Teutopolis Board Sets School Day for Coming Year

Teutopolis school board members have set the school day for the coming year.

The schedule at Teutopolis Grade School will be from 8:45am to 3:30pm. The schedule at Teutopolis Junior High School and at Teutopolis High School will be from 8:30am to 3:30pm.

The school day was the subject of some discussion earlier this year during efforts to settle a dispute with a parent over accommodating religion classes prior to the start of the day. The Board agreed to dismiss students for athletics at 3:15pm.

Also, the Board discussed making changes to the high school graduation ceremony. Board members approved maintaining the Last Child in the Family presentation as it was done in the past. They also decided to do away with the Top 10 presentation, but replace it with setting a benchmark based on a specific GPA and other criteria and recognizing any student that meets this benchmark.

Board members heard from Dan Beckman, representing St. Francis Church, on a possible parking improvement project at Teutopolis Grade School, and voted to enter into an agreement with Cintas to lease and service eight AEDs throughout the school district. Cintas will buy back the district's old AEDs, check the AEDs monthly, replace outdated batteries and pads at no additional charge, and provide free training. There was also discsussion of allowing use of credit and debit cards for payments at district schools through the use of credit card machines, but no action yet.

In personnel moves, the Teutopolis board agreed to hire Kari Thompson as grade school and junior high school guidance counselor, Beth Einhorn as elementary teacher, Toni Mellendorf as elementary teacher, Nicole Lustig as Special Education teacher, Amy Thoele as grade school secretary, Kelly Stortzum as part-time high school Industrial Arts teacher, and Karen Smith as junior high Scholar Bowl coach.

The Board also approved a retirement request from Myra Pruemer, effective May 31, 2017, and agreed to participate in the School Resource Officer Program during the coming school year. Also approved was renewing property/casualty/liability insurance coverage for the next year, advertising for a junior high track coach, and holding a public garage sale on July 7 behind the high school to get rid of items no longer needed.