The school board will meet on May 20 to recognize award winners and make decisions regarding policy. According to school board president Layla Spanenberg, the meeting will be fun but “jam-packed.”

“We have 11 different award categories to recognize. Some of the awards are for staff members, like the ‘Teacher of the Year’ and ‘Support Staff of the Year’ awards. Renee White, who teaches at Carmel Elementary, is our Teacher of the Year, and her colleagues nominated her,” Spanenberg said.

The “Support Staff of the Year” award is new this year. Spanenberg said principals, teachers or parents could nominate the candidates for this award. In addition to staff awards, there are numerous categories for student recognition, like the “Young Artist Awards.”

Senior Madison Bartlett, who currently has pieces from multiple classes displayed in the art show, said she thinks awarding artists across the district is important.

Bartlett said, “It’s a good idea because it allows the artists to showcase their hard work and share their pieces with faculty and other students. Art is meant to be shared and it’s good to expose people to it.”

Spanenberg said that part of the art awards involves switching out the art displayed on the side of the wall, which the board changes every six months. Every school in the district is represented by one piece of art from a student. According to Barlett, the board should add pieces from various mediums to “emphasize different types of talent.”

In addition to showcasing awards, the board will vote on numerous policies. Spanenberg said the action items include voting on a teacher handbook, interim superintendent contract and various policies.

“The policies we are taking action on include nepotism, discrimination and tobacco policies. Before, our nepotism policy was situational, we would just add more to it in various situations. Now it’s revamped and we’ve discussed it with our attorneys,” Spanenberg said. “Our discrimination policy is more involved, and the tobacco policy reiterates that there is no tobacco allowed on school grounds. There is some repetition of state laws, especially with the tobacco policy.”

Spanenberg said the board will also have more interesting action policies, including the announcement of the interim superintendent and the new principal of Prairie Trace Elementary.

“The principal at Prairie Trace is retiring after this school year. Jill Smith will be the new principal, and she was an assistant principal at Smokey Row. There was heavy involvement from teachers, staff members, administrators and parents about who would be the best fit,” Spanenberg said.

Although much of this board meeting is more celebratory to focus on the year as a whole, Spanenberg said the board will continue working over summer.

Spanenberg said, “Our June workshop will focus on the budget, which is very important. We didn’t get much money from the state this year, and what we did get doesn’t consider inflation. We need to find a way to give the best possible package to our teachers and make the best decisions for students. And of course we will focus on the superintendent search and working closely with our interim superintendent.”