Henning School to host open house on Oct. 11
News | Published on September 27, 2022 at 2:29pm EDT | Author: Chad Koenen
0Open house to provide information on referendum
By Chad Koenen
Publisher
The Henning School District will host an open house to highlight some of the future needs at Henning School.
During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, the Henning School Board approved hosting an open house on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The open house will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. and will provide information about future needs at the building.
The open house will be open to the public and will give area residents the opportunity to ask questions, as well as get more information about the upcoming school building referendum.
The upcoming November 8 school building referendum is a two-part question.
The first question will replace the school’s HVAC system, construct a new main entrance and administrative office, build a new career and technical education space, renovate elementary classrooms, construct a new commons area and replace the high school gym floor to name just a few items. The cost for the first part of the project would be $21.7 million.
The second question will construct a new high school gym, construct more extensive updates to the rest rooms and replace the remaining parts of the roof that remain. The cost for this project would be $4.6 million and is contingent on the passage of the first question.
Additional information about the school building levy will be included in upcoming issues of the Citizen’s Advocate.
In other news
• Accepted a $1,000 donation from Womenade Helping Hands.
• Approved, 5-0 with Deb Hart abstaining, the hiring of Brendan Hart as head buildings, grounds and transportation director.
• Approved the hiring of Mark Telehey as a van driver.
• Accepted the resignation of Ashley Gruber as a paraprofessional.
• Approved setting the levy to the maximum for 2023. The levy can be decreased when it is finalized in December, but cannot be raised. Even with the school board approving the levy at the maximum the levy itself could drop by as much as 2 percent next year.
• Heard the activities director report that showed 48 people in grades 7-12 are participating in volleyball, 24 Henning students in grades 7-12 are participating in football and 3 people from Henning are participating in cross country. The school district continues to have a shortage of bus drives and is currently looking to hire two girls basketball coaches to fill its staff for the upcoming season.
• Heard about a fundraiser being planned by Henning Principal Thomas Williams. As part of the fundraiser, Williams will spend a night on the roof for every $5,450 raised by the community. Proceeds from the fundraiser will support field trips and offset some of the costs associated with the field trips for both the school district and individual families. The plan is to have the fundraiser later in the school year.
• Heard the principals report that stated homecoming week will be held from October 10-14 in Henning and feature a parade on Friday afternoon in town, as well as coronation on October 10 and a variety of activities throughout the week. The school district also replaced enrichment time for students in grades 7-8 with a power hour. The time will be spent working with students on everything from time management, organization, note taking, test preparation and will allow for study time and individual check ins.
• Heard an update on the upcoming school building referendum from Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks. The school district recently unveiled a new microsite online that includes information about the referendum, as well as a tax calculator to allow people form the school district to see how their taxes will be impacted should the levy pass.