale. The board reserves the right to reject any of the sealed bids.
